Be this, dear Lord, our constant care,
Not how the destin’d cross to fly,
But meekly in thy Spirit to bear,
The truth with zeal to testify,
To tremble at the wrath Divine,
Regardless of a mortal’s frown,
And calm, like Thee, our lives resign,
And grasp thro’ death the martyr’s crown.
Be this, dear Lord, our constant care
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up &c.’—[Mark 13,] v. 9.” 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 61.
Publishing: Public Domain