This is a classic text by Charles Wesley set to the music of Joseph Holbrook. The melody is beautiful. This has always been a favorite of mine since my youth.

The great American preacher Henry Ward Beecher stated, “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s … than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on earth. It is more glorious. It has more power in it. … But that hymn will go on singing until the last trump brings forth the angel band; and then, I think, it will mount up on some lip to the very presence of God.”