God, be mercifully near

Verse 1
GOD, be mercifully near,
Object of my fatherly fear;
Me into thy Favour take,
Me preserve for Jesu’s sake.

Verse 2
With thy kind Protection blest,
Calm I lay me down to rest;
All I have to Thee resign,
Lodge them in the Arms Divine:

Verse 3
Her, my dearest earthly Friend,
To thy guardian Love commend;
Day and night her Keeper be,
Knit her simple Heart to Thee.

Verse 4
Make the Little ones thy care!
Bear them, in Thy bosom, bear,
Mark’d with the good Shepherd’s sign,
Keep my Lambs for ever thine.

[incomplete]

Hymnal/Album: This hymn appears in a letter that Charles Wesley wrote to Sarah Wesley on April 5, 1760. This letter is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number DDCW 7/2). 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. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 409.
Publishing: Public Domain