Thou God of harmony and love

Verse 1
Thou God of harmony and love,
Whose name transports the saints above,
And lulls the ravish’d spheres,
On thee in feeble strains I call,
And mix my humble voice with all
The heavenly choristers.

Verse 2
If well I know the tuneful art
To captivate a human heart,
The glory, Lord, be thine:
A servant of thy blessed will
I here devote my utmost skill,
To sound the praise divine.

Verse 3
With Tubal’s wretched sons no more
I prostitute my sacred power
To please the fiends beneath,
Or modulate the wanton lay,
Or smooth with musick’s hand the way
To everlasting death.

Verse 4
Suffice for this the season past:
I come, great God, to learn at last
The lesson of thy grace,
Teach me the new, the gospel song,
And let my hand, my heart, my tongue
Move only to thy praise.

Verse 5
Thine own musician, Lord, inspire,
And let my consecrated lyre
Repeat the psalmist’s part:
His Son and thine reveal in me,
And fill with sacred melody
The fibres of my heart.

Verse 6
So shall I charm the list’ning throng,
And draw the living stones along
By Jesus’ tuneful name:
The living stones shall dance, shall rise,
And form a city in the skies,
The New Jerusalem!

Verse 7
O might I with thy saints aspire,
The meanest of that dazzl’ing quire
Who chant thy praise above,
Mixt with the bright musician-band,
May I an heavenly harper stand,
And sing the song of love.

Verse 8
What extasy of bliss is there,
While all th’ angelic concert share,
And drink the floating joys!
What more than extasy, when all
Struck to the golden pavement fall
At Jesus’ glorious voice.

Verse 9
Jesus! The heaven of heavens[1] he is,
The soul of harmony and bliss!
And while on him we gaze,
And while his glorious voice we hear,
Our spirits are all eye, all ear,
And silence speaks his praise.

Verse 10
O might I die that awe to prove,
That prostrate awe which dares not move
Before the great Three-One,
To shout by turns the bursting joy,
And all eternity employ
In songs around the throne.

[1] Wesley changed “heavens” to “heaven” in 1756.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in Hymns for Those That Seek and Those That Have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (William Strahan, 1747). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 4 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 243.
Publishing: Public Domain