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SHEPHERD OF SOULS, THY SHEEP BEHOLD

Scripture Verse

Her leaders are like wolves tearing and devouring the prey, shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain. Ezekiel 22:27

Introduction

portrait
Robert Lowry (1826–1899)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns for Times of Trou­ble and Per­se­cu­tion, se­cond edi­tion, en­larged (Lon­don: Stra­han, 1744), pag­es 36–37, alt.

Music: Si­cil­ia Ro­bert Low­ry, 1860 (🔊 ).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Shepherd of souls, Thy sheep be­hold
In this dark, cloudy day,
The wolf is come into Thy fold,
To scat­ter, tear, and slay.
His bloody hand th’op­press­or shakes
Against the faith­ful seed,
And ha­voc of Thy Church he makes—
He makes us as our Head.

Thy marks we in our b­odies bear,
But arm us with Thy pow­er,
The rage of fiends and men we dare,
And meet the ev­il hour.
They on­ly can our bo­dies kill,
Our souls can ne­ver die;
Our souls ex­ist in Je­sus still,
And reign above the sky.

Wherefore the ut­most suf­fer­ings here
Of those who Je­sus love,
We count not wor­thy to com­pare
With our re­ward above.
Light are the pains we now en­dure,
And quick­ly over-past,
But of the plea­sures they se­cure,
Eternally shall last.

On all th’af­flict­ion we look down,
The joy so far ex­ceeds,
So bright, so weigh­ty is the crown
It sets upon your heads.
O what a glo­ri­ous life shall be
In us, e’en us re­vealed,
While face to face our Lord we see,
With all His full­ness filled.

Who would not then, for such a hope,
The path of sor­row tread,
And take his mas­ter’s bur­den up,
And suf­fer with his Head?
Who would not cheer­ful­ly sus­tain
A cross so light as this,
And bear a mo­men­ta­ry pain
For an eter­nal bliss?