CAN guilty man, indeed, believe That God Who made and knows the heart, Shall not the sinner’s crimes perceive Nor see into the inmost part?
Shall He Who, with transcendent skill, Fashioned the eye and formed the ear; Who modelled nature to His will, Shall He not see? Shall He not hear?
Shall He, Who framed the human mind, And bade its vital life to glow, Who all its varied powers combined, Shall He not see? Shall He not know?
Surely His eye at once surveys All that intrudes creation’s space; He sees our thoughts, and marks our ways, He knows no bounds of time and place.
Lord, as we bow beneath Thine eye, How dark our hearts, how wrong within; Hear our repentant, pleading cry, Pardon and cleanse away our sin.
Harriet Auber, 1773-1862‡