1 What! never speak one evil word,
Or rash, or idle, or unkind?
O, how shall I, most gracious Lord,
This mark of true perfection find?
2 Thy sinless mind in me reveal;
Thy Spirit's plenitude impart;
And all my spotless life shall tell
That thou hast purified my heart.
Source: The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book: for use in divine worship #630
First Line: | What! never speak one evil word? |
Title: | Praying for Perfection |
Author: | Charles Wesley |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
What! never speak one evil word? C. Wesley. [Holiness desired.] This cento is thus composed: stanzas i., ii. are from Wesley's Short Hymns, 1762, vol. ii., No. 753, on James iii. 2; and stanzas iii., iv. from the same, vol. i., No. 854, on Psalms ciii. 3. In this form it appeared in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, No. 353, and has been repeated in several collections. Original texts in Poetical Works, 1868-72, vols. xiii. and ix.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)