Scripture Verse

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Revelation 5:12

Introduction

Words: Wal­ter Shir­ley, in A Se­lect Col­lect­ion of Hymns by the Count­ess of Hunt­ing­don, cir­ca 1773, page 312.

Music: Sho­el, in A Com­pi­la­tion of Genu­ine Church Mu­sic, by Jo­seph Funk (Win­ches­ter, Vir­gin­ia: J. W. Holl­is, 1832) (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Walter Shirley (1725–1786)
National Portrait Gallery

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Lyrics

Worthy the Lamb of bound­less sway,
In earth or Heav’n the Lord of all;
Ye princ­es, rul­ers, pow­ers, ob­ey,
And low be­fore His foot­stool fall.

The deed was done; the Lamb was slain;
The groan­ing earth the bur­den bore:
He rose, He lives; He lives to reign,
Nor time shall shake His end­less pow­er.

Riches and all that deck the great,
From worlds un­num­bered hi­ther bring;
The trib­ute pour be­fore His seat,
And hail the tri­umphs of our king.

Wisdom and strength are His alone,
He raised the top-stone, shout­ing Grace;
Honor has built His lof­ty throne,
And glo­ry shines up­on His face.

From Heav’n, from earth, loud bursts of praise
The mighty bless­ings shall pro­claim;
Blessings that earth to glo­ry raise;
The pur­chase of the wound­ed Lamb.

Higher, still high­er, swell the strain;
Creation’s voice the note pro­long;
The Lamb shall ev­er, ev­er reign:
Let hal­le­lu­jahs crown the song.

The hymn was pre­ced­ed by this pa­ra­graph, which seems to be in­tro­duc­to­ry, as it does not fit the me­ter of the sub­se­quent stan­zas:

From Heav’n the loud, th’an­gel­ic song be­gan;
It shook the skies, and reached as­ton­ished man;
By man re-ech­oed, it shall mount again,
While frag­rant od­ors fill the bliss­ful plain.