Give we to the Lord above

Verse 1
Give we to the Lord above
Blessing, honour, praise, and love,
To the God that loos’d our tongue
Sing we an unwonted song.

Verse 2
He to us hath come unsought,
Us hath out of darkness brought,
Darkness such as devils feel,
Issuing from the pit of hell.

Verse 3
Had he not in mercy spar’d,
Hell had been our sure reward;
There we had receiv’d our hire,
Fewel[1] of eternal fire.

Verse 4
But we now extol his name,
Pluck’d as firebrands from the flame,
Proofs of his unbounded grace,
Monuments of endless praise.

Verse 5
We are now in Jesus found,
With his praise let earth resound,
Tell it out thro’ all her caves,
Jesu’s name the sinner saves.

Verse 6
With his blood he us hath bought,
His we are, who once were not;
Far, as hell from heaven, remov’d,
He hath call’d us his belov’d.

Verse 7
Sing we then with one accord
Praises to our loving Lord,
Who the stone to flesh converts,
Let us give him all our hearts.

Verse 8
Harder were they than the rock,
Till they felt his mercy’s stroke,
Gushing streams did then arise
From the fountains of our eyes.

Verse 9
Never let them cease to flow,
Since we now our Jesus know,
Let us, till we meet above,
Sing, and pray, and weep, and love.

[1] Spelling updated to “Fuel” in 1756.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "To Be Sung while at Work." Introduced in a hymnal jointly credited to John and Charles Wesley; it is more likely than not that Charles wrote it but not certain. Introduced in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), published by John and Charles Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1740). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 1 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868), page 288.
Publishing: Public Domain