Charles Wesley(1707–1788)
[Come on, My Partners in Distress]
i
[Come on, My Partners in Distress]
My comrades through the wilderness,3
W h o still your bodies feel;
Awhile forget your griefs and fears,
And look beyond this vale of tears
To that celestial hill.4
Beyond the bounds of time and space
Look forward to that heavenly place,
T h e saints' secure abode;
On faith's strong eagle pinions rise,
And force your passage to the skies,
And scale the m o u n t of God.
W h o suffer with our Master5 here,
We shall before his face appear,
And by his side sit down;
To patient faith the prize is sure,
And all that to the end endure
T h e cross, shall wear the crown.6
Thrice blessed bliss-inspiring hope!
It lifts the fainting spirits up,
It brings to life the dead;
Our conflicts here shall soon be past,
And you and I ascend at last
Triumphant with our head.7
That great mysterious Deity
We soon with open face shall see;
T h e beatific sight8
Shall fill heaven's sounding courts with praise,
And wide diffuse the golden blaze
Of everlasting light.
T h e Father shining on his throne,
T h e glorious, co-eternal Son,
T h e Spirit, one and seven,9
Conspire our rapture to complete,
And lo! we fall before his feet,
And silence heightens heaven.
In hope of that ecstatic pause,
Jesu, we n o w sustain the cross,
And at thy footstool fall,
Till thou our hidden life reveal,
Till thou our ravished spirits fill,
And God is all in all.