Where’er the pure baptismal rite

Verse 1
Whene’er the pure baptismal rite
Is duely ministred below,
The heavens are open’d in our sight,
And God his Spirit doth bestow,
The grace infus’d, invisible,
Which would with man forever dwell.

Verse 2
But ah, we lost the grace bestow’d,
Nor let the Spirit on us remain,
Made void the ordinance of God,
By sin shut up the heavens again,
Who would not keep our garments white,
Or walk as children of the light.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit descending upon him.’—[Mark 1,] v. 10.” 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 446.
Publishing: Public Domain