Scripture Verse

He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. Psalm 72:8

Introduction

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1749.

Music: Dia­de­ma­ta George J. El­vey, Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern 1868 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
George J. Elvey (1816–1893)
National Portrait Gallery

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Lyrics

Jesus the con­quer­or reigns,
In glo­ri­ous strength ar­rayed,
His king­dom ov­er all main­tains,
And bids the earth be glad:
Ye sons of men, re­joice
In Je­sus’ migh­ty love,
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice
To Him who rules above.

Extol His king­ly pow­er,
Kiss the ex­alt­ed Son,
Who died, and lives, to die no more,
High on His Fa­ther’s throne;
Our ad­vo­cate with God,
He un­der­takes our cause,
And spreads through all the earth abroad
The vic­to­ry of His cross.

That bloody ban­ner see,
And in your cap­tain’s sight,
Fight the good fight of faith with me,
My fel­low sol­diers, fight!
In mighty pha­lanx joined,
To bat­tle all pro­ceed;
Armed with the un­con­quer­able mind
Which was in Christ your head.

Urge on your ra­pid course,
Ye blood be­sprin­kled bands;
The hea­ven­ly king­dom suf­fers force,
’Tis seized by vi­olent hands;
See there the star­ry crown
That glit­ters through the skies!
Satan, the world, and sin, tread down,
And take the glo­ri­ous prize.

Through much dis­tress and pain,
Through ma­ny a con­flict here,
Through blood, ye must the en­trance gain;
Yet, O dis­dain to fear!
Courage! your cap­tain cries,
Who all your toil for­eknew;
Toil ye shall have; yet all des­pise,
I have o’er­come for you.

The world can­not with­stand
Its an­cient con­quer­or,
The world must sink be­neath that hand
Which arms us for the war;
This is the vic­to­ry!
Before our faith they fall;
Jesus hath died for you and me;
Believe, and con­quer all!

Satan shall be re­pelled;
The world’s im­pe­ri­ous god
Shall fly before our sac­red shield,
Our trust in Je­sus’ blood:
Jesus hath cleft his crown,
Of old from glo­ry driv­en,
And cast the bold as­pir­er down,
As light­ning out of Hea­ven.

Him, and his pow­ers be­low
He bound, and cap­tive led,
Our ris­ing Lord in open show
His hell­ish spoils di­splayed;
O’er all the in­fer­nal host
He more than con­quer­or was,
And dragged them at his wheels, the boast,
And tri­umph of His cross.

’Twas there our peace He bought;
Though nailed to yon­der tree,
His hands have our sal­va­tion wrought,
And got the vic­to­ry;
He felt the mor­tal dart,
The hor­ror breath­ing king
Shot all our sin in­to His heart,
And death hath lost his sting.

Death is all swal­lowed down,
Our sins are washed away,
The guilt, the guilt of sin is gone,
The pow­er can ne­ver stay.
Our worst, our in­bred foe
By Je­sus is sub­dued,
Our moun­tain sins melt down, and flow
And sink in­to His blood.

We now shall more than win
The fight through Je­sus’ name,
Conquerors o’er hell, and earth, and sin
In the vic­to­ri­ous Lamb;
The Lamb a li­on is,
And all His foes shall slay,
And fly up­on the spoil, and seize,
And take His law­ful prey.

The spi­rit of His pow­er
Into our souls shall come,
And all our foes de­stroy, de­vour,
And all our sins con­sume:
The jea­lous Lord of hosts
Shall full do­min­ion have,
Shall all, who in His me­rits trust,
Even to the ut­most save.

Then let us all pro­ceed,
In Je­sus’ con­quest share,
Boldly march up with Christ our head,
That thun­der­bolt of war;
Jesus hath all broke through,
Hell, earth, and sin, and death,
And we shall more than con­quer, too,
Who Je­sus’ Spi­rit breathe.

Through faith in our dear Lord
We sure­ly shall obtain
The pro­mise of a full re­ward,
And here with Je­sus reign;
We with­out sin shall live,
Before we hence re­move,
Our hea­ven­ly call­ing’s prize re­ceive,
The crown of per­fect love.

Our souls like God raised up
Shall live no more to die,
Our flesh dis­solved shall rest in hope
Of im­mor­ta­li­ty:
Jesus shall soon ap­pear,
With roy­al glo­ry crowned,
Our dust the trump of God shall hear,
And kin­dle at the sound.

Quickened by pow­er di­vine,
We all shall see, and know
The Son of Man’s tri­um­phant sign,
The cross we bore be­low;
Caught up we all shall rise,
Our mas­ter’s glo­ry share,
And take our seats above the skies,
And reign for ev­er there.