Lovers of earthly things defer

Verse 1
Lovers of earthly things defer
Unto another day
Their one important business here,
As life would always stay,
As grace were in the sinners power,
And God compel’d to give,
Whene’er they find a vacant hour
His mercy to receive.

Verse 2
The gospel some with scorn refuse
The joyful tidings hate,
Others neglect the grace to use,
And still procrastinate:
To scoff the saving truth they dare,
Or cast it quite aside:
And these alas, the Christians are,
And these the world divide!

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.’—[Acts 17,] v. 32." 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 344.
Publishing: Public Domain