Thy power and saving truth to show

Representative Text

1 Thy power and saving truth to show,
A warfare at thy charge I go!
Strong in the Lord and thy great might
Gladly take up the hallow’d cross
And suffering all things for thy cause,
Beneath that bloody banner fight.

A spectacle to friends and men,
To all their fierce or cool disdain
With calmest pity I submit:
Determin’d naught to know beside
My Jesus and him crucified
I tread the world beneath my feet.

2 Superior to their smiles or frowns,
On all their goods my soul looks down,
Their pleasures, wealth, and power, and state,
The men that dare their God despise;
The Christian, -he alone is wise:
The Christian, -he alone is great.

O God, let all my life declare,
How happy all thy servants are:
How far above these earthly things;
How pure, when wash’d in Jesu’s Blood,
How intimately one with God,
A heaven born race of priests and kings.

3 For this alone I live below,
The power of godliness to show,
The wonders wrought by Jesu’s name
O that I might but faithful prove!
Witness to all thy pardoning love!
and point them to th’ atoning Lamb;

Let me to every creature cry,
The poor the rich, the low and high,
“Believe, and feel thy sins forgiven I
Damn’d till by Jesus sav’d thou art;
Till Jesu’s blood hath wash’d thy heart.

Source: A Collection of Hymns: for the use of the people called Methodists; in miniature #435

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Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

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