While hanging on the shameful Cross

Verse 1
While hanging on the shameful Cross
His scatter’d Flock the Saviour sees,
Their Wants his dying Thoughts engross,
He marks and pities their Distress:

Verse 2
In all their Griefs and Sorrows shares,
Nor ev’n in Death forgets His own,
But kindly for his Orphans cares,
Woman, He saith, behold thy Son.

Verse 3
To Us the New Command He gives,
O may we all obedient prove,
And take the Legacy He leaves,
His richest Legacy of Love.

Verse 4
Us Each to Other He commends,
And bids us in one Spirit join,
Unites, and makes us more than Friends,
Or Kinsmen, in a Bond Divine.

Verse 5
Then let us Each to Other give
The Honour to a Parent due,
And All with tenderest Love receive,
A Love which Nature never knew.

Verse 6
Give, Jesu, give th’ Uniting Grace,
The Bond of Charity Divine,
And let us all Mankind embrace,
And love them with a Love like Thine.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Woman behold thy Son—Behold thy Mother.’—[John 19:26–27].” This hymn appears in the pre-1781 manuscript “MS Shent.” 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 1977/554, 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 95.
Publishing: Public Domain