Hymns and Devotions for Daily Worship ‎#180b

180b. How helpless guilty nature lies

1. How helpless guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load!
The heart unchanged can never rise
To happiness and God.

2. The will perverse, the passions blind,
In paths of ruin stray:
Reason debased can never find
The safe, the narrow way.

3. Can aught beneath a power divine
The stubborn will subdue?
’Tis thine, Eternal Spirit, thine
To form the heart anew.

4. ’Tis thine the passions to recall,
And upward bid them rise,
And make the scales of error fall
From reason’s darkened eyes.

5. To chase the shades of death away,
And bid the sinner live!
A beam of heaven, a vital ray
’Tis thine alone to give.

6. O change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine!
Then shall our passions and our powers,
Almighty Lord, be thine.

Text Information

• First Line: How helpless guilty nature lies
• Author: Anne Steele (1769)
• Meter: 8.6.8.6
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 2024
• Scripture:
  John 15:26
• Topic: Pentecost
• Source: A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship by John Ash and Caleb Evans (Bristol, England: 1769)

Tune Information

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