Wesley Corpus

Waiting for Christ Source: Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part I Author: Charles Wesley (attributed) --- I trust in him who stands between The Father’s wrath and me: JESU! Thou great eternal mean, I look for all from thee. Thy mercy pleads, thy truth requires, Thy promise calls thee down: Not for the sake of my desires-- But Oh! Regard thine own! I seek no motive out of thee: Thine own desires fulfil: If now thy bowels yearn on me, On me perform thy will. Doom, if thou canst, to endless pains, And drive me from thy face:20 But if thy stronger love constrains, Let me be sav’d by grace. Waiting for Christ. Unchangeable, Almighty Lord, The true, and merciful, and just, Be mindful of thy gracious word, Wherein thou causest me to trust. 20John Wesley marks these words to be expunged in his personal copy of the 5th edn. (1756). They had been objected to by Thomas Church in 1744. Wesley replied in An Answer to the Rev. Mr. Church’s “Remarks”, III.4 (Works 9:113-14); and in Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained, II.8 (Works 9:185). My weary eyes look out in vain, And long thy saving health to see: But known to thee is all my pain: When wilt thou come, and comfort me! Prisoner of hope, to thee I turn, Thee my strong hold, and only stay: Harden’d in grief, I ever mourn: Why do thy chariot-wheels delay? But shall thy creature ask thee why? No; I retract the eager prayer: Lord, as thou wilt, and not as I; I cannot chuse; thou canst not err. To thee, the only wise, and true, See then at last I all resign; Make me in Christ a creature new, The manner, and the time be thine. Only preserve my soul from sin, Nor let me faint for want of thee: I’ll wait till thou appear within, And plant thy heaven of love in me.