Penitential Hymn, Hymn 7: At Night

Let sinners possess'd
Of pardon be blest,
And welcome with joy the soft season of rest,
Let innocence sleep,
My station I keep,
My business on earth is to watch and to weep.
i A mourner for sin
Through life I have been:
O when shall my heart and my conscience be clean?
If tears could efface
The guilty disgrace, seas.
Mine eyes should be fountains, mine head should be
If my blood could atone
For what I have done,
Even now would I spend it, and groan my last groan
But my dying were vain,
Only Jesus's pain,
Only Jesus's blood can wash out the foul stain.
Its virtue I tried,
When I felt it applied,
And knew that for me my Redeemer had died.
But I quickly gave way
In the cloudy dark day,
And fell to temptation an indolent prey.
That covenant-blood
Under foot I have trod,
And again I have murder'd the meek Son of God.
My sin I declare,
My punishment bear,
And quake on the edge of eternal despair.
And shall I complain
Of a moment of pain,
Which here for my sins I am doom'd to sustain?
No, Lord, I submit,
And fall at Thy feet,
Only let me not sink to the bottomless pit.
I bow to the rod,
To my temporal load,
And fall into the hands of a merciful God:
Thy justice revere,
But with anguish and fear
I beg I may have all my punishment here.

With tears of desire,
I humbly require
That in wailing for sin, all my breath may expire.
Only while I remove

the country above,
O bless me at last with the taste of Thy love.