Happy the man who ever bears
Thy cross upon his heart imprest,
A burthen nature shuns, nor dares
Th’ experience of thy death request:
Yet, Lord, I ask thee to explain
The myst’ry of thy cross to me:
And lo, I share thy mortal pain,
Obedient unto death with Thee.
Happy the man who ever bears
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘They understood not this saying, ... and feared to ask him.'—[Luke 9,] v. 45.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 113.
Publishing: Public Domain