The soldiers struck their God unknown,
But Christians bold in wickedness
Insult him whom in creeds they own,
And outrage, while their lips confess;
They buffet all that Christ adore,
They smite his members with their tongue,
As Jesus still the bandage wore,
And only guess’d who did the wrong.
The soldiers struck their God unknown
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When they had blindfolded, they struck him on the face, saying, Prophesy, who it is that smote thee?'—Luke 22, v. 64.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 198.
Publishing: Public Domain