Father, thy kind design explain
In ev’ry scourge and cross,
What is the meaning of this pain,
This trouble, or this loss?
O might my heart distinctly hear
The language of the rod,
Answer thy will, and always fear,
And always love my God.
Father, Thy kind design explain
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.”—[Mic.] vi. 9. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 98.
Publishing: Public Domain