Prayers for Condemned Malefactors, 1

Friend of all the sinful race,
Jesus, full of truth and grace,
Sent the wandering sheep to find.
Save these outcasts of mankind.
Earnestly remember them,
That they may themselves condemn;
Them for whom we life request,
On the brink of hell arrest.

O reverse their sorest doom,
Snatch them from the wrath to conic.
Touching whom we now agree
Mercy to implore from Thee.

Mercy they can ne'er receive,
Till Thou dost repentance give;
Giver of the grief unknown.
Look — and break their hearts of stone.
Let them hear Thy dying cries.
Then the dead in sin arise;
Stubborn guilt doth then relent.
Rocks are by Thy passion rent.

With severest anguish torn,
Felons look on Thee, and mourn,
Poor repenting thieves confess
Christ their Lord — and die in peace!