O King of saints, with pitying eye

Verse 1
O King of saints, with pitying eye,
Thy poor afflicted people see,
Who hold thy word, nor dare deny
Thy name, tho’ suffering loss for thee.

Verse 2
Expos’d to shame, and want, and pain,
Crush’d by the persecutor’s power,
Thou, Lord, their fainting souls sustain,
And keep them in their trying hour.

Verse 3
From anger, and contemptuous pride,
From low revenge, and faithless fear,
Preserve, and still their spirits hide,
Till thou in their behalf appear.

Verse 4
Their feeble hearts confirm, unite,
And fix on their reward above:
Imbolden with thy Spirit’s might,
And arm them with thy patient love.

Verse 5
Thee let the witnesses confess
Before the rebel sons of men,
Proclaim thine all-victorious grace,
And suffer till with thee they reign:

Verse 6
To thee, and to each other cleave,
While midst the ravening wolves they lie,
A pattern to believers live,
A pattern to believers die!

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in Hymns for Times of Trouble and Persecution, second edition, published by John and Charles Wesley (Bristol: Farley, 1745). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 4 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 40.
Publishing: Public Domain