
Author: Anne Steele Meter: 8.6.8.6 Appears in 233 hymnals Lyrics: 1. How helpless guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load!
The heart, unchanged, can never rise
To happiness and God.
2. Can aught, beneath a power divine,
The stubborn will subdue?
’Tis Thine, almighty Spirit! Thine,
To form the heart anew.
3. ’Tis Thine, the passions to recall,
And upward bid them rise;
To make the scales of error fall
From reason’s darkened eyes;
4. To chase the shades of death away,
And bid the sinner live;
A beam of Heaven, a vital ray,
’Tis Thine alone to give.
5. O change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine;
Then shall our passions and our powers
Almighty Lord! be Thine. Used With Tune: BEMERTON (Greatorex) Text Sources: Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional, 1760
How Helpless Guilty Nature Lies