Ye simple souls that stray is a seven stanza exhortation hymn first published anonymously in 1747 within John and Charles Wesley's collection Hymns for those that Seek and those that Have Redemption. In 1780, it was included as number twenty one in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, where stanza three was omitted and substantial textual revisions were introduced. The exact authorship of the hymn has long been a subject of scholarly debate among hymnologists. Henry Moore attributed the text to John Wesley, whereas Dr. John Whitehead assigned it to Charles Wesley. Because the 1747 volume was a joint publication containing unsigned pieces, determining definitive individual authorship remains difficult. A compelling consensus suggests that Charles Wesley wrote the original seven stanza poem, while the extensive revisions appearing in the 1780 Wesleyan collection were undertaken by his brother John. The original 1747 text is preserved in volume four of the Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley.
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