Christ of Himself, and Christ alone

Verse 1
Christ of himself, and Christ alone,
Can without peril speak:
We speak to magnify our own,
Ourselves not God we seek;
We plainly show our heart’s desire
Our curious vanity,
Who listning after fame, inquire
What say the world of me?

Verse 2
But rather what of Christ they say
Let us desire to know,
And talk of Jesus by the way,
And Jesus’ Godhead show:
Th’ Anointed of the Lord Thou art;
The unction of thy grace
To me, to all thy church impart,
To all our ransom’d race.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘By the way he asked his disciples, Whom do men say that I am?’—[Mark 8,] v. 27.” 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 17.
Publishing: Public Domain