Forward? But whither shall we go?
The desart is on either side,
Behind us the Egyptian foe,
Before the interposing tide!
Yet while we thy command obey,
Our road impassable pursue,
The ocean yields an open way,
And lets thy ransom’d people thro’.
Forward? but whither shall we go?
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.”—[Exod.] xiv. 15. 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 45.
Publishing: Public Domain