Who first receiv’d th’ ingrafted word,
Thy followers by the world abhor’d,
By patience and obedience shew’d
The faith which thro’ thy sayings came,
And gloried in their Master’s shame
Undaunted confessors of God:
Thy marks were in their bodies seen:
The filth and offscouring of men
Thy badge and daily cross they bore:
And still whoe’er belong to Thee
Detested by the world must be,
Till time and sin shall be no more.
Who first received the’ engrafted word
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.’—[John 17,] v. 14." This hymn appears in the 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 53.
Publishing: Public Domain