Wou’dst thou be truly mortified?
Be only to thyself severe,
Far from the surly Stoick’s pride,
And Pharisaic character:
The sorrows of thy heart conceal,
Afflicted by a Father’s rod,
Nor tell what thou art forc’d to feel,
Nor stumble those who know not God.
Wouldst thou be truly mortified
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Appear not unto men to fast.’—[Matt. 6,] v. 18.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/577, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. 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 185.
Publishing: Public Domain