Another hymn which brings back many memories to me is what is known as the Methodist Anthem – And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood (StF 345).
One of the great hymns of Charles Wesley sung to the tune of Sagina. The tune goes back to the early 1800s when it first appeared in the Primitive Methodist Hymnal and has been in all the Methodist Hymn Books ever since. It is a wonderful tune.
Every time I sing it my mind goes back to our church in Tilehurst, Reading, when one of our friends was singing very lustily. When he got to verse 4, I really thought his chains had fallen off and every time I sing it, I am transported back to that Sunday. Verse 4 says:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray –
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light,
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
We chose the hymn at my mother’s service of thanksgiving. Mum had been a Methodist all her life and her faith was so strong to the very end, she loved singing, so it seemed appropriate and right to sing the “Methodist Anthem”.
Every verse has a Biblical reference and as we sing through the hymn we are singing our faith, which is so in all Charles Wesley’s hymns.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ, my own.