1987 Song Book

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303: Saviour, Hear Me While Before Thy Feet

Book:   1987 Song Book
Chapter:   The Gospel

1.
Saviour, hear me while before thy feet
I the record of my sins repeat.
Stained with guilt, myself abhorring,
Filled with grief, my soul outpouring;
Canst thou still in mercy think of me,
Stoop to set my shackled spirit free,
Raise my sinking heart and bid me be
Thy child once more?

Chorus
Grace there is my every debt to pay,
Blood to wash my every sin away,
Power to keep me spotless day by day,
For me, for me!

2.
All the memories of deeds gone by
Rise within me and thy power defy;
With a deathly chill ensnaring,
They would leave my soul despairing.
Saviour, take my hand, I cannot tell
How to stem the tides that round me swell,
How to ease my conscience, or to quell
My flaming heart.

3.
Yet why should I fear? Hast thou not died
That no seeking soul should be denied?
To that heart, its sins confessing,
Canst thou fail to give a blessing?
By the love and pity thou hast shown,
By the blood that did for me atone,
Boldly will I kneel before thy throne,
A pleading soul.

4.
All the rivers of thy grace I claim,
Over every promise write my name;
As I am I come, believing,
As thou art thou dost, receiving,
Bid me rise a free and pardoned slave,
Master o'er my sin, the world, the grave,
Charging me to preach thy power to save
To sinbound souls.
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Saviour, hear me while before thy feet

Written in November 1889 for the Christmas issue of All theWorld, 1889. Herbert Booth had composed a tune about 18 months earlier, and had some ideas for the verses, but at the last moment he was having difficulty completing the chorus.Slowly he wrote three lines, but still needed words for the last four notes. Eventually, Richard Slater, who was playing The Music over on the piano, suggested the final line, 'For me, for me!' Subsequently the song, entitled 'The Penitent's Plea', was included in The Musical Salvationist, June supplement, 1890(reprinted from All the World) and in Songs of Peace and War,1890. Richard Slater described the chorus as 'an epitome of theology': 'Grace-to deal with the past; Blood-to make clean the present; Power-to make the saintly life possible for the future.

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Tunes linked to this song

823 - 1987 Tune Book

823: The Penitent's Plea

Book: 1987 Tune Book
Composer: Herbert Howard Booth (1862-1926)
Lyricist: Herbert Howard Booth (1862-1926)
Key: G
Alt. Key: G♭
Tempo: 72
Capo: --
Metronome:     ♩ = 72
Meter:None

Listen to this tuneWe can't display the sheet music for this tune due to copyright restrictions.


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