"I Want A Principle Within"

This is my prayer, too:

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.

—Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Amen.