Scripture Verse

Well done, good and faithful servant. Matthew 25:23

Introduction

portrait
Garret C. Wellesley
Earl of Mornington
(1735–1781)

Words: John Wes­ley, 1770. Wes­ley wrote this hymn on the oc­ca­sion of the death of cler­gy­man George White­field. It was pub­lished at the end of Wes­ley’s fun­er­al ser­mon, preached No­vem­ber 18, 1770.

Music: Morn­ing­ton ar­ranged from Gar­ret C. Well­es­ley, cir­ca 1760, in Da­vid’s Harp, by Ed­ward Mill­er, 1805 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
John Wesley (1703–1791)

Lyrics

Servant of God, well done!
Thy glo­ri­ous war­fare’s past;
The bat­tle’s fought, the race is won,
And thou art crowned at last.

Of all thy heart’s de­sire
Triumphantly pos­sessed;
Lodged by the mi­nis­te­ri­al choir
In thy Re­deem­er’s breast.

In con­des­cend­ing love,
Thy cease­less pray­er He heard;
And bade thee sud­den­ly re­move
To thy com­plete reward.

Ready to bring the peace,
Thy beau­te­ous feet were shod,
When mer­cy signed thy soul’s re­lease,
And caught thee up to God.

With saints en­throned on high,
Thou dost thy Lord pro­claim,
And still to God sal­va­tion cry,
Salvation to the Lamb!

O hap­py, hap­py soul!
In ec­sta­sies of praise,
Long as eter­nal ag­es roll,
Thou seest Thy Sav­ior’s face.

Redeemed from earth and pain,
Ah! when shall we as­cend,
And all in Je­sus’ pre­sence reign
With our trans­lat­ed friend?

Come, Lord, and quick­ly come!
And, when in Thee com­plete,
Receive Thy long­ing ser­vants home,
To tri­umph at Thy feet.