Obedient to our Lord’s command

Verse 1
Obedient to our Lord’s command,
Join every heart and every hand
Of those who Jesus know
T’ advance the kingdom of his grace,
To publish our Redeemer’s praise,
And spread his love below.

Verse 2
O were we in thy Spirit join’d!
One heart, one judgment, and one mind
To all the labourers give,
Unite us closer, Lord, to Thee,
That all may in thy name66 agree,
And to thy glory live:

Verse 3
That all may think, and speak the same,
Jointly our common Lord proclaim,
Our mission fully prove,
Determined Thee alone to know,
And to thy church the pattern show
Of pure primeval love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘These things I command you, that ye love one another.’—[John 15,] v. 17." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 28.
Publishing: Public Domain