Scripture Verse

Thou art good, and doest good. Psalm 119:68

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns for Child­ren 1763.

Music: Ormes­by George Mer­ritt, in The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1889), num­ber 46 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Mer­ritt (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Good Thou art, and good Thou dost,
Thy mer­cies reach to all,
Chiefly those who on Thee trust,
And for Thy mer­cy call;
New they ev­ery morn­ing are;
As fa­thers when their child­ren cry,
Us Thou dost in pi­ty spare,
And all our wants sup­ply.

Mercy o’er Thy works pre­sides;
Thy pro­vi­dence dis­played
Still pre­serves, and still pro­vides
For all Thy hands have made;
Keeps, with most dis­ting­uished care,
The man who on Thy love de­pends;
Watches ev­ery num­bered hair,
And all his steps at­tends.

Who can sound the depths un­known
Of Thy re­deem­ing grace?
Grace that gave Thine on­ly Son
To save a ru­ined race!
Millions of trans­gres­sors poor
Thou hast for Je­sus’ sake for­giv­en,
Made them of Thy fa­vor sure,
And snatched from hell to Hea­ven.

Millions more Thou rea­dy art
To save, and to for­give;
Every soul and ev­ery heart
Of man Thou wouldst re­ceive:
Father, now ac­cept of mine,
Which now, through Christ, I of­fer Thee;
Tell me now, in love di­vine,
That Thou hast par­doned me!