Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown

529 Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown

1. Come, O thou traveler unknown,
   Whom still I hold, but cannot see!
   My company before is gone,
   And I am left alone with thee;
   With thee all night to stay
   And wrestle till the break of day.

2. I need not tell thee who I am,
   My misery or sin declare;
   Thyself hast called me by my name;
   Look on thy hands and read it there!
   But who, I ask thee, who art thou?
   Tell me thy name, and tell me now.

3. Yield to me now—for I am weak,
   But confident in self-despair!
   Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
   Be conquer’d by my instant prayer;
   Speak, or thou never hence shalt move,
   And tell me, if thy name is love.

4. ’Tis love! ’tis love! thou diedst for me!
   I hear thy whisper in my heart.
   The morning breaks, the shadows flee:
   Pure, universal love thou art;
   To me, to all thy passions move;
   Thy nature and thy name is love.
                         Charles Wesley
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Not a terribly popular hymn, occurring in around 290 hymnals. It also has a lot more verses:

3. In vain thou strugglest to get free;
   I never will unloose my hold.
   Art thou the Man that died for me?
   The secret of thy love unfold;
   Wrestling, I will not let thee go,
   Till I thy name, thy nature know.

4. Wilt thou not yet to me reveal
   Thy new, unutterable name?
   Tell me, I still beseech thee, tell,
   To know it now, resolved I am;
   Wrestling, I will not let thee go,
   Till I thy name, thy nature know.

5. ’Tis all in vain to hold thy tongue,
   Or touch the hollow of my thigh:
   Though every sinew were unstrung,
   Out of my arms thou shalt not fly;
   Wrestling, I will not let thee go,
   Till I thy name, thy nature know.

6. What though my shrinking flesh complain,
   And murmur to contend so long,
   I rise superior to my pain;
   When I am weak, then I am strong;
   And when my all of strength shall fail,
   I shall with the God-man prevail.

7. My strength is gone, my nature dies,
   I sink beneath thy weighty hand,
   Faint to revive, and fall to rise;
   I fall, and yet by faith I stand;
   I stand, and will not let thee go,
   Till I thy name, thy nature know.

10. My pray’r hath power with God; the grace
   Unspeakable I now receive,
   Through faith I see thee face to face;
   I see thee face to face and live!
   In vain I have not wept and strove;
   Thy nature and thy name is love.

11. I know thee, Savior, who thou art:
   Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend;
   Nor wilt thou with the night depart,
   But stay and love me to the end;
   Thy mercies never shall remove,
   Thy nature and thy name is love.

12. The Sun of Righteousness on me
   Hath rose, with healing in his wings;
   Withered my nature’s strength; from thee
   My soul its life and comfort brings;
   My help is all laid up above;
   Thy nature and thy name is love.

13. Contented now, upon my thigh
   I halt, till life’s short journey end;
   All helplesness, all weakness I,
   On thee alone for strength depend,
   Nor have I power from thee to move;
   Thy nature and thy name is love.

14. Lame as I am, I take the prey,
   Hell, Earth, and sin with ease o’ercome;
   I leap for joy, pursue my way,
   And as a bounding hart fly home,
   Through all eternity to prove
   Thy nature and thy name is love.

</idle musing>