Guardian of my hoary hairs

Verse 1
Guardian of my hoary hairs,
Let me still dispense thy grace,
(Meanest of thy messengers,
Ready to conclude my race,)
Still thy promis’d presence prove,
Still proclaim thy pardning love.

Verse 2
Touch my lips with hallowing fire,
Utterance let thy Spirit give,
Fill my heart with pure desire
That a dying world may live,
Witnesses of sin forgiven,
Sons of God, and heirs of heaven.

Verse 3
Open now the gospel-door,
Now the gospel-truths reveal,
Cloath thy word with secret power,
Saving, irresistible,
Power that life divine imparts,
Breaks, and heals attentive hearts.

Verse 4
Faith which sweetly works by love
Let it now by hearing come,
That begotten from above
Souls may languish after home,
Spotless in thine image rise,
Grasp thro’ death th’ immortal prize.

Verse 5
Crown of my rejoicing, Lord,
Let me there my children meet
Saved by the ingrafted word,
Singing round thy glorious seat,
Children of my faith and prayer
Let me die to meet them there.

Verse 6
Instrument of saving Them
Jesus, claim me for thine own,
That I may, in bliss supreme
Cast my crown before thy throne,
Face to face my Saviour see,
Gaze thro’ all eternity.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “The Prayer of an aged Minister, before Preaching. [I.]” This hymn appears in the ca. 1786 manuscript “MS Miscellaneous Hymns.” 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 1977/556, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 2). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in Arminian Magazine, vol. 20 (1797), page 312. 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 430.
Publishing: Public Domain