{"id":125747,"date":"2024-01-01T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=125747"},"modified":"2024-01-01T07:21:59","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T12:21:59","slug":"a-charles-wesley-hymn-for-new-years-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=125747","title":{"rendered":"A Charles Wesley Hymn for New Years Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Wisdom ascribe, and might and praise
\nTo God, who lengthens out our days,
\nWho spares us yet another year,
\nAnd lets us see His goodness here;
\nHappy, and wise, the time redeem,
\nAnd live, my friends, and die to Him.<\/p>\n

2 How often when His arm was bared,
\nHath He our sinful Israel spared!
\nLet them alone, His mercy cried,
\nAnd turn’d the vengeful bolt aside,
\nIndulged another kind reprieve,
\nAnd strangely suffer’d us to live.<\/p>\n

3 Laid to the root with conscious awe,
\nBut now the threatening axe we saw,
\nWe saw when Jesus stepp’d between,
\nTo part the punishment and sin,
\nHe pleaded for the blood-bought race,
\nAnd God vouchsafed a longer space!<\/p>\n

4 Still in the doubtful balance weigh’d
\nWe trembled, while the remnant pray’d:
\nThe Father heard His Spirit groan,
\nAnd answer’d mild, It is My Son!
\nHe let the prayer of faith prevail,
\nAnd mercy turn’d the hovering scale.<\/p>\n

5 Merciful God, how shall we raise
\nOur hearts to pay Thee all Thy praise!
\nOur hearts shall beat for Thee alone,
\nOur lives shall make Thy goodness known,
\nOur souls and bodies shall be Thine,
\nA living sacrifice Divine.<\/p>\n

6 I, and my house, will serve the Lord,
\nLed by the Spirit and the word;
\nWe plight our faith, assembled here,
\nTo serve our God the ensuing year;
\nAnd vow, when time shall be no more,
\nThrough all eternity to adore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–Charles Wesley as found in The Poetical Works Of John And Charles Wesley<\/b>, Vol. VI,Ed. G. Osborn (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), pp. 9-10<\/p>\n

\n

Happy New Year! All of us at Westminster Abbey wish you a very happy and peaceful 2024.<\/p>\n

This throwback picture was taken from the Abbey roof and shows Big Ben and the London Eye lit up by London's spectacular New Year's Eve fireworks.<\/p>\n

📸 Getty Images pic.twitter.com\/Ps2tXCKN6G<\/a><\/p>\n

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) January 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n