Help me, Lord, to feed and keep

Help me, Lord, to feed and keep
First the lambs, and then the sheep,
Lambs to make my tenderest care,
Lambs within my arms to bear:
Both my happy charge I make,
Both I cherish for thy sake,
Thus in life, and death to prove,
Lov’d of thee, that thee I love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Feed my lambs: feed my sheep.”—[John] xxi. 15, 16. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 126.
Publishing: Public Domain