Fain would I, Lord of grace

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Fain would I, Lord of grace

Tune: ST. OMER
Published in 2 hymnals

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Representative Text

1. Fain would I, Lord of grace,
With penitential tears
The record of my sins efface,
That in Thy book appears:

2. Fain would I journey hence,
In garb of stainless white,
And made by mine own penitence
Well pleasing in Thy sight.

3. Fond idle dream! the foe
But lures and fools my soul;
Not all my tears can peace bestow—
Thou only makest whole.

4. Hath ever sailor tossed,
Or sufferer racked in pain,
Within Thine anchorage been lost,
Or found Thy Gilead vain?

5. Maker and Hope of all!
Wounded and sick am I:
Great Healer, save me, lest I fall
And perish utterly.

6. Can boundless love reject?
Shall mercy say me nay,
Who cry with all Thine own elect
Before Thee, night and day?

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #1674

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Text Information

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First Line:

Fain would I, Lord of grace

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Notes

Fain would I, Lord of grace. Lent. This in the Supplemental Hymns to Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1889, is a translation by Jackson Mason, of a "Miserere" from a Greek Canon in the Parakletike for a Sunday Evening. Mr. Moorsom gives the Greek text in his Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1889, p. 87, from a copy of the Triodion, ed. 1886, pp. 438-440. It is by an unknown author of the 6th or 7th century.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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