A Wedding Hymn

Top Media Text Author Text Info Notes Tune Timeline Arrangements Page Scans Instances

Since Jesus freely did appear

Author: John Berridge
Published in 158 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	The Lord Is My Shepherd - Six Hymn Setti…

Representative Text

1 Since Jesus freely did appear
To grace a marriage feast,
O Lord, we ask Thy presence here,
To be a wedding Guest.

2 Upon the bridal pair look down,
Who now have plighted hands;
Their union with Thy favor crown,
And bless the nuptial bands.

3 In purest love these souls unite,
That they with Christian care,
May make domestic burdens light
By taking mutual share.

4 And when that solemn hour shall come,
And life's short space be o'er,
May they in triumph reach that home,
Where they shall part no more.

Source: The Christian Hymnary. Bks. 1-4 #481

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: John Berridge

Berridge, John, born at Kingston, Notis, March 1, 1716, and educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge. In 1749 he was ordained as curate to the parish of Stapleford, near Cambridge, and in 1755 he was preferred to the Vicarage of Everton, where he died Jan. 22, 1793. His epitaph, written by himself for his own tombstone (with date of death filled in), is an epitome of his life. It reads:— " Here lies the remains of John Berridge, late Vicar of Everton, and an itinerate servant of Jesus Christ, who loved his Master and His work; and after running on His errands for many years, was caught up to wait on Him above. Reader! art thou born again? (No salvation without a new birth.) I was born in sin, February, 1716; remained ignorant of my fallen sta… Go to person page >

^ top

First Line:	Since Jesus freely did appear
Title:	A Wedding Hymn
Author:	John Berridge
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

^ top

Notes

Since Jesus freely did appear. J. Berridge. [ Holy Matrimony.] Appeared in the Gospel Magazine for Aug. 1775, p. 380, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, headed with the text St. John ii. 1, 2, followed by the words "A Wedding Hymn," and signed "Old Everton." It was afterwards included in his Zion's Songs, 1785, as "Our Jesus freely did appear." It is given in modern hymnbooks generally in an altered form, with varying number of stanzas.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top

Tune

WEDDING GUEST

EVAN (Havergal)

This tune [EVAN], "the popularity of which in Scotland, America, and the Colonies is quite unprecedented" (Tonic Sol Fa Reporter, May 15, 1870), consists of the 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 8th strains of "O Thou dread Power" a sacred song by the Rev. W.H. Havergal, the melody being unaltered. EVAN II is the…

Go to tune page >

SABBATA

All tunes published with 'A Wedding Hymn'^ top