Come, ye saints, and raise an anthem. Job Hupton. [Praise to Christ.] This hymn was first published in the Gospel Magazine, Sept. 1805, in 13 stanzas of 6 lines, and entitled, "An Hymn of Praise to the Redeemer." It is signed "Ebenezer," and dated "A-y, June 1, 1805." A reprint was published by D. Sedgwick in his edition of Hupton's Hymns & Spiritual Poems, &c, 1861.
In the Christian Remembrancer, July 1863 (vol. xlvi. pp. 117-18), Dr. Neale gave, in an article on "Hymns and Hymnals," a revised version of stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 12, as an illustration of the possibility of producing a hymn of merit out of somewhat crude materials. The first stanza by Hupton, and by Neale, will illustrate the way in which the latter suggested this might be accomplished.
1. Stanza i., by Job Hupton:—
"Come, ye saints, and raise an anthem,
Cleave the skies with shouts of praise,
Sing to Him who found a ransom,
Th' Ancient of eternal days,—
In your nature,
Born to suffer in your place."
2. Stanza i., by Dr. Neale:—
“Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem,
Cleave the sky with shouts of praise
Sing to Him who found a ransom,
Ancient of eternal days:
God Eternal, Word Incarnate,
Whom the Heaven of heaven obeys."
Job Hupton's text is unknown to the hymnals, but Dr. Neale's has come into somewhat extensive use. The text of the latter is in the People's Hymnal, 1867, No. 476, with the reading of stanza iii. lines 3-4 as:—
"With the ceaseless alleluias
Which they raise, the sons of light,"
and not as in the Christian Remembrancer. The liberties taken by Dr. Neale with Hupton's text have been followed by others in dealing with his Church Hymns, being specially prominent in this respect. In fact no text can be relied upon until verified by a reference to the Christian Remembrancer, or the People's Hymnal, with the corrections noted above.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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