Come, O thou Traveller unknown

Come, O thou Traveller unknown. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788). First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742) in fourteen 6-line stanzas under the title ‘Wrestling Jacob’, based on Jacob’s encounter with the angel in Genesis 32: 24-32. It is also indebted to Matthew Henry’s Commentary of 1708, which Charles Wesley used throughout his life. John Wesley* included the hymn in the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the use of the People called Methodists, omitting stanzas 5 and 7 of the original: ’Tis all in vain to hold Thy Tongue, Or touch the Hollow of my Thigh: Though every Sinew be unstrung, Out of my Arms thou shalt not fly; Wrestling I will not let Thee go Till I Thy Name, Thy Nature...

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