A mission to the ministry

Verse 1
A mission to the ministry
Is but a call to pain,
To bleed with Jesus on the tree,
That we with Him may reign:
Us, Lord, with views of grief, and shame,
And death, Thou dost allure
To preach salvation in thy name;
And thus our own secure.

Verse 2
Great things ordain’d for Thee to do,
Thou dost our souls prepare
By labouring, strength, and patience too
Great things for Thee to bear;
Afflictions with thy grace abound,
And make thy favourites known,
And those who suffer most are found
The nearest to thy throne.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name.’—[Acts 9,] v. 16.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 326. Verse 2 was 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 238.
Publishing: Public Domain