Thy poor external worshipper

Verse 1
Thy poor external worshipper,
My poverty I own,
With trembling hands an altar rear
As to the God Unknown!
Left by a God who hides his face,
And seemingly forgot,
I own, in darkness and distress,
That now I know Thee not.

Verse 2
Yet drawn by thine alluring grace
Still after Thee I feel,
And worship toward the holy place,
And seek th’ Invisible;
I follow on, and cannot rest,
Till I my Maker see,
And with his special presence blest
Perceive my God in me.

Verse 3
Wilt Thou not soon display thy heart
In Jesus reconcil’d,
Thy servant graciously convert
Into a loving child?
Father, thy Deity declare,
In Jesus Christ reveal’d,
Acknowledge thine undoubted heir,
An heir of glory seal’d.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.’—[Acts 17,] v. 23." 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 339.
Publishing: Public Domain