Christians make the same reply

Verse 1
Christians make the same reply,
Or a worse answer give:
Some audaciously deny
That Him ye can receive;
“Ask; but God will not bestow
“The Holy Ghost with you to dwell:
“Only fools and madmen know,
“Or now the Spirit feel.[”]

Verse 2
Most are ignorant, that God
Doth still his Spirit impart,
Sheds him with his love abroad
In every faithful heart;
By the blood of Jesus bought,
The Principle of righteous deeds,
Every holy word and thought
From Him alone proceeds.

Verse 3
Few alas, the need confess
Of his converting power,
Know, that God we cannot please,
Or without Him adore,
Cannot seek the things divine,
Till He the hindrances remove,
Secretly our hearts incline
To pray, repent, and love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost?’—[Acts 19,] v. 2." 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 356.
Publishing: Public Domain