Fain would I, Lord, the word receive

Verse 1
Fain would I, Lord, the word receive
Which thou didst to thy followers give,
Would suffer in thy righteous cause,
Daily take up thy welcome cross,
Thy sorrow and reproach sustain,
And crucified with thee remain.

Verse 2
Then shall the word on me take place,
The promise of preserving grace,
If still I in the body stay,
To see thy great vindictive day,
When earth is by thy fire devour’d,
And all thy wrath on sinners pour’d.

Verse 3
Whoe’er the patient word retain,
And to that dreadful day remain,
Thy faithful love shall them conceal,
While all the world thy judgments feel,
And thy last plagues to sinners cry
“Repent, or now—forever die!”

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”—[Rev.] iii. 10. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 13 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1872), page 227.
Publishing: Public Domain