The first Apostle of the Lamb

Verse 1
The first Apostle of the Lamb,
First witness to the Light he came,
First confessor of thine;
Jesus, thy honour’d minister
He came, thy coming to declare,
Eternal Word Divine.

Verse 2
But shining in the faithless heart,
Thou only dost the power impart
His record to receive,
“That every fallen child of man
“Thro’ Thee the saving grace may gain,
[“]And in Thyself believe.[”]

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘John came to bear witness of the Light, that all men through It might believe.’—[John 1,] v. 7." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 215.
Publishing: Public Domain