Lov’d for a time, they might have been
Forever lov’d by thee:
Nothing can separate but sin
Betwixt my God and me:
From sin, from wilful sin alone,
Saviour, my soul defend,
And thou who freely lov’st thine own,
Shalt love me to the end.
Loved for a time, they might have been
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “I will love them no more.”—[Hosea] ix. 15. 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 78.
Publishing: Public Domain