Come, Christians, and hear me, and I will relate
The trials attendant on my wayward state;
Sometimes being tempted, almost to despair,
That God, from his mercy, has shut out my pray’r.

Long have I professed a christian to be,
But can a true christian be tempted like me?
So cold and neglectful, so stupid and blind,
So toss’d and perplexed by so wand’ring a mind?

Ofttimes I am filled with cares of the world,
And seeking its treasures, in darkness am hurl’d,
Before I’m aware, I am going astray,
And often I find myself out of the way.

Neglectful, and slothful, and careless I am,
And often my duty I cannot perform,
My mind is so wand’ring and mixed with sin,
My heart so polluted, my pearls are unclean.

But yet I do sometimes endeavor to pray,
Thought ofttimes I cannot tell what I shall say;
My mind is so senseless, my heart is so hard,
That I feel ashamed, when I call on the Lord.

But still I desire with God’s people to meet,
And join them in worship at Jesus’ dear feet;
Although I’m so poor and so worthless here,
When they get to heaven, I long to be there.

If I am a christian, I’m surely the least,
And, if taken to heaven, ’twill all be of grace;
Thy grace and thy mercy, O Lord, it must be
That ever can save such a rebel as me.

When under a sense of the goodness of God,
I taste the sweet promises left in his word,
My hard heart is humbled, and then I rejoice,
Believing, in Jesus, I cannot be lost.

Malinda G. Wallis, of Randolph
Written for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Signs of the Times
Volume 28, Number 16; August 15, 1860

Below are the songs that were made from the poem using AI. They are identified
by the genre of the music in paranthesis.