Soon as the Saviour’s messenger

Verse 1
Soon as the Saviour’s messenger
Did to their hearts proclaim
Glad tidings of a kingdom near
And peace in Jesus name,
Their souls were suddenly unbound;
A long-deluded croud,
The gospel-word they felt and found
The real power of God.

Verse 2
Satan must tremble, and give place
Before the Spirit’s might,
The strength of efficacious grace
His armies puts to flight:
His kingdom falls, his charms and spells,
And works are all o’rethrown:
For Jesus in the faithful dwells,
And rules their hearts alone.

Verse 3
By divination to prevail
The fiend again may try:
Receiv’d within the church’s pale,
His malice we defy;
Baptiz’d into our Saviour’s name,
And sprinkled with his blood,
The members are with Christ the same,
And all are fill’d with God.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘But when they believed Philip preaching the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized.’—[Acts 8,] v. 12.” 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 223.
Publishing: Public Domain