A prisoner for religion’s sake

Verse 1
A prisoner for religion’s sake,
Will cast his own concerns behind,
No thought for his own safety take,
No comfort but in Jesus find;
Will ask, and long to see restor’d
The kingdom of his heavenly Lord.

Verse 2
The interests of his Master dear
The servant’s mind and heart ingross;
He only thinks of Jesus near,
His works, his people, and his cause,
Glad to decrease, that Christ may grow,
And all the true Messiah know.

Verse 3
The souls committed to his trust
He suffers not with him to stay,
But sends them all to Christ the just,
The Lamb who bears their sins away;
Points to that one great Sacrifice,
Leaves them in Jesus’ hands, and dies.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples.’—[Matt. 11,] v. 2.” 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 244.
Publishing: Public Domain