Not like an hireling vain
Who boasts his own success,
But humble to the church and plain
He speaks of Jesus grace,
Of things his Lord had done,
A just narration gives,
While not himself, but Christ alone,
The praise of all receives.
Not like an hireling vain
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.’—[Acts 21,] v. 19." 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 387.
Publishing: Public Domain