Wesley Corpus

Sion, thy suffering God behold, Thy Saviour and salvation too, He comes, he comes, so long foretold, Cloath'd in a vest of bloody hue. Himself prepares his people's hearts, Breaks and binds up, and wounds and heals, A mystic death, and life imparts, Empties the full, the emptied fills. He fills whom first he hath prepar'd, With him the perfect grace is given, Himself is here their great reward, Their future and their present heaven. Page 34 They now the holy people nam'd, Their glorious title shall express, From all iniquity redeem'd, Fill'd with the Lord their righteousness. A chosen, sav'd, peculiar race, Sion, with all thy sons thou art, Elect thro' sanctifying grace, Perfect in love, and pure in heart. A people glorious all within, Now, only now, and not before, Born from above thou canst not sin, And God can never leave thee more. An Hymn for Seriousness.20 Thou God of glorious majesty, To thee against myself, to thee A worm of earth I cry, An half-awaken'd child of man, An heir of endless bliss or pain, A sinner born to die. Lo! On a narrow neck of land, 'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand Secure, insensible: A point of life, a moment's space Removes me to that heavenly place, Or shuts me up in hell. O God, mine inmost soul convert, And deeply on my thoughtful heart Eternal things impress, Give me to feel their solemn weight, And tremble on the brink of fate, And wake to righteousness. 19John Wesley crossed out this stanza in his personal copy of the 2nd edn. (1755). 20A manuscript precursor of this hymn appears in MS Occasional Hymns, 1-2. Page 35 Before me place in dread array The pomp of that tremendous day, When thou with clouds shalt come To judge the nations at thy bar: And tell me, Lord, shall I be there To meet a joyful doom? Be this my one great business here, With serious industry, and fear, My future bliss t' insure, Thine utmost counsel to fulfil, And suffer all thy righteous will, And to the end indure.