Scripture Verse

We have left all, and have followed Thee. Mark 10:28

Introduction

portrait
John B. Dykes (1823–1876)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns for Times of Trou­ble and Per­se­cu­tion, se­cond edi­tion, en­larged (Lon­don: Stra­han, 1744), pag­es 41–42, alt.

Music: Ol­iv­et (Dykes) John B. Dykes, 1870 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Lord, we have all forsook
Thy dying love to know,
To bear Thy light and easy yoke,
And in Thy footsteps go;
Our pleasure, goods, and fame:
We yield what we have stored,
In pain, and poverty, and shame,
Partakers with our Lord.

Armed with Thy strength alone,
We still our all resign;
The lives which once we called our own,
Are not our own, but Thine:
Ready we always stand
In Thine al­migh­ty power,
To yield them up at Thy command,
And meet the fiery hour.

Where is the promise then,
The bliss Thou hast prepared
For us before the sons of men,
Where is our great reward?
The hundredfold increase
Of goods, and lands, and friends,
The sweet unutterable peace,
The joy that ne­ver ends!

Surely we are possessed
Of Thee our recompense,
Ecstasy fills our panting breast,
And pains our aching sense:
What hath the world like this!
The joy which now we know—
’Tis more than joy, or life, or bliss,
’Tis Hea­ven begun below.

Yet O! we look for more
And mightier joys above,
The fullness of Thy heavenly store,
Of Thine eter­nal love:
Glory shall end the strife,
And in these bodies shine;
Jesu, our ev­er­last­ing life,
Our flesh shall be like Thine.

Changed by His mighty love,
We shall be as our Lord,
And sit upon our thrones above,
And bless His just award:
While trembling at the bar,
Devils and tyrants stand,
We shall with Him their doom de­clare,
And shout at His right hand.

Then every saint of His
Shall lean upon His breast;
The wicked there from troubling cease,
And there the weary rest:
Our sufferings all are o’er,
Our tears are wiped away,
We only love, rejoice, adore,
Through one eter­nal day.

The rivers of delight
That there our souls embrace,
The glo­ri­ous beatific sight
That veils the angel’s face,
The joys ineffable
That from Thy presence flow,
The fullness here we cannot tell,
But, Lord, we die to know.