The Necessity of Renewing Grace

How helpless, guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load!
The heart unchang'd can never rise,
To happiness and God.

The will perverse, the passions blind,
In paths of ruin stray:
Reason debas'd can never find,
The safe, the narrow way.

Can ought beneath a power divine
The stubborn will subdue?
'Tis thine, almighty Saviour, thine
To form the heart anew.

'Tis thine the passions to recall,
And upwards bid them rise;
And make the scales of error fall
From reason's darken'd eyes.

To chase the shades of death away,
And bid the sinner live!
A beam of heaven, a vital ray
'Tis thine alone to give.

O change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine!
Then shall our passions and our powers
Almighty Lord, be thine'