Earth, rejoice, our Lord is King

Earth, rejoice, our Lord is King. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788). From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part II, where it was entitled ‘To be sung in a Tumult’. It had fourteen 4-line stanzas. To read the whole him is to be subjected to a dramatic and violent clash between good and evil, depending to some extent on Paradise Lost (see below).  It was not included in the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists, but a shorter version, stanzas 1-2 and 9-12, was added in the supplement of 1831, with alterations to the original stanza 12: 1740 (stanza 12)1831 (stanza 6) Our Messias is come down, Points us to the Victor’s Crown, Bids us take our Seats above, More than...