Scripture Verse

Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:24

Introduction

portrait
John H. Tenney (1840–1918)

Words: Eli­jah W. Law­hon, in Spi­ri­tu­al Songs for Gos­pel Meet­ings and the Sun­day School, ed­it­ed by Eli­sha A. Hoff­man & John Ten­ney (Cleve­land, Ohio: Sam­uel Bark­er, 1878), num­ber 16.

Music: São To­mé John H. Ten­ney (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

O Lord! I come once more to Thee,
To seek Thy smile of peace;
From all the pow­ers of sin I flee,
From all its ways I’d cease.
A thou­sand ear­nest vows I’ve made,
And brok­en ev­ery one,
But let me plead the pre­cious blood
Of Thy be­lov­èd Son.

Refrain

O Sav­ior! help me to be­lieve,
Believe, and sin no more;
Nor e’er, again, Thy Spi­rit grieve,
But love Thee ev­er­more.

When I re­mem­ber all my sin
Against Thy law and grace,
And see how false my heart has been,
I fear to seek Thy face;
My trem­bling soul sinks in des­pair
Beneath the hea­vy load;
All faith is tak­en from my pray­er;
I stand con­demned of God.

Refrain

Let not the foe my heart de­ceive,
Forgiveness is in store;
O let me now look up, be­lieve,
Believe, and sin no more!
Thy Word de­mands of fee­ble dust
Forgiveness full and free,
And sure­ly, Thou who art so just
Will ful­ly par­don me.

Refrain