The following poetry by Charles Wesley is Hymn XIV in Hymns and Sacred Poems, In Two Volumes, Volume I (Charley Wesley, Bristol: Felix Farley, 1749, pp. 121-123). The primary allusion in the hymn is Peter’s denial of Christ, with subsequent repentance and restoration. In twelve stanzas Wesley draws in many other biblical references. The mourning penitent, in stanza after stanza, seeks the experience of Peter, that the Lord Jesus Christ might turn, look upon him, and break his heart of stone. The final stanza concluded with the heart of stone broken.
1. JESUS, let thy pitying eye
Call back a wandering sheep;
False to thee, like Peter, I
Would fain like Peter, weep;
Let me be by Grace restored;
On me be all longsuffering shown;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
2. Saviour, Prince, enthroned above,
Repentance to impart,
Give me, thro’ thy dying love,
The humble, contrite heart.
Give what I have long implored,
A portion of thy grief unknown:
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
3. In restoring Love again,
O Jesus, visit me,
Give me back that pleasing pain,
That blessed misery:
Now thy tendering Grace afford,
And make me thine afflicted one:
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
4. Harder than the flinty rock
My stubborn heart remains,
’Till I feel thy mercy’s stroke,
I only bite my chains,
Sinning on, though self-abhorr’d
As devils in their chains I groan:
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
5. For thine own Compassion’s sake
The gracious wonder show;
Cast my sins behind thy back,
And wash me white as snow,
If thy bowels now are stirred,
If now I would myself bemoan,
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
6. See me, Saviour, from above,
Nor suffer me to die;
Life and happiness and love,
Drop from thy gracious eye.
Break the reconciling word,
And let thy mercy melt me down,
Turn and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
7. Look, as when thine eye pursued
The First Apostate Man,
Saw him welt’ring in his blood,
And bade him rise again;
Speak my paradise restored
Redeem me by thy Grace alone;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
8. Look, as when thy pity saw
Thine own in a strange land,
Forc’d to obey the tyrant’s law,
And feel his heavy hand:
Speak the soul-redeeming word,
And out of Egypt call thy son;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
9. Look, as when thy weeping eye
The bloody city viewed,
Those, who stoned and doomed to die
The prophets, and their God;
I deserved their sad reward,
But this thy gracious day I own:
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
10. Look, as when thy Grace beheld
The harlot in distress,
Dried her tears, her pardon sealed,
And bade her go in Peace;
Foul like her, and self-abhorred,
I at thy feet for mercy groan:
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
11. Look, as when condemned for them
Thou didst thy followers see,
“Daughters of Jerusalem,
Weep for yourselves, not Me!”
And I by my God deplored,
And shall I not myself bemoan?
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
12. Look as when thy languid eye
Was closed, that we might live;
“Father,” (at the point to die,
My Saviour gasped), “forgive!”
Surely, with that dying word,
He turns, and looks, and cries, “’Tis done.”
O my bleeding, loving Lord,
Thou break’st my heart of stone.
The tune Weeping Peter appeared in The Sacred Harp in 1860, with no attribution to the composer. It was originally in three parts. An alto part by J. W. McCoy was added in 1902. Examples of the tune may be seen HERE and HERE. The Hymnology Archive contains a biography of Charles Wesley.
