For a departing friend I grieve,
Or pray, my stricken child may live;
But when thy mind is known,
I yield, I patiently submit,
And cry, adoring at thy feet,
Father, thy will be done!
For a departing friend I grieve
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept.”—[II. Sam.] xii. 22. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 170.
Publishing: Public Domain