Long have I seem’d to serve Thee, Lord

Verse 1
Long have I seem’d to serve thee, Lord,
With unavailing pain;
Fasted, and pray’d, and read thy word,
And heard it preach’d, in vain.

Verse 2
Oft did I with th’ assembly join,
And near thine altar drew;
A form of godliness was mine,
The pow’r I never knew.

Verse 3
To please thee thus (at last I see)
In vain I hoped, and strove:
For what are outward things to thee,
Unless they spring from love?

Verse 4
I see the perfect law requires
Truth in the inward parts,
Our full consent, our whole desires,
Our undivided hearts.

Verse 5
But I of means have made my boast,
Of means an idol made,
The spirit in the letter lost,
The substance in the shade.

Verse 6
I rested in the outward law,
Nor knew its deep design;
The length and breadth I never saw,
And heighth of love divine.

Verse 7
Where am I now, or what my hope?
What can my weakness do?
JESU! To thee my soul looks up,
’Tis thou must make it new.

Verse 8
Thine is the work, and thine alone—
But shall I idly stand?
Shall I the written rule disown,
And slight my God’s command?

Verse 9
Wildly shall I from thine turn back,
A better path to find;
Thy holy ordinance forsake,
And cast thy words behind?

Verse 10
Forbid it, gracious Lord, that I
Should ever learn thee so!
No—let me with thy word comply,
If I thy love would know.

Verse 11
Suffice for me, that thou, my Lord,
Hast bid me fast, and pray:
Thy will be done, thy name ador’d;
’Tis only mine t’ obey.

Verse 12
Thou bid’st me search the sacred leaves,
And taste the hallow’d bread:
The kind commands my soul receives,
And longs on thee to feed.

Verse 13
Still for thy loving kindness, Lord,
I in thy temple wait,
I look to find thee in thy word,
Or at thy table meet.

Verse 14
Here, in thine own appointed ways,
I wait to learn thy will:
Silent I stand before thy face,
And hear thee say, “Be still!”

Verse 15
“Be still—and know that I am GOD!”
’Tis all I live to know,
To feel the virtue of thy blood,
And spread its praise below.

Verse 16
I wait my vigour to renew,
Thine image to retrieve,
The veil of outward things pass thro’,
And gasp in thee to live.

Verse 17
I work; and own the labour vain:
And thus from works I cease:
I strive and see my fruitless pain,
Till God create my peace.

Verse 18
Fruitless, till thou thyself impart,
Must all my efforts prove:
They cannot change a sinful heart,
They cannot purchase love.

Verse 19
I do the thing thy laws enjoin,
And then the strife give o’er:
To thee I then the whole resign:
I trust in means no more.

Verse 20
I trust in him who stands between
The Father’s wrath and me:
JESU! Thou great eternal mean,
I look for all from thee.

Verse 21
Thy mercy pleads, thy truth requires,
Thy promise calls thee down:
Not for the sake of my desires—
But Oh! Regard thine own!

Verse 22
I seek no motive out of thee:
Thine own desires fulfil:
If now thy bowels yearn on me,
On me perform thy will.

Verse 23
Doom, if thou canst, to endless pains,
And drive me from thy face:[1]
But if thy stronger love constrains,
Let me be sav’d by grace.

[1] In his personal copy of a later edition, John Wesley marked for these words to be removed. Thomas Church objected to them in 1744, prompting a response from Wesley in two publications.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), published by John and Charles Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1740). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 1 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868), page 233.
Publishing: Public Domain