While with us his Spirit stays

While with us his Spirit stays,
Jesus would salvation give,
Doth not mock our helpless race,
While he bids us all believe:
All the saving light may see,
Cast away the works of night,
Rise from sin’s obscurity
Rise the children of the light.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.’—[John 12,] v. 36." 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 256.
Publishing: Public Domain