When superior pastors show
Their humble zeal and love,
In th’ Apostles footsteps go,
The Church their deed approve:
When of worldly honours proud
Their state and grandeur they maintain,
Irksom both to man and God
The lordly tyrants reign.
When superior pastors show
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And the saying pleased the whole multitude.’—[Acts 6,] v. 5.” This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 198.
Publishing: Public Domain