Wesley Corpus

The thing thou dost I know not now, But I shall know hereafter, Lord, To thy dread sovereign will I bow, Thy will be done, thy name ador'd, Act for the glory of thy name: Lo! In thy gracious hands I am. Act for thine own, and Sion's sake, And let thy will in me be done; If but one soul may comfort take By hearing me so deeply groan, Still let me all my burthen feel, And groan, and weep, and suffer still. If but one tempted soul may find Relief by my afflicted state, I would be patient, and resign'd, Still in the iron furnace wait; Still let the sin, the grief, the pain, The thorn in my weak flesh remain. Still let my bleeding heart be torn, If other bleeding hearts it chear, Disconsolate for thee I mourn, My nature's cross consent to bear, To languish for my Lord's delay, And weep a thousand lives away. Part IV. Behold, ye souls that mourn for God, And take ye comfort from my grief, Be strengthen'd by my grievous load, Let my distress be your relief, With mine your tears and sorrows join, And lose by mixing them with mine. Page 109 I am the man who long have known The strength and rage of inbred sin, My soul is dead, my heart is stone, A cage of birds, and beasts unclean, A den of thieves, a dire abode Of dragons, but no house of God. I dare not speak, I cannot shew The depths of Satan harbour'd there, The horrors of infernal woe, The black and blasphemous despair; Who can conceive but those that feel Indwelling sin, indwelling hell! A stranger intermedleth not With our inexplicable grief, 'Tis past the reach of human thought The torture of this unbelief, The strugling groan, the passion loud87 The heart that says, There is no God. But will he not at last appear, And make his power and Godhead known? Surely he shall the mourner chear, And make the broken heart his throne, Shall break it first, and then bind up: In hope believe ye against hope. Comfort, ye ministers of grace, Comfort my people, saith our God! Ye soon shall see his smiling face, His golden sceptre, not his rod, And own, when now the cloud's remov'd, He only chasten'd whom he lov'd.