Discipleship and Ministries Learning Network
Come, and let us sweetly join
Christ to praise in hymns divine;
Give we all with one accord
Glory to our common Lord,
Hands and hearts and voices raise,
Sing as in the ancient days,
Antedate the joys above,
Celebrate the feast of love.
Jesu, dear expected Guest,
Thou art bidden to the feast;
For thyself our hearts prepare,
Come, and rest, and banquet there.
Sanctify us, Lord, and bless,
Breathe thy Spirit, give thy peace;
Thou thyself within us move,
Make our feast a feast of love.
Let us join – ‘tis God commands –
Let us join our hearts and hands;
Help to gain our calling’s hope,
Build we each the other up.
God his blessings shall dispense,
God shall crown his ordinance,
Here in his appointed ways
Nourish us with social grace.
Plead we then for faith alone,
Faith which by our works is shown:
God it is who justifies;
Only faith the grace applies –
Active faith that lives within,
Conquers earth, and hell, and sin,
Sanctifies and makes us whole,
Forms the Saviour in the soul.
Let us for this faith contend;
Sure salvation is its end:
Heav’n already is begun,
Everlasting life is won.
Only let us persevere,
Till we see our Lord appear:
Never from the Rock remove,
Saved by faith, which works by love.
Hence may all our actions flow,
Love the proof that Christ we know;
Mutual love the token be,
Lord, that we belong to thee.
Love, thine image, love impart!
Stamp it on our face and heart!
Only love to us be given!
Lord, we ask no other heaven.
Charles Wesley (1707-1788).
This is the version of the ‘Love Feast’ hymn that appears in the Methodist Hymn Book (1933) and in Hymns and Psalms (1983).
In this podcast, published in HOLINESS Volume 1 (2015) Issue 2, Holiness & Mission, the setting is LEACH, composed by Nicola Morrison, copyright Stainer and Bell (2011). It is performed by Ruth Jeffries and Nicola Morrison, and the podcast has been produced for downloading under a Limited Online Music Licence.
The devotional commentary is by Janet Morley.