[Page 57]
After considering some of his Friends.
I.
1 WHY do the Deeds of happier Men
2 Into a Mind return,
3 Which can, opprest by Bands of Sloth,
4 With no such Ardors burn?
II.
5 GOD of my Life and all my Pow'rs,
6 The Everlasting Friend!
7 Shall Life so favour'd in its Dawn,
8 Be fruitless in its End?
III.
9 To Thee, O Lord, my tender Years
10 A trembling Duty paid,
11 With Glimpses of the mighty GOD
12 Delighted and afraid.
IV.
13 From Parents' Eye, and Paths of Men,
14 Thy Touch I ran to meet;
15 It swell'd the Hymn, and seal'd the Pray'r,
16 'Twas calm, and strange, and sweet!
V.
[Page 58]17 Oft when beneath the Work of Sin
18 Trembling and dark I stood,
19 And felt the Edge of eager Thought,
20 And felt the kindling Blood:
VI.
21 Thy Dew came down — my Heart was Thine,
22 It knew nor Doubt nor Strife;
23 Cool now and peaceful as the Grave,
24 And strong to Second Life.
VII.
25 Full of Myself I oft forsook
26 The Now, the Truth, and Thee,
27 For sanguine Hope, or sensual Gust,
28 Or earth-born Sophistry:
VIII.
29 The Folly thriv'd, and came in Sight
30 Too gross for Life to bear;
31 I smote the Breast for Man too base,
32 I smote — and GOD was there!
IX.
33 Still will I hope for Voice and Strength
34 To glorify thy Name;
35 Tho' I must die to all that's Mine,
36 And suffer All my Shame.
Source edition
Wesley, John, 1703-1791. Wesley, Charles, 1707-1788. Hymns and sacred poems: Published by John Wesley, ... and Charles Wesley, ... London: printed by William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton; and at Mr. Bray's, 1739, pp. 57-58. x,[6],223,[1]p.; 12⁰. (ESTC T31323; OTA K034809.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Vet. A4 f. 254].)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.