The sacrifice of Christian love

Verse 1
The sacrifice of Christian love
For Apostolic hands is meet,
Alms which acceptance find above
Remembred at the mercy-seat,
The priests should to their brethren bear,
And make the poor their choicest care.

Verse 2
The sacred charge they undertook
They to their successors commend,
That each after the poor may look,
Their guide, their father, and their friend,
That each into his heart may take
And serve and feed for Jesus’ sake.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Which also they did, and sent it to the elders, by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.’—[Acts 11,] v. 30.” This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 347.
Publishing: Public Domain