Miracles of Grace

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Jesus, if still thou art today

Author: Charles Wesley
Tune: TWENTY-FOURTH
Published in 60 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Jesus, if still thou art to-day
As yesterday the same,
Present to heal, in me display
The virtue of thy name.

2 If still thou go'st about to do
Thy needy creatures good:
On me, that I thy praise may show,
Be all thy wonders show'd.

3 Now, Lord, to whom for help I call,
Thy miracles repeat;
With pitying eyes behold me fall
A leper at thy feet.

4 Loathsome, and foul, and self-abhorr'd,
I sink beneath my sin;
But if thou wilt, a gracious word
Of thine can make me clean.

5 Thou seest me deaf to thy commands,
Open, O Lord, my ear;
Bid me stretch out my wither'd hands,
And lift them up in prayer.

6 Silent (alas! thou know'st how long)
My voice, I cannot raise;
But O! when thou shalt loose my tongue
The dub shall sing thy praise.

7 Lame at the pool I still am found:
Give, and my strength employ;
Light as a hart I then shall bound,
The lame shall leap for joy.

8 Blind from my birth to guilt and thee;
And dark I am within;
The love of God I cannot see,
The sinfulness of sin.

9 But thou, they say, art passing by,
O let me find thee near!
Jesus, in mercy, hear my cry,
Thou Son of David, hear!

10 Long have I waited in the way,
For thee the heavenly light;
Command me to be brought, and say,
"Sinner, receive thy sight."

Source: Hymns, Selected and Original: for public and private worship (1st ed.) #277

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Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Jesus, if still thou art today
Title:	Miracles of Grace
Author:	Charles Wesley
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Jesu, if still Thou art today. C. Wesley. [For Pardon.] Published in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1740, in 21 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "These things were written for our Instruction" (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. i. p. 262). It is a resume of the miracles of our Lord, together with their spiritual teachings. In 1780 the poem was divided (with the omission of stanza xiii.) into two parts, and included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book as two hymns (Nos. 131, 132), the second part being, "While dead in trespasses and sins." Both parts have passed into other collections, Pt. i. sometimes being given as "Jesus, if Thou art still today," as in Spurgeon's 0ur Own Hymn Book, 1866. Sometimes Pt. i. is used as a special hymn for the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, for which it is most suitable. In the Reformed Dutch Hymns of the Church, N. Y., 1869, stanzas vii.-x. of Pt. ii. in the Wesleyan Hymn Book are given as, “O Lord, impart Thyself to me."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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