Wherefore do the nations wage

Wherefore do the nations wage

Author: Charles Wesley; Author: Robert Grant
Tune: FULTON (Bradbury)
Published in 7 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Wherefore do the nations wage
War against the King of kings?
Whence the people’s maddening rage,
Fraught with vain imaginings?

2 Haughty chiefs and rulers proud
Forth in banded fury run,
Braving, with defiance loud,
God and His anointed Son.

3 "Let us break their bonds in twain!
Let us cast their cords away!"
But the Highest with disdain
Sees and mocks their vain array.

4 "High on Zion I prepare"
(Thus He speaks) "a regal throne;
Thou, My Prince, My chosen heir,
Rise to claim it as Thine own!"

5 "Son of God, with God the same,
Enter Thine imperial dome!
Lo! the shaking heav’ns proclaim,
Mightiest Lord, Thy kingdom come.

6 "Pomp or state dost Thou demand?
In Thy Father’s glory shine!
Dost Thou ask for high command?
Lo! the universe is Thine!"

7 Ye who spurn His righteous sway,
Yet, ah yet, He spares your breath;
Yet His hand, averse to slay,
Balances the bolt of death.

8 Ere that dreadful bolt descends,
Haste before His feet to fall,
Kiss the scepter He extends,
And adore Him, Lord of all!

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #11871

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Author: Robert Grant

Robert Grant (b. Bengal, India, 1779; d. Dalpoorie, India, 1838) was influenced in writing this text by William Kethe’s paraphrase of Psalm 104 in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561). Grant’s text was first published in Edward Bickersteth’s Christian Psalmody (1833) with several unauthorized alterations. In 1835 his original six-stanza text was published in Henry Elliott’s Psalm and Hymns (The original stanza 3 was omitted in Lift Up Your Hearts). Of Scottish ancestry, Grant was born in India, where his father was a director of the East India Company. He attended Magdalen College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1807. He had a distinguished public career a Governor of Bombay and as a member of the British Parliament, where… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Wherefore do the nations wage
Author: Charles Wesley
Author: Robert Grant
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

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Media

The Cyber Hymnal #11871
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer Score (NWC)

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The Cyber Hymnal #11871

Include 6 pre-1979 instances
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