Athens indolent and vain
He quits as barren ground,
Fruit in other parts to gain,
And spread the gospel sound;
Carries Christ, where’er he goes,
The ministerial pattern gives:
Every soul that Jesus knows,
To Jesus’ glory lives.
Athens indolent and vain
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.’—[Acts 18,] v. 1." This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 381.
Publishing: Public Domain