The Cyber Hymnal ‎#1802

1802. Give Me the Enlarged Desire

Give me the enlarged desire,
And open, Lord, my soul,
Thy own fullness to require,
And comprehend the whole;
Stretch my faith’s capacity
Wider, and yet wider still
Then, with all that is in Thee
My soul forever fill!

Text Information

• First Line: Give me the enlarged desire
• Title: Give Me the Enlarged Desire
• Author: Charles Wesley
• Meter: 76.76.77.76
• Language: English
• Source: Short Hymns on Se­lect Pass­ag­es of Script­ure, 1762
• Notes: Joseph Ben­son re­calls that John Fletch­er used to ga­ther the stu­dents at Tre­vec­ca in his room to pray for the ful­ness of the Ho­ly Spir­it. ‘This was not done once or twice, but ma­ny times. And I have some­times seen him on these oc­ca­sions, once in par­ti­cu­lar, so filled with the love of God, that he could con­tain no more; but cried out, "O My God, with­hold Thy hand, or the ves­sel will burst." But he af­ter­ward told me that he was afraid he had grieved the Spir­it of God; and that he ought rather to have prayed that the Lord would have en­larged the vess­el, or have suf­fered it to break, that the soul might have no fur­ther bar or in­ter­rup­tion to its en­joy­ment of the Su­preme Good. Wes­ley adds, ‘This is cer­tain­ly a just re­mark. The pro­per pray­er on such an oc­cas­ion would have been— Give me the enlarged desire, And open, Lord, my soul.’ Telford, p. 318

Tune Information

• Name: WELD
• Composer: Anonymous (before 1895)
• Meter: 76.76.77.76
• Key: G Major
• Source: Meth­od­ist Hymn and Tune Book (To­ron­to, Can­a­da: Meth­od­ist Book and Pub­lish­ing House, 1894), num­ber 794
• Copyright: Public Domain