O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.
Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.
On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.
Sudden expired the legal strife,
‘Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.
Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.
I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!
See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.
Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the soul white.
Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.
With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.
About the writer: Charles Wesley has been called “the poet of Methodism.” Born in Epworth, England in 1707 he was educated at Westminster School and Oxford University, where he took his degree in 1728. It was while a student at Christ Church College that Wesley and a few associates, by strict attention to duty and exemplary conduct, won for themselves the derisive epithet of “Methodists.” He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1735, and that same year he sailed with his brother John as a missionary to Georgia. They soon returned to England. He was not converted, according to his own convictions, until Whitsunday, May 21, 1738. On that day he received a conscious knowledge of sins forgiven, and this event was the real beginning of his mission as the singer of Methodism. His hymns can generally be classified as hymns of Christian experience (“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”); invitation hymns (“Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast”); sanctification hymns (“O for a Heart to Praise My God”); funeral hymns (“Rejoice for a Brother Deceased”); and hymns on the love of God (“Wrestling Jacob”). He was not a singer alone, but as an itinerant preacher, he was a busy and earnest co-laborer with his brother. After his marriage, in 1749, his itinerant labors were largely restricted to London and Bristol. He died in 1788. Incredibly he wrote more than 6,500 hymns.
Key Verse: Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. –Revelation 5:11