Wesley Corpus

Father of light, thy needful aid To us who ask impart, Mistrustful of ourselves, afraid Of our own treacherous heart; O'rewhelm'd with justest fear, again To thee for help we call, Where many mightier have been slain, By thee unsav'd, we fall. Unless restrain'd by grace we are, In vain the snare we see, We see and rush into the snare Of blind idolatry; We plunge ourselves in endless woes, Our hapless infant sell, Resist the light, and side with those Who send their babes to hell. Ah, what avails superior light Without superior love? We see the truth, we judge aright, And wisdom's ways approve; We mark the idolizing throng, Their cruel fondness blame; Their children's souls we know they wrong, And we shall do the same. Page 69 We censure them, ourselves untried, For passionate excess, Who train their children up in pride, And sloth, and stubbornness: Less savage in our judgment they Who slew their little ones, Or left to ravenous beasts a prey, Or dash'd against the stones. Yet spite of our resolves, we fear Our own infirmity, And tremble at the trial near, And cry, O God, to thee: We soon shall do what we condemn, And down the current borne, With shame confess our nature's stream Too strong for us to turn. Our only help in danger's hour, Our only strength thou art, Above the world and tempter's power, And greater than our heart. Us from ourselves thou canst secure In nature's slippery ways, And make our feeble footsteps sure By thy sufficient grace. If on thy promis'd grace alone We faithfully depend, Thou surely wilt protect thy own, And keep us to the end, Wilt make us tenderly discreet To guard what thou hast given, And bring our child with us to meet At thy right hand in heaven. Page 70 O that my son might live A mon'ment of thy grace, To thee his earliest childhood give, To thee his riper days! My heavenly Father, hear In me thy Spirit's cry, And grant the child his God to fear, Or give him now to die. Ah, do not let him stay To grieve thy glorious eyes, To wander down the beaten way Of passion, pride, and vice; To know the misery Which I, alas, have known, Or sav'd by fire, if sav'd like me, Or finally undone.