But if thou the Father show,
Manifest to me his love,
I that hidden meat shall know,
I my Master’s joy shall prove,
Gladly in thy labours share,
Feast with thee on heavenly food,
Servant of thy church, declare
“Heaven on earth is Serving God.”
But if Thou the Father show
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”—[John] iv. 32. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). 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 360. Wesley later altered this hymn in his 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.
Publishing: Public Domain