God lets His closest followers know

Verse 1
God lets his closest followers know
Th’ inconstancy of all below,
The saints whom most he loves,
The saints to whom he first appears,
By daily weaknesses and fears
He mercifully proves.

Verse 2
Tis thus he teaches them t’ aspire
On wings of faith and strong desire
To that abiding place,
Where feeble fear no more is known,
Where evil, pain, and death are gone
And joy eternal stays.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed.’—[Mark 16,] v. 8.” 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 93.
Publishing: Public Domain