The world sometimes their rage suppress,
And lay their violence quite aside:
But shall we look for lasting peace,
Or in their gentleness confide?
When most humane our foes appear,
They spare us, not for love, but fear.
The world sometimes their rage suppress
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They brought them without violence.’—[Acts 5,] v. 26.” This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 189.
Publishing: Public Domain