Revelation 3:17

Wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked."

RICH, and increased with goods, I was,
Abundant in my virtuous store;
In wisdom rich, and strength and grace;
So rich I needed nothing more:
Alas! my God, I could not see
That still I needed all in Thee.

Thanks to Thy grace, if I begin
My wretchedness at length to know;
If now, in part convinced of sin,
I groan beneath my weight of woe;
Surely at last I more than see
That sin is perfect misery.

Stript of my boasted gifts, I fall
A beggar at Thy mercy's door:
I ask an alms; for grace I call;
Poor, beyond all expression poor:
If one good thought Thy heaven could buy,
Alas! not one good thought have I.

How dark and dreary is my heart!
Dark as the chambers of the grave;
So blind, till Thou Thy light impart,
I cannot see Thy power to save;
Or know, till Thou the veil remove,
That I am sin, and God is love.

My fig-leaves now are cast aside,
The rags of my self-righteousness:
From Thee my shame I cannot hide,
My spirit sinks in deep distress:
How shall I in Thy sight appear?
Or bear myself when Thou art near?

A monster to myself I am,
Self-loathing at Thy feet I lie:
How shall I bear this load of shame?
How shall I meet Thy piercing eye?
I faint and sink, and die away
At Thy insufferable day.

Mountains and rocks, on you I call,
My nakedness of soul to screen;
Fall, on my guilty nature fall,
And hide me from the hell of sin!
Alas! my soul, it cannot be:
The hell of sin remains in thee.

O God! (but shall I dare to pray?)
O Jesus! Son of God and man,
Pity a sinful worm, and stay
My grief, and mitigate my pain;
Cover my shame, remove my load
Of sin, for Thou hast blush'd in blood.

Or rather, if it be Thy will,
Conform me fully to Thy death;
Now let me all my vileness feel,
Now let me render up my breath,
And bow my head, and die with Thee,
For shame that Thou hast died for me.