Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?

 

"They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces in that direction,
saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant
that shall not be forgotten."
(Jeremiah 50:5)


Jerusalem
James Fairman
(1826-1904)
Scottish-born American landscape painter
 Painting courtesy/ Fine Art America



Where shall my wondering soul begin?

How shall I all to heaven aspire?

A slave redeemed from death and sin,

A brand plucked from eternal fire,

How shall I equal triumphs raise,

Or sing my great deliverer's praise?


O how shall I the goodness tell,

Father, which Thou to me hast showed?

That I, a child of wrath and hell,

I should be called a child of God

Should know, should feel my sins forgiven,

Blessed with this an-te-past of heaven.


And shall I slight my Father's love,

Or basely fear His gifts to own?

Unmindful of His favors prove?

Shall I, the hallowed cross to shun

Refuse His righteousness to impart,

By hiding it within my heart?


Outcasts of men, to you I call:

Harlots and publicans and thieves

He spreads His arms to embrace you all;

Sinners alone His grace receive.

No need of Him the righteous have;

He came the lost to seek and save.


Come, O my guilty brethren come,

Groaning beneath your load of sin!

His bleeding heart shall make you room;

His open side shall take you in.

He calls you now, invites you home:

Come, O my guilty brethren, come!

Amen



"Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?"
(1739)
Charles Wesley
(1707-1788)
English leader of the Methodist Movement and a
 prolific hymn writer who wrote over 6,500 hymns.
Image/Wikimedia Commons




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