The rest we in the desart seek
We must for helpless souls forego,
Go forth to tend the poor and weak,
And melt distrest at human woe:
Our Master serv’d th’ afflicted croud,
And bids us his example trace,
In labouring for the people’s good,
In ministring the gospel-grace.
The rest we in the desert seek
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.’—Matt. 14, v. 14.” 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 280.
Publishing: Public Domain