How Can We Sinners Know

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How can we sinners know

Author: Charles Wesley (1749)
Tune: ST. MICHAEL (Genevan)
Published in 6 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	Ten Chorale Improvisations, Set 5

Representative Text

1. How can we sinners know
Our sins on earth forgiven?
How can my gracious Savior show
My name inscribed in heaven?

2. What we have felt and seen,
With confidence we tell,
And publish to the ends of earth
The signs infallible.

3. We who in Christ believe
That He for us hath died,
We all His unknown peace receive
And feel His blood applied.

4. Exults for joy our rising soul,
Disburthened of her load,
And swells, unutterably full
Of glory and of God.

5. His love surpasses far
The love of all beneath,
We find within, and dare
The pointless darts of death.

6. Stronger than death, or sin, or hell,
The mystic power we prove,
And conquerors of the world we dwell
In heaven, who dwell in love.

7. We by His Spirit prove
And know the things of God,
The things which freely of His love
He hath on us bestowed.

8. The meek and lowly heart
That in our Savior was,
To us that Spirit doth impart
And sign us with His cross.

9. Our nature’s turned, our mind
Transformed in all its powers,
And both the witnesses are joined,
The Spirit of God with ours.

10. His glory is our sole design,
We live our God to please,
And rise with filial fear divine
To perfect holiness.

11. The Spirit of my God
Hath certified Him mine,
And all the tokens showed,
Infallible, divine.

12. Hereby the pardoned sinner knows
His sins on earth forgiven,
And thus my gracious Savior shows
My name inscribed in Heaven.

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Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

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First Line:	How can we sinners know
Title:	How Can We Sinners Know
Author:	Charles Wesley (1749)
Meter:	6.6.8.6
Source:	Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749
Language:	English
Notes:	Spanish translation: See "Podrá el pecador" by Federico Pagura
Copyright:	Public Domain