Whoe’er their indolent delight

Verse 1
Whoe’er their indolent delight
In ease and pleasure take,
They the ejected fiend invite,
And court him to come back;
By pride and sloth to every sin
They open wide the door;
And lo, a Legion enters in,
And never leaves them more.

Verse 2
That Satan never more may find
Into my heart his way,
I’l walk in all the paths injoin’d,
And fast, and watch, and pray,
In all the works of righteousness
With humble zeal employ’d,
And keep the house, the hallow’d place
Forever fill’d with God.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When he is come, he findeth the house empty, swept, and garnished.’—[Matt. 12,] v. 44.” 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 265.
Publishing: Public Domain