All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!

Background:

The son of an Anglican vicar who actively supported the evangelicalism of the Wesleys, Edward Perronet worked for a time with the Methodists. His disagreements with the Wesleys over the relationship of Methodism with the Anglican Church resulted in Perronet's severing his ties to the Methodism. Misgivings about church-state relationships estranged him from the larger Church. He withdrew from the Anglican Communion and accepted the pastorate of a small Congregational church in Canterbury where he remained until his death in 1792. Throughout his life, Perronet wrote hymns, publishing them anonymously in small collections. "All Hail the Power" is the third hymn in a rare volume, Occasional Verses, Moral and Sacred. Published for the instruction and amusement of the Candidly Serious and Religious (1785). The heading over the hymn reads "On the Resurrection."

Perronet wrote "All Hail the Power" in 1779. He published (anonymously) the first stanza with a tune, MILES LANE (also anonymous), in The Gospel Magazine for November 1779. In April 1780, the same magazine reprinted the hymn with eight stanzas and another reference to MILES LANE as a suitable tune. In 1787, the Baptist John Rippon included "All Hail the Power" in his important Selections of Hymns from the Best Authors, intended to be an Appendix to Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns. He edited the text extensively, omitting Perronet's 2nd, 3rd and 6th stanzas and providing two new stanzas. Later renderings often omit one of Rippon's stanza's while retaining the other as the final stanza of Perronet's hymn:

O that with yonder sacred throng
We at his feet may fall!
We'll join the everlasting song,
And crown him Lord of all.

Verse 1:
All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Verse 2:
Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,
Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Verse 3:
Let every kindred, every tribe
On this terrestrial ball
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all.
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Verse 4:
O that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall
We'll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all.
We'll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Words: Edward Perronet and John Rippon
© Public Domain