Beyond his persecutors’ sight

Verse 1
Beyond his persecutors sight
Th’ Apostle prudently withdraws,
Not by an hasty shameful flight
Deserting his Redeemer’s cause
But sent on other souls to call,
And Christ proclaim the Lord of all.

Verse 2
Ye men sent forth in Jesus Name,
The storm, when He appoints, decline,
Follow th’ Apostles of the Lamb,
Fulfil your gracious Lord’s design,
O’re earth as lawless outcasts driven,
T’ increase th’ inhabitants of heaven.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed to go into Macedonia.’—[Acts 20,] 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 398-99. Verse 1 was published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 365.
Publishing: Public Domain