Scripture Verse

Christ Jesus…is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Romans 8:34

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1742.

Music: Le­nox Lew­is Ed­son, in The Chor­is­ter’s Com­pan­ion, by Si­me­on Jo­ce­lyn and Am­os Doo­lit­tle (New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut: 1782) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Ed­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Anecdote

I have a re­cord, said a Wes­ley­an mis­sion­ary la­bor­ing in the West In­dies, of two hun­dred per­sons, young and old, who re­ceived the most di­rect evi­dence of the for­giv­eness of their sins while sing­ing Arise, my soul. The con­ver­sion of the great­er num­ber of these per­sons took place while I was a mis­sion­ary abroad.

Sankey, p. 115

Lyrics

illustration
Ecce Homo
Ludovico Cardi, il Cigoli (1559–1613)

Arise, my soul, arise;
Shake off thy guil­ty fears;
The bleed­ing sac­ri­fice
In my be­half ap­pears:
Before the throne my sure­ty stands,
Before the throne my sure­ty stands,
My name is writ­ten on His hands.

He ev­er lives above,
For me to in­ter­cede;
His all re­deem­ing love,
His pre­cious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprin­kles now the throne of grace.

Five bleed­ing wounds He bears;
Received on Cal­va­ry;
They pour ef­fect­ual pray­ers;
They strong­ly plead for me:
Forgive him, O for­give, they cry,
Forgive him, O for­give, they cry,
Nor let that ran­somed sin­ner die!

The Fa­ther hears Him pray,
His dear an­oint­ed One;
He can­not turn away,
The pre­sence of His Son;
His Spir­it ans­wers to the blood,
His Spir­it an­swers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is re­con­ciled;
His par­don­ing voice I hear;
He owns me for His child;
I can no long­er fear:
With con­fi­dence I now draw nigh,
With con­fi­dence I now draw nigh,
And Fa­ther, Ab­ba, Fa­ther, cry.