Crown him with many crowns

Crown him with many crowns. Matthew Bridges* (1800-94). From Bridges’s Hymns of the Heart, second (enlarged) edition, 1851, and used as a congregational hymn in The People’s Hymnal (1867). It had six stanzas. A five-stanza text was printed in the Appendix (1868) to the first edition of A&M, together with the splendid tune DIADEMATA (‘Crowns’) written for it by (Sir) George Job Elvey*. In that version, Bridges’s verse 5a (the first four lines) was linked to his 6b: Crown Him the Lord of years, The Potentate of time, Creator of the rolling spheres, Ineffably sublime. All hail, REDEEMER, hail! For thou hast died for me; Thy praise shall never, never fail...