Jesu, dear departed Lord

Verse 1
Jesus, dear departed Lord,
True and gracious is thy word;
We in part have found it true;
All thy faithful mercies shew.

Verse 2
Thou art to thy Father gone,
Thou hast left us here alone,
Left us a long fast to keep,
Left us for thy loss to weep.

Verse 3
Laugh the world, secure and glad,
They rejoice, but we are sad,
We alas, lament and grieve,
Comfortless, till Thou relieve.

Verse 4
As a woman in her throes
Sinks o’rewhelm’d with fears and woes,
Sinks our soul thro’ grief and pain,
Strugling to be born again:

Verse 5
As she soon forgets to mourn,
Glad that a man-child is born,
Let us, lighten’d of our load,51
Find deliverance in our God.

Verse 6
Jesus, visit us again,
Look us out of grief and pain,
Kindly comfort us that mourn,
Into joy our sorrow turn.

Verse 7
Thy own joy to us impart,
Root it deeply in our heart,
Joy which none can take away,
Joy which shall forever stay.

Verse 8
All the kingdom from above,
All the happiness of love,
Be it to thy mourners given,
Pardon, holiness, and heaven.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "John xvi. 20, 21, 22." Introduced in a hymnal jointly credited to John and Charles Wesley; it is more likely than not that Charles wrote it but not certain. Introduced in Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving For the Promise of the Father, published by John and Charles Wesley (Bristol: Felix Farley, 1746). Wesley later altered this hymn in his 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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. 4 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 193.
Publishing: Public Domain