The pile magnificent may please

Verse 1
The pile magnificent may please
The curious eye of mortals vain,
But nothing great a Christian sees
In all the boasted works of men,
To nobler sights his soul aspires,
And Christ, and only Christ admires.

Verse 2
Objects which fleshly minds amuse
With careless eye he passes o’re,
Or palaces and temples views
As sinking—to be seen no more,
So soon the shadows disappear,
So soon th’ eternal world is here!

Verse 3
When time, and all its works are past,
When earth and heaven are thrown aside,
The things invisible shall last,
The saints shall on their Base abide
(All who the will Divine have done)
As stedfast as Jehovah’s throne.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘As for those things which ye behold, the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another.’—[Luke 21,] v. 6.” 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 275.
Publishing: Public Domain