And Can It Be? The Original Version

 

And Can It Be, written by Charles Wesley in 1738, was first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739. The original title was Free Grace. There were six stanzas with no refrain, which you can see below. I have never before seen the 5th stanza in the original version. I like it!

I haven’t discovered the original tune and am not sure anyone knows. It has been sung to several different tunes, but the best known is Sagina, composed by Thomas Cambell in the early 19th century. He is also credited with adding the refrain. I have sung it a time or two with the refrain being simply repeating the last two lines of each stanza, but I personally prefer the traditional refrain, the last two lines of the first stanza repeated after every stanza, which I also call the right way.

Free Grace 

1 And can it be, that I should gain

An int’rest in the Saviour’s blood!

Dy’d he for me?—Who caus’d his pain!

For me?—Who him to death pursu’d.

Amazing love! How can it be

That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2 ’Tis myst’ry all! Th’ immortal dies!

Who can explore his strange design?

In vain the first-born seraph tries

To sound the depths of love divine.

’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;

Let angel minds enquire no more.

4 He left his Father’s throne above,

(So free, so infinite his grace!)

Empty’d himself of all but love,

And bled for Adam’s helpless race:

’Tis mercy all, immense and free!

For O my God! It found out me!

4 Long my imprison’d spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:

Thine eye diffus’d a quick’ning ray;

I woke; the dungeon flam’d with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and follow’d thee.

5 Still the small inward voice I hear,

That whispers all my sins forgiv’n;

Still the atoning blood is near,

That quench’d the wrath of hostile heav’n:

I feel the life his wounds impart;

I feel my Saviour in my heart.

6 No condemnation now I dread,

Jesus, and all in him, is mine:

Alive in him, my living head,

And cloath’d in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,

And claim the crown, thro’ Christ, my own.

 

After much searching I found this at

https://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives/wesleyan-methodist/cswt-jw