Strangers to thy love are they
Who call it bondage to obey:
Be it our delight to prove,
Obedience is the truth of love:
Love which no compulsion knows,
But freely from the fountain flows,
Returns spontaneous to the skies,
Pure as the streams of paradise.
Strangers to Thy love are they
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”—[John] xiv. 15. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). 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 11.
Publishing: Public Domain