Alas for him! Whose teaching pride
Peoples the realms beneath,
And helps poor sinners to deride
The never-dying death!
Who madly mocks the endless pain,
And laughs his God to scorn—
Good were it for that wretched man,
If he had ne’er been born!
Alas! for him whose teaching pride
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Good were it for that man, if he had never been born.”—[Mark] xiv. 21. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 72.
Publishing: Public Domain