From servile fear and flattery free

Verse 1
From servile fear and flattery free
Who ministers the gospel-word,
With wisdom, life, and energy
He only seeks to please his Lord,
And labours Sinners to convert,
And gains, by preaching to, the heart.

Verse 2
He doth not learnedly declaim,
His gifts or eloquence to show,
But preaches peace in Jesus Name:
And all the man of God may know,
Distinguish’d by an heavenly sign,
Cloth’d with authority divine.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.’—[Mark 1,] v. 22.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, 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 449.
Publishing: Public Domain