My God, who from my earliest age

Verse 1
My God, who from my earliest age
To lingring life’s extremest stage
Hast been my sure defence,
Wilt Thou not for my children care,
And safe conduct thro’ every snare
Their heedless innocence?

Verse 2
Their souls and bodies I commend
To Thee, whose mercies never end
Who dost thy creatures know,
And promisest, whate’er we claim
After thy will, in Jesus Name,
Thou freely wilt bestow.

Verse 3
Great things I do not, Lord, require,
To feed their covetous desire,
Their sloth, or vanity,
To fill their hearts with proud conceit,
And make the worms themselves forget
Poor Pensioners on Thee.

Verse 4
Nor poverty, nor riches give,
But let them in thy presence live
With heavenly wisdom blest,
With food and raiment satisfied,
Rejoice in nature’s wants supplied,
And give up all the rest.

Verse 5
Nature with little is content,
And grace with less, when Thou hast sent
The manna from above;
O that as such they humbly may
Receive their portion day by day,
And banquet on thy love!

Verse 6
Thy love, which did their souls redeem,
Be here their happiness supreme,
Till call’d thy face to see
They leave this slighted earth behind,
And lost in endless raptures find
Their highest heaven in Thee.

Hymnal/Album: This hymn appears in the manuscript “MS Preparation for Death.” 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 1977/578, 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. 7 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 419.
Publishing: Public Domain