Composed by Charles Wesley, this missionary text first appeared in 1739 across the first three editions of Hymns & Sacred Poems. In 1749, Wesley included it in a new series of Hymns & Sacred Poems as the second part of a ten-stanza paraphrase of Isaiah 51. A six-stanza selection was introduced into the Wesleyan Hymn Book in 1780 (No. 375), remaining in subsequent revisions and spreading widely across British and American hymnals. Wesley published another hymn with the same opening line in his Hymns written in the time of the Tumults (1780), written during the Gordon Riots in London, though that version did not enter Common Use.
Related Hymns
Hymns in the library connected to this dictionary topic.
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Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
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O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
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Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
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Jesus, Lover of My Soul
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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
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A Charge to Keep I Have
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Christ the Lord is risen today
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And Can It Be That I Should Gain?
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