Introduction
This was the very first hymn in the Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1779), edited by John Wesley. It had been written by his brother Charles, and expressed everything that was to follow: a book (as John put it) “for every truly pious reader, as a means of raising or quickening the spirit of devotion; of confirming his faith; of enlivening his hope; and of kindling and increasing his love to God and man.”
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 honours 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 cancell’d sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean.
His blood avail’d for me.
He speaks,— and listening to his voice,
New life the dead receive;
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice;
The humble poor believe.
Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,
Your loosen’d tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.*
Look unto him, ye nations; own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.*
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 Æthiop white.*
With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel, your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.
* See Isaiah 35:5-6.
* In his journal just days before his ‘conversion’ in 1738, Charles wrote: “From this time I endeavoured to ground as many of our friends as came in this fundamental truth, salvation by faith alone, not an idle, dead faith, but a faith which works by love, and is necessarily productive of all good works and all holiness.” Thus he echoed St John Damascene (?676-749): “For faith without works is dead; so, likewise, are works without faith, because true faith is proved by works”. See also James 2:20-26.
* Some of Wesley’s contemporaries held that Christ died for the elect only, not for all mankind; but see 1 Timothy 2:6.
* A reference to the baptism of a high-ranking Ethiopian official, described by St Luke in Acts 8:27-39.