I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2
Words: Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems (Bristol, England: Felix Farley, 1742), pages 159–60.
Music: Evan William H. Havergal, 1847. Arranged by Lowell Mason in New Carmina Sacra (Boston, Massachusetts: Wilkins, Carter, 1850) (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
John B. Gough, the great temperance lecturer, gives an interesting account in his Autobiography of the singing of this hymn when as a boy he left home in June, 1839.
While the ship on which he was to sail was becalmed and tarried at Sandgate, his father and other loved ones came on board. When the visitors were about to leave for the shore, they formed their boats in a semicircle around the ship, and all stood up and with blended voices sang their affectionate farewell in the words of this hymn.
As the music floated over the calm waters in the weird twilight of the dying day, it left an impression never to be forgotten by any of those who witnessed the beautiful leave taking.
Nutter, p. 124
Blest be the dear uniting love,
That will not let us part:
Our bodies may far off remove,
We still are joined in heart.
Joined in one spirit to our Head,
Where He appoints we go,
And still in Jesus’ footsteps tread,
And do His work; below.
O let us ever walk in Him,
And nothing know beside;
Nothing desire, nothing esteem,
But Jesus crucified.
Closer, and closer let us cleave
To His beloved embrace;
Expect His fullness to receive,
And grace to answer grace.
While thus we walk with Christ in light
Who shall our souls disjoin,
Souls, which Himself vouchsafes t’unite
In fellowship divine!
We all are one who Him receive,
And each with each agree,
In Him the One, the Truth, we live,
Blest point of unity!
Partakers of the Savior’s grace,
The same in mind and heart,
Nor joy, nor grief, nor time, nor place,
Nor life, nor death can part.
But let us hasten to the day
Which shall our flesh restore,
When death shall all be done away,
And bodies part no more!