Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

It is a bit of an oddity that of all the hymns that Charles Wesley wrote we only have one Advent lyric in the current United Methodist Hymnal.  It is number 196 in that publication.  The title is Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus:

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Wesley published this hymn initially in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord, which was a small compendium of seasonal music.  It eventually went through 20 printings during Charles’ life.

As is the case with so many of Wesley’s hymns, it is a short theology lesson.  It petitions the awaited Christ for freedom from sin, for hope, for deliverance and for the eternal rule of Christ.  It packs a lot into a few short lines.

It is unusual as a Wesleyan hymn because of his brevity as well.  Charles Wesley wrote a hymn per day through most of his adult life as a devotional practice.  Many of these were quite lengthy.  Our hymnals have usually printed only a portion of these hymn-texts for use in worship.  The first hymn in the music section of the Hymnal is number 57, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, and it has seven stanzas printed within the music staff.  On the next page, however we see the text almost in its entirety.  The Hymnal offers fifteen stanzas of the text entitled For the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion.  (one verse is omitted owing to modern-day sensitivities, as it refers to Jeremiah 13 while proclaiming:

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,

And Christ shall give you light,

Cast all your sins into the deep,

And wash the Ethiop white.

The Hymnal’s text employs verses seven through thirteen of the larger work.

That is to say that in its brief sixteen lines, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus does a wonderful job of encapsulating much of that which we anticipate in Advent.  May its title become our heartfelt petition.