How Often Do I Wonder

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How often do I wonder, That Christ would love me so

Author: Ernest G. W. Wesley
Tune: [How often do I wonder]
Published in 4 hymnals

Representative Text

1 How often do I wonder
That Christ would love me so;
But never can I answer
Why He such love should show.
It passeth understand,
Outreaching human thought,
That He, the Lord of glory,
My soul with blood hath bought.

2 Most wondrous condescension,
That Christ from heaven came;
That He, for man’s redemption,
Would suffer death and shame.
That Christ so loved transgressors
And shed His precious blood;
That He would die for sinners,
Among whom once I stood.

3 I wish I could remember—
But oh, how oft I fail—
The love which Jesus bears me,
When sins doth me assail.
That I might hate the sinning
Which nailed Him to the cross;
That I mighty love my Saviour,
For Him count all else loss.

4 I never would forget Him,
Nor darksome Calvary;
Forever would I love Him,
Who chose to die for me.
O help me, blessed Saviour,
To keep Thy cross in view;
Within Thy love e’er hide me,
And thus my love renew.

Source: The Service Hymnal: Compiled for general use in all religious services of the Church, School and Home #96

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Author: Ernest G. W. Wesley

Ernest G. W. Wesley was born and educated in England. At the age of seventeen he started writing for local newspapers. When he was twenty-two he worked as special correspondent for The New York Times in Buenos Aries. While he was in Buenos Aries he became licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He came to the United States in the early 1870's and continued writing and contributing to religious and secular papers. He wrote between five and six hundred hymns and nearly two thousand articles on religious and theological topics. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) Go to person page >

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