Struggling for mastery within
Nature and grace I feel;
But grace arrests my bosom-sin,
And grasps his brother’s heel: (Gen. 25:22-26, Hosea 12:3)
The younger still his sway maintains,
And treads the elder down,
Till grace the heavenly birth-right gains (Gen. 25:29-34, Gen. 27:36)
With an immortal crown. (I Cor. 9:25)
Struggling for mastery within
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “He took his brother by the heel in the womb.”—[Hosea] xii. 3. 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 79.
Publishing: Public Domain