Free Grace

Charles Wesley · 1739–1740

Catalog grade guidance: 3–12 — Hymn text; suitable for singing or spoken recitation.

38 content lines · 250 words · Est. recitation about 2 min 24 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, ed. G. Osborn, vol. 1 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868), reprinting Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) and (1740), via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

FREE GRACE
[Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739)]

And can it be, that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me?—who caused His pain!
For me?—who Him to death pursued.
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

’Tis mystery all! the Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
To sound the depths of Love Divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above,
(So free, so infinite His grace!)
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free!
For, O my God! it found out me!

Long my imprison’d spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and follow’d Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quench’d the wrath of hostile Heaven:
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel my Saviour in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine:
Alive in Him, my Living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ, my own.