The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

Meek, patient Son of God and man,
With us in our temptation stay;
Our fainting, feeble minds sustain,
And keep throughout the evil day;
The evil day of doubts, and fears,
And fightings, till Thy face appears.

We have not an high-priest in Thee,
Who cannot our afflictions feel;
The tempted soul's infirmity
With kind concern affects Thee still;
Touch'd with our every grief Thou art,
And bleeds for us Thy pitying heart.

For us, by men and fiends distress'd,
For us by various passions torn,
Who toil to enter into rest,
Who for Thy second coming mourn,

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And fill Thy sacred sorrows up,
And drink Thine agonizing cup.

Companions to the Man of Woe,
O! let us still with Thee abide;
Tempted, alas! to let Thee go,
And start from the command aside,
By every wind of doctrine driven,
To seek a broader way to heaven.

Yes, Lord, with deepest shame we own
Our weariness of all Thy ways,
Our haste to throw Thy burden down,
Nor bear the hidings of Thy face,
Nor wait till Thou create us new,
And give the crown to conquest due.

We fear'd to wait Thy leisure, Lord,
Or make the crown through sufferings sure,
Nature the killing word abhorr'd,
Nor would we to the end endure,
But snatch a cheap fallacious peace,
And rest in fancied holiness.

Ah! do not let Thy sheep depart,
Wide scatter'd, in the cloudy day,
But cross the' angelic tempter's art,
But spoil the lion of his prey,
Nor let us from our hope remove,
Our gospel hope of perfect love.

Us, and our brethren in distress,
Patient within Thy kingdom keep,
Sure all Thy fulness to possess,
Our harvest in the end to reap,
Thy sinless nature to retrieve,
And glorious in Thine image live.

University of Virginia Library

LXXI. THE SAME. FOR THE TEMPTED.

Hymn 11.