Would Jesus have the sinner die?
Why hangs he then on yonder tree?
What means that strange expiring cry?
Sinners, he prays for you and me:
Forgive them, Father, O forgive!
They know not that by me they live.

Thou loving, all-atoning Lamb,
Thee - by thy painful agony,
Thy sweat of blood, thy grief and shame,
Thy cross and passion on the tree,
Thy precious death and life - I pray:
Take all, take all my sins away!

O let me kiss thy bleeding feet,
And bathe and wash them with my tears;
The story of thy love repeat
In every drooping sinner's ears;
That all may hear the quickening sound,
Since I, even I, have mercy found.

O let thy love my heart control,
Thy love for every sinner free,
That every fallen human soul
May taste the grace that found out me;
That all mankind with me may prove
Thy sovereign, everlasting love!


Charles Wesley (1707-88)