This night thou shalt deny me thrice

Verse 1
“This night thou shalt deny me thrice,”
Is the meek Master’s warning word:
I never will, the servant cries,
And boldly contradicts his Lord,
Tho’ all beside turn back and flee,
I vow to stay, and die with Thee.

Verse 2
The Saviour sad replies no more,
Nor eagerly his word defends,
But leaves it to the trying hour;
And who on his own strength depends,
Peter the confident, the proud
Abjures his Master and his God.

Verse 3
Instructed by his fall, I stand
In just self-diffidence secure:
And while my soul is in thy hand,
Jesus, I can the test endure,
Arm’d with that lowly mind of thine,
That modesty of truth divine.

Verse 4
Warm, vehement, positive, and loud
With violent, bold assertions vain,
If others boast their zeal for God,
Their future constancy maintain,
O may I see them with thy eyes,
And neither credit, nor despise.

Verse 5
Much of myself I dare not say,
Or glory in my faith unprov’d,
Or promise, in the evil day
That I alone shall stand unmov’d,
Weakest, and sinfullest of all
I fear t’ affirm “I cannot fall.[”]

Verse 6
Yet if I truly trust in Thee,
Me to myself Thou wilt not leave,
But help my soul’s infirmity,
Dependant on thy grace to live,
To live (till Thou from earth remove)
The spotless life of humble love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee.’—[Mark 14,] v. 31.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” 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 1977/574, 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 75.
Publishing: Public Domain