Ye sages of the world, be wise

Verse 1
Ye sages of the world, be wise,
Take the judicious scribe’s advice,
And let these men alone:
Their work, if plann’d by human thought,
Shall soon decay, and come to nought,
And prove itself their own.

Verse 2
But if this counsel is Divine,
In vain the powers of earth combine
To hinder or o’rethrow:
Your utmost skill and strength employ,
Man never can the work destroy
Which God revives below.

Verse 3
Wisely ye may consult, contrive,
Earth’s potsherds with your Maker strive,
Your God withstand, defy;
But O, tis quite impossible
Against th’ Almighty to prevail,
Or conquer the Most-high!

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if &c.’—[Acts 5,] v. 38, 39.” This hymn appears in the 1764 manuscript “MS Acts.” 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 1977/555, 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 194.
Publishing: Public Domain