Hymns
Posts in Comfortable Words tagged ‘Hymns’
Charles Wesley looks forward to the day when Jesus Christ will return to earth.
St Luke tells that when Christ was taken from the Apostles’ sight by a cloud on the Mount of Olives, forty days after his resurrection, he promised he would return in the same fashion. In this famous hymn, Charles Wesley waits in keen anticipation for that day.
A meditation on the birth of Christ, as the light of heaven come down to earth.
There are few Christmas hymns to match this one, by Charles Wesley; yet it is rarely sung today. It deserves better. The central theme is the Sun of Righteousness from the prophecy of Malachi, who would dawn upon the faithful of Israel ‘with healing in his wings’.
A short poem about the irresistible power of the Name of Jesus Christ, and its source in that mildest of images, the helpless lamb.
‘Behold the lamb of God’ was the cry of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus walking towards him as John baptised repentant sinners in the River Jordan. Few can have understood what he meant; that became a little clearer when Jesus was put to death just as the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple.
A hymn urging Christians to think of those who have died as ever-present with us, in our worship, our prayers and our hearts.
The Church of England in the eighteenth century did not encourage its members to think of the dead; they had passed on to an unknown fate, were now sleeping and could be no more to us than an example to follow. In this hymn, Charles Wesley rather daringly invites us to think of the departed Christians as very much alive, and as joined with us in our prayers and songs.
A summary in rhyming verse of Psalm 146, one of two psalms sung at every communion service in the East.
Psalm 146[145] is sung as the second of two psalms to open every communion service in the Russian church. The psalmist calls on us to put our trust in God, acknowledging that it is he who turns our hearts to care for the poor and needy, and to praise him until our latest breath.
A song of praise celebrating God’s redemption of man through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This was the very first hymn in the Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1779), edited by John Wesley. It had been written by his brother Charles, and expressed everything that was to follow: a book (as John put it) “for every truly pious reader, as a means of raising or quickening the spirit of devotion; of confirming his faith; of enlivening his hope; and of kindling and increasing his love to God and man.”