Absent from those whom most He loves

Verse 1
Absent from those whom most He loves,
Jesus, our faith and patience proves;
And left a tedious while,
Thro’ the long night of doubts and fears
We labour, (till our Lord appears,)
With unsuccesful toil.

Verse 2
But labouring on with fruitless pain
Resolv’d we in the ship remain,
Till the expected morn:
And sure as day succeeds to night,
We see the soul-reviving Light,
And joy with Christ return.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore.’—[John 21,] v. 4." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 279-80.
Publishing: Public Domain