The words
Stanza 1. My soul is besetWith grief and dismay,I owe a vast debtAnd nothing can pay:I must go to prison,Unless that dear Lord,Who died and is risen,His pity afford.
Stanza 2. The death that he died,The blood that he spilt,To sinners applied,Discharge from all guilt:This great IntercessorCan give, if he please,The vilest transgressorImmediate release.
Stanza 3. When nailed to the tree,He answered the prayerOf one, who like me,Was nigh to despair;He did not upbraid himWith all he had done,But instantly made him,A saint and a son.
Stanza 4. The jailor, I read,A pardon received;And how was he freed?He only believed:His case mine resembled,Like me he was foul,Like me too he trembled,Rut faith made him whole.
Stanza 5. Though Saul in his youth,To madness enraged,Against the Lord’s truth,And people, engaged;Yet Jesus, the Savior,Whom long he reviled;Received him to favorAnd made him a child.
Stanza 6. A foe to all good,In wickedness skilled,Manasseh, with blood,Jerusalem filled;In evil long hardened,The LORD he defied,Yet he too was pardoned,When mercy he cried.
Stanza 7. Of sinners the chief,And viler than all,The jailor or thief,Manasseh or Saul:Since they were forgivenWhy should I despair,While CHRIST is in heaven,And still answers prayer?
Olney Hymns (1779), Book 3, Hymn 9. John Newton. Public domain. CCEL transcription with modernized spelling. www.praylock.com/olney-hymns/3-9
