Come, Ye Faithful

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Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem

Alterer: J. M. Neale; Author: Job Hupton (1805)
Tune: UNSER HERRSCHER
Published in 77 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	THREE FOR FIVE FOR ORGAN

Representative Text

1 Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem,
cleave the skies with shouts of praise;
sing to him who found the ransom,
Ancient of eternal Days,
God of God, the Word incarnate,
whom the heaven of heaven obeys.

2 Ere he raised the lofty mountains,
formed the seas, or built the sky,
love eternal, free, and boundless,
moved the Lord of life to die,
fore-ordained the Prince of princes
for the throne of Calvary.

3 There, for us and our redemption,
see him all his life-blood pour!
There he wins our full salvation,
dies that we may die no more;
then, arising, lives for ever,
reigning where he was before.

4 High on yon celestial mountains
stands his sapphire throne, all bright,
midst unending alleluias
bursting from the sons of light;
Zion's people tell his praises,
victor after hard-won fight.

5 Bring your harps, and bring your incense,
sweep the string and pour the lay;
let the earth proclaim his wonders,
King of that celestial day;
he the Lamb once slain is worthy,
who was dead, and lives for ay.

6 Laud and honour to the Father,
laud and honour to the Son,
laud and honour to the Spirit,
ever Three and ever One,
consubstantial, co-eternal,
while unending ages run.

Source: Ancient and Modern: hymns and songs for refreshing worship #619

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Alterer: J. M. Neale

John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >

Author: Job Hupton

Hupton, Job, was born in 1762, at a small village near Burton-on-Trent. He was brought up to work at a forge, but after his conversion through the preaching of the Rev. John Bradford, one of Lady Huntingdon's ministers, whom he heard at Walsal, he began to preach; and after a few months at Trevecca College, was himself employed by Lady Huntingdon for some years as one of her itinerating ministers. Having changed his views on the subject of Baptism, he became, in 1794, pastor of the Baptist church at Claxton, in Norfolk, where he laboured with much success for many years. He died Oct. 19, 1849. Hupton wrote much both in prose and verse, his compositions appearing in the Gospel Magazine under the signatures of “Ebenezer," "Eliakini, a… Go to person page >

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Related Texts

Crown Him with Many Crowns

First Line:	Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem
Title:	Come, Ye Faithful
Author:	Job Hupton (1805)
Alterer:	J. M. Neale
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Come, ye saints, and raise an anthem. Job Hupton. [Praise to Christ.] This hymn was first published in the Gospel Magazine, Sept. 1805, in 13 stanzas of 6 lines, and entitled, "An Hymn of Praise to the Redeemer." It is signed "Ebenezer," and dated "A-y, June 1, 1805." A reprint was published by D. Sedgwick in his edition of Hupton's Hymns & Spiritual Poems, &c, 1861.
In the Christian Remembrancer, July 1863 (vol. xlvi. pp. 117-18), Dr. Neale gave, in an article on "Hymns and Hymnals," a revised version of stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 12, as an illustration of the possibility of producing a hymn of merit out of somewhat crude materials. The first stanza by Hupton, and by Neale, will illustrate the way in which the latter suggested this might be accomplished.

1. Stanza i., by Job Hupton:—
"Come, ye saints, and raise an anthem,
Cleave the skies with shouts of praise,
Sing to Him who found a ransom,
Th' Ancient of eternal days,—
In your nature,
Born to suffer in your place."
2. Stanza i., by Dr. Neale:—
“Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem,
Cleave the sky with shouts of praise
Sing to Him who found a ransom,
Ancient of eternal days:
God Eternal, Word Incarnate,
Whom the Heaven of heaven obeys."

Job Hupton's text is unknown to the hymnals, but Dr. Neale's has come into somewhat extensive use. The text of the latter is in the People's Hymnal, 1867, No. 476, with the reading of stanza iii. lines 3-4 as:—

"With the ceaseless alleluias
Which they raise, the sons of light,"

and not as in the Christian Remembrancer. The liberties taken by Dr. Neale with Hupton's text have been followed by others in dealing with his Church Hymns, being specially prominent in this respect. In fact no text can be relied upon until verified by a reference to the Christian Remembrancer, or the People's Hymnal, with the corrections noted above.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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