The Sinner — Christ the Way of Life

How helpless guilty nature lies

No. 373
Metre C. M.
Tune MONSON.
Words Anne Steele.
Music S. R. Brown
Key A major
Singing key G major
Time 3/4
4 stanzas

Words

How helpless guilty nature lies,Unconscious of its load!The heart, unchanged, can never riseTo happiness and God.

Can aught, beneath a power divine,The stubborn will subdue?'T is thine, almighty Spirit! thine,To form the heart anew.

'T is thine, the passions to recall,And upward bid them rise;To make the scales of error fallFrom reason's darkened eyes.

Oh change these wretched hearts of ours,And give them life divine;Then shall our passions and our powers,Almighty Lord! be thine.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «THE SINNER—CHRIST THE WAY OF LIFE.» (the hymn heads the page); hymn number «373» (large), tune name «MONSON. C. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «S. R. BROWN» at the right (capitals and small capitals, no period). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, one line per system, with «1.» before «How»; the syllables are hyphenated under the notes («help - less», «guilt - y», «na - ture», «Un - con - scious», «nev - er», «hap - pi - ness»), while «unchanged,» is printed unbroken although it is sung on two notes. Stanzas 2–4 are printed as text in the left column below the music, under the reference line «179, 201, 227.» in italics (= may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 179, 201 or 227). «Anne Steele.» in italics after stanza 4. The print sets a thin space before «?», «!» and «;» («subdue ?», «Spirit !», «rise ;», «divine ;», «Lord !»); it is closed up here. The printer's curly apostrophes are written straight («'T is», «reason's»). Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are indented in the print.