Scripture Verse

The everlasting God. Genesis 21:33

Introduction

portrait
John B. Dykes (1823–1876)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, 1749, alt.

Music: St. Bees John B. Dykes, 1862 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Origin of the Hymn

Charles Wes­ley’s Hymns for a Fa­mi­ly have a pe­cul­iar charm, and they all seem to date from the hymn, Come, thou ev­er­last­ing Lord.

Wesley had re­mained sin­gle for near­ly for­ty years. He then met a young la­dy in Wales who in­ter­est­ed him great­ly, and af­ter much pon­der­ing and con­sul­ta­tion and hymn-writ­ing, he pro­posed, was ac­cept­ed, and was mar­ried Sa­tur­day, April 8th, 1749.

From the ex­pe­ri­enc­es of that wed­ding and that mar­riage these hymns came, and they will be more and more re­mark­able for their per­fect fit­ness to the vic­is­si­tudes of fa­mi­ly life, as they are stu­died with this fact in view.

The bride­groom’s own ex­pe­ri­ence can be best giv­en in his own lan­guage:

Not a cloud was to be seen from morn­ing till night. I rose at four; spent three and a half hours in pray­er, or sing­ing, with my bro­ther, with Sal­ly, with Beck.

At eight, I led My Sal­ly to church. Her fa­ther, si­ster, La­dy Rudd, Grace Bow­en, Bet­ty Will­iams, and I think, Bi­lly Tuck­er, and Mr. James were all the per­sons pre­sent.

At the church-door I thought of the pro­phe­cy of a jea­lous friend, that if we were ev­en at the church-door to be mar­ried, she was sure, by re­ve­la­tion, that we could get no far­ther. We both smiled at the re­mem­brance. We got far­ther.

Mr. Gwynne gave her to me (un­der God); my bro­ther joined our hands. It was a most so­lemn sea­son of love!

Nev­er had I more of the Di­vine Pre­sence at the sac­ra­ment. My bro­ther gave out the fol­low­ing hymn: Come, thou Ev­er­last­ing Lord, etc. He then prayed ov­er us in strong faith.

We walked back to the house, and joined again in pray­er. Pray­er and thanks­giv­ing was our whole em­ploy­ment. We were cheer­ful with­out mirth, ser­ious with­out sad­ness… My bro­ther seemed the hap­pi­est per­son among us.

Not ma­ny men are mar­ried to the mu­sic of their own hymn as Charles Wes­ley was.

Duffield, pp. 115–16

Lyrics

Come, Thou ev­er­last­ing Lord,
With Thy pre­sence crown the board;
Condescend to be a guest,
At Thy crea­tures’ hum­ble feast.

Now Thine own ap­point­ment grace,
With Thy pre­sence in this place;
Wedded may our spir­its be,
Heavenly Bride­groom, un­to Thee.

May this newly-wed­ded pair
Learn each oth­er’s cross to bear;
Partners of each oth­er’s joy,
Every gift for Thee em­ploy.

Husband, wife, are now one twain,
One in heart may they re­main;
One in sen­ti­ment and will,
All the law of love ful­fill.

Glory to Thy so­ver­eign grace,
Thus to mul­ti­ply our race;
May their off­spring be, in­deed,
To the Lord a ho­ly seed.

May the house­hold all, at last,
Come to the eter­nal feast;
Drink at large the hea­ven­ly wine,
Flowing from the liv­ing Vine.

May our ev­ery act­ion tend
To Thy glo­ry as its end:
Our af­fect­ions, Lord, re­fine,
Thou canst make the wa­ter wine.

At the mar­riage of the Lamb,
When the rea­dy Bride is come,
We shall at the mar­riage feast
Find the best is kept till last.