Scripture Verse

Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:24

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, Hymns and Spi­ri­tu­al Songs 1707–09, Book 2, num­ber 90. Faith in Christ for par­don and sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Music: South­well (Ir­ons) Her­bert S. Irons, 1861 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Ir­ons (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Anecdote

On July 19, 1738, Charles Wes­ley and his friends sang this hymn with the crim­in­als on their way to Ty­burn. The po­et found that hour un­der the gal­lows the most bless­ed hour of his life.

Nutter, p. 143

Lyrics

How sad our state by na­ture is!
Our sin, how deep it stains!
And Sa­tan binds our cap­tive souls
Fast in his slav­ish chains.

But hark! a voice of so­ve­reign grace
Sounds from the sacr­ed Word;
Ho, ye des­pair­ing sin­ners, come,
And trust up­on the Lord!

My soul ob­eys the Al­migh­ty’s call,
And runs to this re­lief;
I would be­lieve Thy pro­mise, Lord;
O help my un­be­lief!

To the blest foun­tain of Thy blood,
Incarnate God, I fly;
Here let me wash my spot­ted soul
From sins of deep­est dye.

Stretch out Thine arm, vic­to­ri­ous King,
My reign­ing sins sub­due,
Drive the old dra­gon from his seat,
With all his hell­ish crew.

A guil­ty, weak, and help­less worm,
Into Thy hands I fall;
Be Thou my strength and right­eous­ness,
My Sav­ior, and my all.