That blessing to secure
That joy beyond the skies,
May I the vigilant toil endure,
And never close mine eyes,
Incessant ask the power
My soul on Thee to cast,
And watch and live thro’ every hour
As each would prove the last.
That blessing to secure
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And if he shall come in the second watch &c.'—[Luke 12,] v. 38.” 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 140.
Publishing: Public Domain