Still our adversary’s nigh

Verse 1
Still our adversary’s nigh
In every place and hour,
Eager still to tempt, and try,
And sift us, and devour:
But before he can o’rethrow,
Or once endeavour to deceive,
The malicious fiend, we know,
Must ask our Saviour’s leave.

Verse 2
Left by Thee in danger’s day
We no support should find,
By the tempter borne away,
As chaff before the wind:
But if Thou attend our call,
And give the wheat’s solidity,
Not one sacred grain shall fall,
Not one be lost from Thee.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.’—[Luke 22,] v. 31.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 194.
Publishing: Public Domain