Ye threaten us in vain,
And fiercely gnash your teeth,
The bridle doth your wrath restrain,
And respite us from death:
Ye may declare your will,
By casting many a stone;
The witnesses ye cannot kill,
Till all our work is done:
Till then we persevere:
And lo, the gospel grows
Thro’ men who neither scorn nor fear
Their irritated foes:
But when our toils are past,
We shall our lives lay down,
If Jesus count us meet at last
To win the martyr’s crown.
Ye threaten us in vain
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.’—[Acts 7,] v. 54.” 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 S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), pages 315-16.
Publishing: Public Domain