All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name

Author : Edward Perronet

It is interesting that those who express the most eloquent praise are often the people we would deem the least likely to have the ability. Yet David, the adulterating, murdering, lying king of Israel wrote a good deal of the Psalms, which we still use today as our guide for worship. In the same way, all accounts show Rev. Edward Perronet (1721-1792) to be a sharp-tongued, difficult personality, who would rather pick a fight over theology than display brotherly love.

Though Perronet was a minister of the established Church of England, his evangelical, or "dissenting" roots grew deep. His father had been associated with Whitefield and the Wesleys, and Perronet himself worked with the Wesleys until they split over the question of administering the Sacraments. Perronet then found work as a chaplain for the famous patroness of the evangelical movement, Countess of Huntingdon, but was soon removed from his post due to his violent attacks on the established church. (Acidic remarks like, "I was born and I am like to die in the tottering communion of the Church of England; but I despise her nonsense." are the kind that force even the hardiest dissenter to keep their distance!)

The text first appeared anonymously in 1780 in Gospel Magazine with the title "On the Resurrection." Many argue that the hymn has experienced continued popularity due to the hymntune MILES LANE which appeared with it in Gospel Magazine and the tunes CORONATION and DIADEM which have accompanied the text since that time. The poem was edited and added to by Rev. John Rippon for his book A Selection of Hymns, from the Best Authors intended to be an Appendix to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns (1787), and his edition is the one commonly used in hymn books today. --Greg Scheer, 1997

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All hail! the power of Jesus' Name. E. Perronet. [On the Resurrection.] In the November number of the Gospel Magazine, 1779, the tune by Shrubsole, afterwards known as "Miles Lane," appeared with the following words:—

"All hail! the pow'r of Jesu's Name;
Let angels prostrate fail;
Bring forth the Royal Diadem,
To crown him Lord of all."

In the following April, 1780, the complete hymn, with the title, "On the Resurrection, the Lord is King," was given in the same magazine, the additional verses being:—

"Let highborn seraphs tune the lyre,
And as they tune it, fall
Before His face who tunes their choir,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him ye morning stars of light,
Who fix'd this floating ball;
Now hail the strength of Israel's might,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God,
Who from His altar call;
Extol the stem of Jesse's rod,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Ye seed of Israel's chosen race,
Ye ransom'd of the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Hail Him, ye heirs of David's line,
Whom David Lord did call;
The God incarnate, man Divine,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Sinners! whose love can ne'er forget
The wormwood and the gall,
Go—spread your trophies at His feet,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Let every tribe and every tongue
That bound creation's call,
Now shout in universal song,
The crowned Lord of all.”

In 1785 it was included by the author in his Occasional Verses, Moral and Sacred, p. 22, and entitled, "On the Resurrection."
By comparing this text with that of modern hymnals, it will be at once seen that this revised and rewritten form of the text is that upon which all modern forms of the hymn are based, and that the correct designation is "E. Perronet, 1779-80; J. Rippon, 1787." The first line has also been altered in some collections to (1) "All hail! the great Immanul’s name " (sometimes "Emmanuel"). This was given in Wilks's edition of Whitefield's Collection, 1798, and has been continued to modem hymnals. We have also: (2) "All hail! the great Redeemer's name," in a very limited number of hymnbooks.

The use of this hymn in various forms and many languages is very extensive. In the number of hymnbooks in which it is found in one form or another, it ranks with the first ten in the English language. A rendering in Latin, "Salve, nomen potestatis," is given in Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871.

-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Celebrating Grace Hymnal (2010), p.319