Wesley Corpus

The house is built; and shall not God provide? Plentiful help pours in on every side, From hearts inclin'd the hungry lambs to feed By him, who satisfies the poor with bread; Whose blessing makes the earth her riches yield, The wilderness become a fruitful field, Page 15 3Frank Baker notes that all copies he had seen were corrected in a contemporary hand to "wintry." Bids golden harvests round his house arise, And turns a waste into a paradise. With heart inlarg'd, with confidence increas'd, In all his purposes and labours bless'd, The steward wise, and faithful to his trust, Gives God the praise, and sinks into the dust, And cries, o'rewhelm'd his Master's smile to see, "O when shall I begin to live for thee!" More grace is on the humble man bestow'd, More work on him that loves to work for God; By whose supreme decree, and kind command He now returns, to bless his native land, (Nor dreads the threatnings of the watry3 deep, Or all its storms, with Jesus in the ship) To see how the belov'd disciples fare, Fruits of his toil, and children of his prayer, A second gospel-benefit t' impart, And comfort, and confirm the faithful heart. So the first missioners in Jesus' name, Went forth, the world's Redeemer to proclaim, Page 16 The crucified, supreme, eternal God, The general peace and pardon in his blood; From clime to clime the restless heralds run, To make their Saviour thro' the nations known, Planted in every place, to serve their Lord, A living church, and watred by the word, While heaven was pleas'd their ministry to bless, And God bestow'd the thousand-fold increase. But shall my partial, fond presumption dare A stripling with apostles to compare? Their powers miraculous he dared not claim, Though still his gospel, and his God the same. Commission'd by his God, the word of grace (Where'er the Lord an open door displays) Freely as he receives, he freely gives, And daily dying, by the gospel lives; Renews his strength, renews his prosperous toil In every corner of our favour'd isle, And publishes salvation to the poor, And spreads the joyous news from shore to shore. Page 17 For when the rich a proffer'd Christ reject, And spurn the preacher with his odious sect, Out of their temples cast, he strait obeys, Goes forth to all the hedges and high-ways,