SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 6 OF 22: I WANT A PRINCIPLE WITHIN

Living Word Bible Church, Indianapolis; on sign: "Understanding the Bible. Independent, Non-Denominational, Dispensational."

I want a principle within Of watchful, godly fear,

A sensibility of sin, A pain to feel it near.

Help me the first approach to feel Of pride or wrong desire;

To catch the wandering of my will, And quench the kindling fire.

From Thee that I no more may stray, No more Thy goodness grieve,

Grant me the filial awe, I pray, The tender conscience give.

Quick as the apple of an eye, O God, my conscience make!

Awake my soul when sin is nigh, And keep it still awake.

Almighty God of truth and love, To me Thy power impart;

The burden from my soul remove, The hardness from my heart.

O may the least omission pain My reawakened soul,

And drive me to that grace again, Which makes the wounded whole.

NOTES ON THIS HYMN:

• The words were written by my favorite hymn lyrist, Charles Wesley (brother and co-founder of the Methodist Church of John Wesley).
• The meter of this hymn is Common Meter Double (8,6,8,6,8,6,8,6). Becky and I are not familiar with the tune associated with it, so we sing it to the tune of other songs, such as "Faith Is The Victory," "My Faith Has Found A Resting Place (No Other Plea)," "I Sing The Mighty Power Of God," and "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear."
• I knew some of Wesley's hymns have more verses than are normally printed - for example, "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing," has 5 verses in the hymnal I'm most familiar with, 9 on Cyber Hymnal's page, and originally over twenty (with what we consider the first verse being actually the sixth or seventh verse) - so I looked on Cyber Hymnal of a pair of Wesley songs that had three verses each: this one and "Soldiers of Christ, Arise!" The total number of verses for this song? Three! For "Soldiers of Christ?" Sixteen. 
• As I was setting the date for this hymn, I realized it's 9-11. I'm following the planned format, of putting the first 16 songs in alphabetic order by title, and I'm sticking to it. But doesn't this song reflect spiritually the vigilance September 11th motivated us to have?