Scripture Verse

Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Revelation 1:5–6

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Short Hymns (Bris­tol, Eng­land: E. Far­ley, 1762), Vol­ume 2, num­ber 824.

Music: Ormes­by George Mer­ritt, in The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1889), num­ber 46 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Caledonia (Gar­butt) Clark­son Gar­butt, in A Col­lect­ion of Hymns for the Peo­ple Called Me­tho­dists, tune edi­tion (Lon­don: Wes­ley­an Con­fer­ence Of­fice, 1877), num­ber 733 (🔊 pdf nwc)

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

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Who can wor­thi­ly com­mend
Thy love un­search­able?
Love which made Thee con­des­cend
Our curse and death to feel!
Thou, the one eter­nal God,
Who didst Thy­self our ran­som pay,
Hast with Thy own pre­cious blood,
Washed all our sins away.

By the Spir­it of our Head
Anointed priests and kings,
Conquerors of the world we tread
On all ter­res­tri­al things,
Sit in hea­venl­y plac­es down,
While yet we in the flesh re­main,
Now, par­tak­ers of Thy throne,
Before Thy Fa­ther reign.

In Thy mem­bers here be­neath
The In­ter­cess­or prays;
Here we in Thy Spir­it breathe
The quin­tes­sence of praise;
Offer up our all to God,
And God be­holds, with gra­cious eyes,
First the pur­chase of Thy blood,
And then our sac­ri­fice.

Jesus, let Thy king­dom come,
Inspired by Thee, we pray;
Previous to the ge­ner­al doom,
The ev­er­last­ing day!
Take pos­sess­ion of Thine own;
And let us then our Sav­ior see
Glorious on Thy heav’n­ly throne,
Thro’ all eter­ni­ty.