The man whom covetous desire

Verse 1
The workman’s worthy of his food;
But if with eagerness pursued
He loves his wages here,
Labouring for filthy lucre’s sake,
He justly to himself must take
The hireling’s character.

Verse 2
The man whom covetous desire
Impels to minister for hire,
We mercenary call:
But O, what title shall we give
A wretch who dares the hire receive,
And never works at all?

Verse 3
If want, or pestilence be near,
If danger and the wolf appear,
Or persecution rise,
Aghast the lowring storm he sees,
And proving that they are not his,
Deserts the sheep, and flies.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘But he that is an hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth.’—[John 10,] v. 12." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 244-45. Verse 2 was published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 459.
Publishing: Public Domain