Silent we turn the other cheek,
The private injury pass by;
Yet when requir’d for God to speak,
From crimes ourselves to justify,
Submissive to the powers that be
We dare not obstinate appear,
But speak with mild sincerity,
Our office, not ourselves, to clear.
Silent we turn the other cheek
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?’—[John 18,] v. 23." 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 72.
Publishing: Public Domain