Fain would I my affection show

Verse 1
Fain would I my affection show,
Keep the sepulchre in view,
Nor ever hence remove:
Thro’ life my whole employment be
To muse on Jesus’ love for me,
On Jesus’ dying love.

Verse 2
The friendship of my heavenly Friend
Death itself can never end:
The love on me bestow’d
Establish’d by his death I feel,
Confirm’d by his own Spirit’s seal,
And cemented with blood.

Verse 3
Station’d by my Redeemer’s grave,
Waiting for his power to save,
Adhering to his word,
I prove my firm fidelity,
Conceal’d with Him I cannot see,
And buried with my Lord.

Verse 4
To all who watch his sepulchre,
Jesus shall again appear,
His faithful followers own;
The Head shall bid the members rise,
And draw us after to the skies,
And seat us on his throne.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘There was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.’—[Matt. 27,] v. 61.” 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 434.
Publishing: Public Domain