The world with useless care

Verse 1
The world with useless care
Throughout their life’s short day,
That perishable meat prepare,
That wealth which cannot stay;
But few their pains bestow,
As creatures born to die,
And feed by faith on Christ below,
Till to his throne they fly.

Verse 2
Thou art the Bread of life
That meat which shall remain:
Be it our only care and strife
Thy blessed Self to gain;
Give, Lord, and always give
Th’ immortalizing Food,
And strengthen us by grace to live
The sinless life of God.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Labour for that meat which endureth.”—[John] vi. 27. Verse 2 was introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762) and also published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 381. Wesley added a first verse in his 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.
Publishing: Public Domain