Shepherds indigent and plain
Jesus’ first Apostles hear,
Hear them who that wondrous Man
Simply to the world declare!
O might I my Lord admire,
God himself both hear and see,
Emulate th’ Angelic choir,
Gaze to all eternity!
Shepherds indigent and plain
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And all they that heard it wondred at those things which were told them by the shepherds.'—[Luke 2,] v. 18.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 80-81.
Publishing: Public Domain