To simple souls alone

Verse 1
To simple souls alone
The Saviour is made known;
Shepherds who their station keep
See the glory from on high;
Those that negligently sleep
Still in sin and darkness lie.

Verse 2
The poor rejoice to hear
The heavenly messenger:
From the rich and wise conceal’d,
Jesus doth his light impart,
Shews the mystery reveal’d,
Shines in every humble heart.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘There were shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.’—[Luke 2,] v. 8, 9.” 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 The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 116.
Publishing: Public Domain