Verse 1
Come, O my soul, the call obey,
Take up the burthen of thy Lord!
His practice is thy living way,
Thy guide his pure unerring word,
The lovely perfect pattern read,
And haste in all his steps to tread.

Verse 2
What did my Lord from sinners bear?
His patience is the rule for me:
Walking in him I cannot err:
And lo! The Man of Griefs I see,
Whose life one scene of sufferings was,
Quite from the manger to the cross.

Verse 3
Here then my calling I discern,
(’Tis written in affliction’s book)
My first, and latest lesson learn,
For nothing here but sufferings look,
I bow me to the will divine,
To suffer with my Lord be mine.

Verse 4
To suffer as my Lord I come:
How did the Lamb his wrongs endure?
Clam’rous, and warm? Or meek, and dumb?
Did he by force his life secure?
His injur’d innocence defend;
Or bear his burthen to the end?

Verse 5
Did he evade the pain, and shame,
Impatient of unjust disgrace?
Did he throw off the imputed blame?
Did he from spitting hide his face?
Did he to man for succour fly;
Or offer up himself, and die?

Verse 6
When nature sunk beneath her load,
Would he the dreadful cup decline?
Prostrate, and bruis’d, and sweating blood,
“Father, thy will be done, not mine,”
He speaks, and meets his enemies,
And gives them power himself to seize.

Verse 7
The word, which struck them to the ground,
Could it not strike them into hell?
Whom all the hosts of heaven surround,
He will not force by force repel,
Put up, he cries, thy needless sword,
Nor stain the meekness of thy Lord.

Verse 8
He chides his rash disciple’s zeal,
Accepts nor man’s nor angel’s aid:
Vouchsafes his wounded foe to heal:
The hands, that had his murtherers made,
He stretches out; he lets them bind
The hands that could unmake mankind.

Verse 9
Doth he in deed or word gain-say,
Or ask or struggle to be freed?
They lead the speechless Lamb away:
To scorn, and pain, and death they lead
The speechless Lamb; resign’d unto
The utmost earth and hell could do.

Verse 10
O that I might like him withstand,
Like him mine innocency clear,
Like him resist the ruffian-band,
Like him refuse the cross to bear,
Like him the persecutor fly;
Like him submit to live, and die?