Learning itself cannot withstand

Verse 1
Learning itself cannot withstand
If God lay to his mighty hand,
The judge submits, if mercy calls,
And at his Saviour’s footstool falls:
The word cannot return in vain,
Some souls the saving faith shall gain,
To Jesus and his members cleave,
And pure from sin in Athens live.

Verse 2
Father, regard thy Spirits groans,
Who pleads in us for learning’s sons!
Open our nation’s boasted eyes,
And make them With thy wisdom wise;
Some converts to our Athens give,
Who may to thy Apostle cleave,
Fools for his sake, their Lord confess,
And stand with Jesus’ witnesses!

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite &c.’—[Acts 17,] v. 34." This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 346.
Publishing: Public Domain