Foolish men, your hope is vain

Verse 1
Foolish men, your hope is vain:
Can ye thus your purpose gain,
Warn’d, the warning who despise,
Rashly slight a saint’s advice,
Trust a smiling wind before
God’s inspir’d Ambassador!

Verse 2
Tyrants of the sea and land,
Winds arise at his command,
Brought out of his treasuries
The devoted vessel seize;
Serving their almighty Lord
Winds and storms fulfil his word.

Verse 3
He whom winds and seas obey,
Doth his sovereignty display,
Jesus, Master of the storm
Doth his own designs perform,
Jesus in the heathen’s eyes
His own servant magnifies.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When the south-wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, loosing then [thence] they sailed close by Crete &c.’—[Acts 27,] v. 13, 14." 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 435.
Publishing: Public Domain