As a wild ass’s colt is man

As a wild ass’s colt is man,
Licentious, yet by passion bound,
Till Christ the vagabond restrain,
And free him by the gospel-sound:
He sends his servants forth to claim
The wanderer from his righteous laws,
And makes the human savage tame,
And marks his subject with his cross.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat, loose him and bring him.’—Mark 11, v. 2.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, 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 39.
Publishing: Public Domain