John 21:22: Secret things belong to God

Secret things belong to God,
What He will with others do,
Be it in His season show'd j
Only Christ I now pursue,
Nothing seek or know beside
Christ for sinners crucified.

What is all the world to me,
Follower of the Lamb Divine!
Closely copying after Thee,
Lord, if I am wholly Thine,
Bless'd with love's simplicity,
What is all the world to me!
Then went this saying abroad among the, &c. — xxi.2;.

Shall we on tradition vain
In confidence rely,
Dream with apostolic men
That John could never die?
Error from the truth may spring,
From Jesu's own misconstrued word,
Saints in proof of falsehood bring
The saying of their Lord.

But by Jesus' word alone
The error we gainsay,
Truth divinely genuine own,
And legends cast away;
Thus we understand Thy mind,
(Wayfaring men who need not err.')
Scripture, with Thy Spirit, find
Its own interpreter.