5825. Rites Cannot Change the Heart

1. Rites cannot change the heart,
Undo the evil done,
Or with the uttered name impart
The nature of Thy Son.

2. To meet our desperate want,
There gushed a crimson flood;
O from His heart’s o’erflowing font
Baptize this soul with blood!

3. Be grace from Christ our Lord,
And love from God supreme,
By the communing Spirit poured
In a perpetual stream!

Text Information
First Line: Rites cannot change the heart
Title: Rites Cannot Change the Heart
Author: William M. Bunting (1842)
Meter: SM
Language: English
Source: Leifchild's Original Hymns, 1842, titled "Father, Our Child We Place" The version below, starting at stanza four of the original, appeared in the American Methodist Episcopal Hymnal, 1878
Copyright: Public Domain
Tune Information
Name: DENNIS
Composer: Johann G. Nägeli, 1773-1836
Arranger: Low­ell Ma­son (1845)
Meter: SM
Incipit: 33132 72116 11517
Key: F Major
Source: Ar­ranged in The Psalt­ery, 1845
Copyright: Public Domain



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