Wesley Corpus

Closer knit to thee our head, Nourish us, O Christ, and feed, Let us daily growth receive, More and more in Jesus live: Jesu! We thy members are, Cherish us with kindest care, Of thy flesh, and of thy bone: Love, forever love thine own. Page 195 Move, and actuate, and guide, Diverse gifts to each divide; Plac'd according to thy will, Let us all our work fulfil, Never from our office move, Needful to the others prove, Use the grace on each bestow'd, Temper'd by the art of God. Sweetly now we all agree, Touch'd with softest simpathy, Kindly for each other care: Every member feels its share: Wounded by the grief of one, All the suffering members groan; Honour'd if one member is All partake the common bliss. Many are we now, and one, We who Jesus have put on: There is neither bond nor free, Male nor female, Lord, in thee. Love, like death, hath all destroy'd, Render'd all distinctions void: Names, and sects, and parties fall; Thou, O Christ, art ALL in ALL! 83Ori., "6"; a misprint. Page 196 The Communion of Saints. Part V. Hebrews xii. 22, 23, 24. King of saints, to whom are given All in earth, and all in heaven, Reconcil'd thro' thee alone, Join'd, and gather'd into one: Heirs of glory, sons of grace, Lo! To thee our hopes we raise, Raise and fix our hopes on thee, Full of immortality! Absent in our flesh from home, We are to Mount Sion come: Heaven is our soul's abode, City of the living God; Enter'd there our seats we claim In the New Jerusalem, Join the countless angel-quire, Greet the first-born sons of fire. We our elder-brethren meet, We are made with them to sit, Sweetest fellowship we prove With the general church above; Page 197 Saints, who now their names behold In the Book of Life enroll'd, Spirits of the righteous, made Perfect now in Christ their head. We with them to God are come, God who speaks the general doom, Jesus Christ, who stands between Angry heaven, and guilty men, Undertakes to buy our peace, Gives the covenant of grace, Ratifies, and makes it good, Signs and seals it in his blood.