Discipleship and Ministries Learning Network
Open, Lord, my inward ear,
And bid my heart rejoice;
Bid my quiet spirit hear
Thy comfortable voice;
Never in the whirlwind found,
Or where earthquakes rock the place,
Still and silent is the sound,
The whisper of thy grace.
From the world of sin, and noise,
And hurry I withdraw;
For the small and inward voice
I wait with humble awe;
Silent am I now and still,
Dare not in thy presence move;
To my waiting soul reveal
The secret of thy love.
Thou didst undertake for me,
For me to death wast sold;
Wisdom in a mystery
Of bleeding love unfold;
Teach the lesson of thy cross:
Let me die, with thee to reign;
All things let me count but loss,
So I may thee regain.
Show me, as my soul can bear
The depth of inbred sin;
All the unbelief declare,
The pride that lurks within;
Take me, whom thyself hast bought,
Bring into captivity
Every high aspiring thought
That would not stoop to thee.
Lord, my time is in thy hand,
My soul to thee convert;
Thou canst make me understand,
Though I am slow of heart;
Thine in whom I live and move,
Thine the work, the praise is thine;
Thou art wisdom, power and love,
And all thou art is mine.
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
This is the version that appeared in the Wesleyan hymn book of 1780, and in
subsequent hymn books produced by the British Methodist Church, until Singing the
Faith (Canterbury Press, 2011), which has adapted the text in the interests of removing
some archaisms (thees and thous). This affects the rhyme in some cases and has led
to re-wordings that lose some important metaphors and the theological insights
arising from them.
In this podcast, published in HOLINESS Volume 1 (2015) Issue 1, Holiness & Education,
the setting is BECK, copyright Nicola Morrison 2010, and it is performed by Ruth Jeffries
and Nicola Morrison. The spoken introduction and devotional commentary is by Janet
Morley.
To view the PDF of the hymn, click here