We gather up with pious care
What happy saints have left behind,
Their writings in our memory bear,
Their sayings on our faithful mind;
Their works which trac’d them to the skies
For patterns to ourselves we take,
And dearly love, and highly prize
The mantle for the wearer’s sake.
We gather up with pious care
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “He took up the mantle of Elijah.”—[II. Kings] ii. 13. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 187.
Publishing: Public Domain