Dost Thou not, Lord, with pity see, multitudes that know not Thee

Verse 1
Dost Thou not, Lord, with pity see
Multitudes that know not Thee,
Or where for help to fly?
They cannot find the good they want,
Poor, wandring souls with hunger faint,
And at the point to die.

Verse 2
Compassion for a dying race
First inclin’d the God of grace
To undertake our cause:
And still those yearning bowels move,
Which drew Thee from thy throne above,
Which brought Thee to thy cross.

Verse 3
The sheep Thou hast redeem’d of old,
Now to sin and Satan sold
Into thine arms receive,
(For Thou the tender Shepherd art)
And pastors after thy own heart
To Israel’s outcasts give.

Verse 4
Shepherds, and chosen labourers raise,
Freely to impart thy grace,
And feed the flock of God,
Patient in all thy steps to move,
And more than their own lives to love
The purchase of thy blood.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.’—[Matt. 9,] v. 36.” 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 229.
Publishing: Public Domain