Come, O Thou all victorious Lord. C. Wesley. [Lent.] Written during a visit to Portland, June, 1746 (see the author's Journal and Methodist Magazine, May, 1869), where the occupation of the quarrymen suggested the line of thought and the appeal:—
”Strike with the hammer of Thy word
And break these hearts of stone."
It was first published in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1749, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "Written before preaching at Portland." In 1780 it was included, with two minor alterations, in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, No. 82, and has been retained in all subsequent editions. From that collection it has passed into many others, in Great Britain and America. Original text, Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. v. p. 124. In Kennedy, 1863, No. 354, it appears in a slightly altered form as, “All gracious, all victorious Lord," but its use as thus altered is not extensive. A cento composed of stanzas iii., v. and iv. slightly altered was also given in the American Unitarian Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston, 1853, as, "Give us ourselves and Thee to know."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >
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