Scripture Verse

God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9–11

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1749. This is a cen­to from Je­su, Ac­cept the Grate­ful Song.

Music: Grä­fen­berg Jo­hann Crü­ger, Prax­is Pi­eta­tis Me­li­ca, 1647 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

This hymn has long been a great fa­vour­ite with the Me­tho­dist peo­ple ge­ne­ral­ly, and sev­er­al well au­then­ti­cat­ed in­stanc­es are known of its hav­ing been used by god­ly per­sons to ex­orc­ise the devil.

The facts which sug­gest­ed the com­po­si­tion are re­cord­ed by Charles Wes­ley in his Jour­nal un­der date of 6th Au­gust, 1744. Hav­ing been preach­ing in the small church at Lan­east, in Corn­wall, and con­demn­ing the drunk­en re­vels of the peo­ple, whilst urg­ing them to re­pent and be con­vert­ed, one in the con­gre­ga­tion con­tra­dict­ed and blas­phemed.

Charles Wes­ley asked, Who is he that pleads for the de­vil? The re­vil­er stood bold­ly for­ward, the preach­er fear­less­ly ex­posed his ini­qui­ty, and showed the whole con­gre­ga­tion their state by na­ture. Mr. Wes­ley’s wi­ther­ing ex­po­sure drove the man in dis­grace out of the church. These cir­cum­stanc­es are be­lieved to have sug­gest­ed the writ­ing of the hymn.

Stevenson, p. 45

Lyrics

illustration
Fall of the Rebel Angels
Luca Giordano (1634–1705)

Jesus! the name high ov­er all,
In hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men be­fore it fall,
And de­vils fear and fly.

Jesus! the name to sin­ners dear,
The name to sin­ners giv’n;
It scat­ters all their guil­ty fear,
It turns their hell to Heav’n.

Jesus! the pri­son­er’s fet­ters breaks,
And bruis­es Sa­tan’s head;
Power in­to strength­less souls it speaks,
And life in­to the dead.

O that man­kind might taste and see
The rich­es of His grace!
The arms of love that com­pass me
Would all the world em­brace.

O that my Je­su’s hea­v’n­ly charms
Might ev­ery bosom move!
Fly, sin­ners, fly in­to those arms
Of ev­er­last­ing love.

Thee I shall con­stant­ly pro­claim,
Though earth and hell op­pose;
Bold to con­fess Thy glo­ri­ous name
Before a world of foes.

His on­ly right­eous­ness I show,
His sav­ing grace pro­claim;
’Tis all my bu­si­ness here be­low
To cry Be­hold the Lamb!

Happy, if with my lat­est breath
I may but gasp His name,
Preach Him to all and cry in death,
Behold, be­hold the Lamb!