The first superlative reward

Verse 1
The first superlative reward,
Saviour, it is not thine to give,
To all, but only those prepar’d
Such weight of glory to receive;
Who drink thy passion’s deepest cup,
Abide temptation’s fiercest fire,
And soonest take thy burthen up,
And latest on thy cross expire.

Verse 2
Elected by thy Father’s grace
For these He hath reserv’d above
A mightier bliss, an higher place,
And larger draughts of heavenly love:
And perfected thro’ sufferings here,
They here superior grace obtain,
Who least in their own eyes appear,
And in thy patient kingdom reign.

Verse 3
They live the outcasts of mankind,
Entreated like their Lord below,
With Him in sharpest sufferings join’d,
The closest fellowship they know;
In daily death his life they live,
Till call’d to lay their bodies down,
The conquerors from his hands receive
A fairer palm, a brighter crown.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, unless to those for whom is is [is] prepared of my Father.’—[Matt. 20,] v. 23.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 33.
Publishing: Public Domain