Thou Judge of quick and dead
Thou Judge of quick and dead. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn is from Volume II of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book that Charles Wesley published with his brother’s approval, but in his own name. It was the first hymn in a section entitled ‘Hymns for the Watch-Night’. A Watch Night service normally takes place on 31 December, and is a service looking back at the year just past and forward to the year to come, in a spirit of re-commitment. It has a special place in African American worship, dating from Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which came into force on 1 January 1863.
The text in 1749 was as follows:
Thou Judge of Quick and Dead, Before whose Bar...
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Cite this article
MLA style (see MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd Ed.)
. "Thou Judge of quick and dead."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Web. 14 Feb. 2025.<
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/thou-judge-of-quick-and-dead>.
Chicago style (see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed.)
. "Thou Judge of quick and dead."
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, accessed February 14, 2025,
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/thou-judge-of-quick-and-dead.