Wesley Corpus

How glorious is the life above Which in this ordinance we taste; That fulness of celestial love, That joy which shall for ever last! That heavenly life in Christ conceal'd These earthen vessels could not bear, The part which now we find reveal'd No tongue of angels can declare. The light of life eternal darts Into our souls a dazling ray, A drop of heav'n o'reflows our hearts, And deluges the house of clay. Sure pledge of extacies unknown Shall this divine communion be, The ray shall rise into a sun, The drop shall swell into a sea. Page 88 Hymn CII. O the length and breadth and height And depth of dying love! Love that turns our faith to sight And wafts to heaven above! Pledge of our possession this, This which nature faints to bear; Who shall then support the bliss, The joy the rapture there! Flesh and blood shall not receive The vast inheritance; God we cannot see, and live The life of feeble sense, In our weakest nonage, here, Up into our head we grow, Saints before our Lord appear, And ripe for heaven below. We his image shall regain, And to his stature rise, Rise unto31 a perfect man, And then ascend the skies, Find our happy mansions there, Strong to bear the joys above All the glorious weight to bear Of everlasting love. Hymn CIII. Take, and eat, the Saviour saith, This my sacred body is! Him we take and eat by faith, Feed upon that flesh of his, 31Charles Wesley changed "unto" to "into" in All in All (1761). Page 89 All the benefits receive Which his Passion did procure, Pardon'd by his grace we live, Grace which makes salvation sure. Title to eternal bliss Here his precious death we find, This the pledge the earnest this Of the purchas'd joys behind: Here he gives our souls a taste, Heaven into our hearts he pours; Still believe, and hold him fast, God and Christ and all is ours! Hymn CIV. Returning to his Father's throne Hear all the interceeding Son, And join in that eternal prayer: He prays that we with him may reign, And he that did the kingdom gain For us, shall soon conduct us there.