1 If you want to be a Christian you must leave the way of sin,
And in Jesus’ strength the better life begin;
You must put your soul for cleansing underneath his precious blood,
And that precious blood will make you pure and clean.
Refrain:
Do you want to be a Christian
Are you ready to be saved?
Will you make for him within your heart a place?
Have you tho’t it over fully, and decided once for all
To become this very hour a child of grace?
2 If you want to be a Christian you must once for all renounce
All that hinders God’s free grace within your soul,
And in love you must enthrone hi as your only Lord and King,
Yielding ev’ry pow’r to his complete control. [Refrain]
3 If you want to be a Christian full of comfort and of peace,
On his altar you a sacrifice must lay,
You must make complete surrender, then each moment walk by faith,
And so follow Jesus fully all the way. [Refrain]
4 If you want to be a Christian and your master glorify,
You must let your light with constant radiance shine;
You can never honor Jesus while the world still shares your love,
You must walk in all the pow’r of life divine. [Refrain]
Source: Songs of Matchless Love: for evangelistic services, devotional meetings and Sunday schools #78
Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including"Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894). The fifty song books he edited include Pentecostal Hymns No. 1 and The Evergreen, 1873.
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