Wesley Corpus

For a Minister Source: Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part I Author: Charles Wesley (attributed) --- For a Minister.50 Ah! My dear Master! Can it be That I should lose by serving thee? In seeking souls should lose my own, And others save, myself undone? Yet am I lost (shouldst thou depart) Betray’d by this deceitful heart, Destroy’d, if thou my labour bless, And ruin’d by my own success. Hide me! If thou refuse to hide, I fall a sacrifice to pride: I cannot shun the fowler’s snare, The fiery test I cannot bear. Helpless to thee for aid I cry, Unable to resist, or fly: I must not, Lord, the task decline, For all I have, and am is thine. And well thou know’st I did not seek, Uncall’d of God, for God to speak, The dreadful charge I sought to flee, “Send whom thou wilt, but send not me.” 50Included in George Whitefield’s Continuation of the Reverend Mr. Whitefield’s Journal, from a few Days after his Return to Georgia to his Arrival at Falmouth (London: William Strahan, 1741), 84-85. Long did my coward flesh delay, And still I tremble to obey, Thy will be done, I faintly cry, But rather--suffer me to die. Ah! Rescue me from earth and sin, Fightings without, and fears within, More, more than hell myself I dread, Ah! Cover my defenceless head! Surely thou wilt. Thou canst not send, And not my helpless soul defend, Call me to stand in danger’s hour, And not support me with thy power. Lord, I believe the promise true, “Behold, I always am with you;” Always if thou with me remain, Hell, earth, and sin shall rage in vain. Give me thine all-sufficient grace-- Then hurl your fiery darts of praise, Jesus and me ye ne’er shall part, For God is greater than my heart.