Answering to their pastor’s zeal

Answering to their pastor’s zeal,
The sheep betimes appear,
Eager and impatient still,
They flock the word to hear,
Listen, while the rich despise,
The great neglect, the learn’d dispute,
Priests against the truth arise,
And zealots persecute.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘All the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.’—[John 8,] v. 2." 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 414.
Publishing: Public Domain