God of all power, and truth, and grace

God of all power, and truth, and grace. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788). First printed at the end of John Wesley’s sermon ‘On Christian Perfection’, published in pamphlet form in 1741, with the title ‘The Promise of Sanctification’ (Sermons, ed. Outler, II. 99). It was then included in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), entitled ‘Pleading the Promise of Sanctification’. It had twenty-eight 4-line stanzas, based on Ezekiel 36: 23-28. The full text can be found in Outler’s edition; but after its first publication, the hymn was invariably printed in an abbreviated form. In John Wesley’s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), fifteen stanzas were used to make two...