The Cyber Hymnal ‎#3606

3606. Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

1. Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav’n to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

2. Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

3. Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

4. Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Text Information

• First Line: Love divine, all loves excelling
• Title: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
• Author: Charles Wesley (1747)
• Language: English
• Source: Hymns for Those that Seek and Those That Have Re­demp­tion in the Blood of Je­sus Christ, 1747
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: This hymn was sung at the wed­ding of Bri­tain’s Prince Will­iam & Cath­er­ine Mid­dle­ton in West­min­ster Ab­bey, Lon­don, Ap­ril 29, 2011. In 1961, dur­ing the Man­ches­ter, Eng­land, cru­sade…just as the meet­ings were about to start, Bil­ly Gra­ham be­came quite ser­i­ous­ly ill…Bil­ly had been sched­uled to speak to the min­is­ters of Lon­don just be­fore the cru­sade opened. You can imag­ine my feel­ings when he sent word that I should rep­re­sent him and speak at that meet­ing. The Bri­tish pas­tors are them­selves tho­rough schol­ars and oft­en brill­iant preach­ers. And they were ex­pect­ing to hear Bil­ly Gra­ham, not me! At the be­gin­ning of that meet­ing in West­min­ster’s Cen­tral Hall, the min­is­ters joined in sing­ing this great hymn of Charles Wes­ley. Most of these Bri­tish cler­gy­men were al­so well ac­quaint­ed with hymn texts and hymn tunes, and they sang glor­i­ous­ly. Ac­com­pa­nied by the grand pi­a­no and the great pipe or­gan and us­ing the Welsh tune “Blaen­wern,” these fa­mil­iar words lift­ed our hearts in praise and pray­er to God. I felt God’s strength ev­i­dent through the sing­ing; He blessed our meet­ing to­ge­ther de­spite my fears and their dis­ap­point­ment. Barrows, p. 21. Alternate tunes: AIREDALE, Charles V. Stanford; BLAENWERN, William P. Rowlands, 1905; HYFRYDOL, Rowland H. Prichard, 1830; LOVE DIVINE (STAINER), John Stainer, 1889; MORIAH, Welsh hymn tune

Tune Information

• Name: BEECHER
• Composer: John Zun­del (1870)
• Key: B♭ Major
• Source: Chris­tian Heart Songs, 1870
• Copyright: Public Domain