Thus might I from man retreat,
Shut to him my sorrowing heart,
Open it my Lord to meet,
Watch, and mourn, and pray apart!
Thus prevent the trying hour:
Then I share thine agony,
Arm’d with all thy Spirit’s power
Then I come, to die with Thee.
Thus might I from man retreat
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray.’—[Mark 14,] v. 32.” 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 76.
Publishing: Public Domain