The father hates his gracious child

Verse 1
The father hates his gracious child,
Himself unsav’d, unreconcil’d
Thro’ thy atoning blood:
The graceless son his father scorns,
If first the pious parent turns,
And meets a pardning God.

Verse 2
Thy handmaid, in the softer kind
Can no remorse or pity find,
If Thou hast set her free;
The mother never can forgive
Her daughter who presumes to live
Devoted all to Thee.

Verse 3
The daughter gay both hates and fears
Her mother who to Thee adheres,
With Thee in Spirit one;
And none their dearest friends can bear
Who God to friends and life prefer,
Who seek thy love alone.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter &c.’—[Matt. 10,] v. 35.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 241.
Publishing: Public Domain