The land where Jesus should be known

Verse 1
The land where Jesus should be known,
Cultur’d by moral art in vain,
With thorns and brambles over-grown,
Defies the virtuous toil of man,
And who the Christian faith confess
Are all one ghastly wilderness.

Verse 2
Sin, only sin can there appear,
’Till our great Advocate above
Send down the purchas’d Comforter,
The promis’d Spirit of faith and love,
A gracious principle impart,
And change the unbelieving heart.

Verse 3
Then, then our barren souls shall bloom,
The ghastly uncouth wilderness
A flowery, fertile field become,
A field which God delights to bless,
And all his Spirit’s fruits shall shew
Our paradise regain’d below.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars …. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field.”—[Isa.] xxxii. 13, 15. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 401.
Publishing: Public Domain