Whole nights we to ambition give,
To avarice, or diversions vain,
Yet grudge an hour for sin to grieve,
And prayer account a needless pain:
An hour for God we cannot spare,
(Who bids the sleeping soul arise)
Or for our own salvation care,
Or watch t’ insure our paradise.
Whole nights we to ambition give
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He came, and found them asleep again.’—[Matt. 26,] v. 43.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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 406.
Publishing: Public Domain