Alas! By Nature How Depraved

Alas! by na­ture how de­praved

How prone to every ill!

Our lives

to Sa­tan

how en­slaved

How ob­stin­ate our will!

And can such sin­ners be re­stored

Such re­bels re­con­ciled?

Can grace it­self the means af­ford

To make a foe a child?

Yes

grace has found the won­drous means

Which shall ef­fec­tu­al prove;

To cleanse us from our count­less sins

And teach our hearts to love.

Jesus for sin­ners un­der­takes

And died that we may live;

His blood a full atone­ment makes

And cries aloud

For­give.

Yet one thing more must grace pro­vide

To bring us home to God;

Or we shall slight the Lord

who died

And tram­ple on His blood.

The Ho­ly Spir­it must re­veal

The Sav­ior’s work and worth;

The hard heart then be­gins to feel

A new and heav’n­ly birth.

Thus bought with blood

and born again

Redeemed

and saved

by grace;

Rebels

in God’s own house ob­tain

A son’s and daugh­ter’s place.