Wesley Corpus

Volume 4 (1781): 567-68 For Love.30 O love, thou sov'reign good unknown! Anxious I wait for thee alone, Before I take my flight; Before I can depart in peace, Or hope for endless happiness, In a new world of light. Joyful I fly this moment hence, Meet for my rich inheritance, If thou thyself impart: Salvation sure in thee is giv'n; My perfect peace, my present heaven, My God himself thou art! O love, O God, thyself reveal! My pardon in thy blood to seal, My spirit to restore; Then, let me then a lot obtain, Where grief, infirmity, and pain, And death shall be no more. Canst thou deny thyself to me, A thirsty soul who gasps for thee, Incapable of rest; Till I thy loving nature share, Till thou the mystery declare, And take me to thy breast. Now, O thou love essential come! And lo! I sink into the tomb, With Jesus in my heart; Secure at that great day to rise, And mount above the flaming skies, And see thee as thou art. 30Appears in MS Hymns for Love, 67-68. Volume 4 (1781): 621 An Epitaph on Mr. Peter Jaco.31 Fisher of men,32 ordain'd by Christ alone, Immortal souls he for his Saviour won; With loving faith, and calmly fervent zeal, Perform'd, and suffer'd the Redeemer's will; Unmov'd, in all the storms of life remain'd, And in the good old ship the haven gain'd. 31Appears in MS Funeral Hymns, 113. Peter Jaco (1729-81) was born in Newlyn, Cornwall. He was converted through a tin-miner's sermon and in 1751 was appointed by Wesley to visit several local societies. Jaco entered the itinerancy in 1754 and exercised a circuit ministry in England and Ireland, suffering much persecution and hardship. 32Note in AM: In the short account of Mr. Jaco's life, he says he was brought up to the fishingbusiness. Here then we have another Peter the fisher-man, forsaking his nets, following Christ, and becoming a fisher of men.