By miracle the crowd He fed

Verse 1
By miracle the croud He fed,
But lets his own disciples need;
Present they their great Master see,
Yet feel the deepest poverty:
And shall a plaintive sinner faint,
As left in indigence and want,
When Christ doth no relief afford,
As quite forsaken of his Lord?

Verse 2
What if we pine for want of bread,
When first we in his footsteps tread,
Better to share our Lord’s distress,
Than plenty with the world possess:
Thankful the honour I receive,
Saviour, thy needy life to live,
Sweet fellowship with Thee to prove,
And have no riches but thy love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘His disciples were an hungred.’—[Matt. 12,] v. 1.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 256.
Publishing: Public Domain