Whom first to Thee thy Father gave
On them thy present power to save
Jesus, Thou didst in mercy show;
His name, his nature, and his mind
Benevolent to all mankind
Thou bad’st thy twelve Apostles know:
His own and Abraham’s progeny
The men whom He bestow’d on Thee
Redeeming from the world and sin,
With thine adopting Spirit blest,
Their gracious Father they confest,
And kept thy word which spoke them clean.
Whom first to Thee Thy Father gave
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.’—[John 17,] v. 6." 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 50.
Publishing: Public Domain