Rivals of saints supremely blessed

Verse 1
Rivals of saints supremely blest,
Our souls to heaven ascend,
Who Jesus’ Eucharistic feast
With praise begin and end:
With Jesus while our hearts are fed,
They must with joy o’reflow,
And find in that immortal Bread
Their heaven begun below.

Verse 2
But conscious of our constant wants,
To Christ again we cry,
Who all our needed graces grants,
And ask a fresh supply:
Oft to the garden we remove
Our Master’s grief to share,
Pour out our souls in plaintive love,
And agony of prayer.

Verse 3
An upper room will soon be found
Where we with Christ shall sit,
Partake his joy, with glory crown’d,
And all our griefs forget:
Our praises there shall never cease,
Our joys shall ne’er decay,
But higher rise, and more increase
Thro’ one eternal day.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.’—[Mark 14,] v. 26.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 73.
Publishing: Public Domain