By A Collection of Hymns

      C.M. Matthew vii. 7.
      1 THOU bidd'st me ask, and with the word
      Dost give the power to pray;
      I ask the mercy of my Lord
      To take my sins away;
      The sins with which I cannot part
      I pray thee to remove,
      And calm, and purify my heart
      By thy forgiving love.

      2 If my obduracy impede
      The current of thy grace,
      If unlamented crimes forbid,
      And will not let thee bless;
      The contrite sense, the grief divine,
      Thou only canst bestow;
      Strike this hard rocky heart of mine;
      And let the waters flow.

      3 Repentance, permanent and deep,
      To thy poor suppliant give,
      Indulge me at thy feet to weep,
      When thou hast bid me live;
      When thou record'st my sins no more,
      O may I still lament,
      A sinner, saved by grace, adore,
      A pardoned penitent.

      4 I ask not aught whereof to boast,
      But let me feel applied
      The blood that ransomed sinners lost.
      And by thy cross abide;
      Myself the chief of sinners know,
      Till all my griefs are past;
      And of my gracious acts below,
      Repentance be the last.