Written by the Baptist hymn writer Benjamin Beddome, this Lenten text was contributed to John Rippon's Selection of Hymns (1787, No. 40) in four stanzas of four lines under the title "The evil heart." The hymn expresses deep penitential sorrow and self-examination regarding spiritual frailty and human depravity.
From Rippon's volume, the original text entered several prominent British and American selections, where it remains in moderate use, occasionally in altered forms. A modified version was issued in the posthumous edition of Beddome's Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, edited by Robert Hall in 1817 (No. 469), though this revision did not enter common usage. In certain collections, the hymn was erroneously attributed to Augustus Toplady due to its inclusion by Walter Row in his edition of Toplady's works.
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