A preacher should himself conceal,
Sequester’d in the desart dwell,
Content for years to fast and pray,
Daily in grace and knowledge grow,
Till strong for God, the Master show
His messenger in open day:
Dead to the low desires of men
The anchorite should then be seen;
Yet daily still himself deny,
Simple and bold the truth declare,
The people for his Lord prepare,
And Jesus’ servant live and die.
A preacher should himself conceal
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desarts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.'—[Luke 1,] v. 80.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 78.
Publishing: Public Domain