Praise to the Trinity

Representative Text

1. A thousand oracles divine
Their common beams unite,
That sinners may with angels join
To worship God aright.

2. To praise a Trinity adored
By all the hosts above,
And one thrice holy God and Lord
Through endless ages love.

3. Triumphant host! they never cease
To laud and magnify
The triune God of holiness,
Whose glory fills the sky.

4. Whose glory to this earth extends,
When God Himself imparts,
And the whole Trinity descends
Into our faithful hearts.

5. By faith the upper choir we meet,
And challenge them to sing
Jehovah on His shining seat,
Our maker, God and king.

6. But God made flesh is wholly ours,
And asks our nobler strain;
The Father of celestial powers,
The friend of earth born man!

7. Ye seraphs nearest to the throne,
With rapturous amaze
On us, poor ransomed worms look down
For Heaven’s superior praise.

8. The king whose glorious face ye see,
For us His crown resigned;
That fullness of the Deity,
He died for all mankind!

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #6670

Author: Charles Wesley

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 >

Text Information

First Line: A thousand oracles divine
Title: Praise to the Trinity
Author: Charles Wesley
Meter: 8.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

A thousand oracles divine. C. Wesley. [Holy Trinity .] In his Hymns on the Trinity, 1767, this hymn is given as No. xvii. in the division of "Hymns and Prayers to the Trinity” in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, p. 100. It was repeated in the Wesleyan Hymn Book 1780, and later editions with the simple alteration of "His hosts" to “the hosts" in stanza i. line 6. From that collection it has passed into all the principal hymnals of the Methodist bodies in most English-speaking countries, but is seldom found elsewhere. Few hymns are more dogmatic on the doctrine of the Trinity. The lines, "The Friend of earth-born man," and "For heaven's superior praise," are borrowed from Young's Night Thoughts . Night iv. 11. 603. 440. Original text as above, and Poetical Works of J. & C. Wesley, 1868-1872, vol. vii. pp. 312-13.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

AZMON

Lowell Mason (PHH 96) adapted AZMON from a melody composed by Carl G. Gläser in 1828. Mason published a duple-meter version in his Modern Psalmist (1839) but changed it to triple meter in his later publications. Mason used (often obscure) biblical names for his tune titles; Azmon, a city south of C…

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WOODLAND (Gould)


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The Cyber Hymnal #6670

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