Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Short Hymns on Se­lect Pas­sag­es of Scrip­ture 1762.

Music: Weld Me­tho­dist Hymn and Tune Book (To­ron­to, Ca­na­da: Me­tho­dist Book and Pub­lish­ing House, 1894), num­ber 794 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know the com­pos­er, or when the music was writ­ten,

Joseph Ben­son re­calls that John Fletch­er used to ga­ther the stu­dents at Tre­vec­ca in his room to pray for the full­ness of the Ho­ly Spi­rit.

This was not done once or twice, but ma­ny times. And I have some­times seen him on these oc­ca­sions, once in par­ti­cu­lar, so filled with the love of God, that he could con­tain no more; but cried out, O My God, with­hold Thy hand, or the ves­sel will burst.

But he af­ter­ward told me that he was afraid he had grieved the Spi­rit of God; and that he ought ra­ther to have prayed that the Lord would have en­larged the ves­sel, or have suf­fered it to break, that the soul might have no fur­ther bar or in­ter­rup­tion to its en­joy­ment of the Su­preme Good.

Wesley adds, “This is cer­tain­ly a just re­mark. The pro­per pray­er on such an oc­ca­sion would have been—

Give me the enlarged desire,
And open, Lord, my soul.”

Telford, p. 318