Wesley Corpus

Then let us lawfully contend, And fight our passage thro', Bear in our faithful mind the end, And keep the prize in view: Then let us hasten to the day When all shall be brought home: Come, O Redeemer, come away! O Jesus, quickly come! Page 84 Hymn LXXX.110 Arm of the Lord, awake, awake! Thine own immortal strength put on, With terror cloath'd the nations shake, And cast thy foes in fury down. As in the antient days appear, The sacred annals speak thy fame, Be now omnipotently near, Thro' endless ages still the same. Thy tenfold vengeance knew to quell, And humble haughty Rahab's pride, Groan'd her pale sons thy stroke to feel, The first-born victims groan'd, and died. The wounded dragon rag'd in vain, While bold thine utmost plague to brave, Madly he dar'd the parted main, And sunk beneath th' o'erwhelming wave. He sunk; while Israel's chosen race Triumphant urge their wond'rous way; Divinely led, the fav'rites pass Th' unwatry deep, and emptied sea. At distance heap'd on either hand, Yielding a strange unbeaten road, In chrystal walls the waters stand, And own the arm of Israel's God. That arm which is not shorten'd now, Which wants not now the power to save; Still present with thy people thou Bear'st them thro' life's disparted wave. C. W. Vol. 1.111 110First appeared in HSP (1739), 222-23. Appears here via HSP (1749), 1:20-21. 111I.e., Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), 2nd edn. (Bristol: Farley, 1755), Vol. 1. Page 85 By earth and hell pursued in vain, To thee the ransom'd seed shall come, Shouting their heavenly Sion gain, And pass thro' death triumphant home. The pain of life shall there be o'er, The anguish, and distracting care, There sighing grief shall weep no more, And sin shall never enter there. Where pure essential joy is found, The Lord's redeem'd their heads shall raise, With everlasting gladness crown'd, And fill'd with love, and lost in praise. Hymn LXXXI.112 One only way the erring mind Of man, short-sighted man could find From inbred sin to fly; Stronger than love (I fondly thought) Death, only death, must cut the knot, Which love could not untie.