The resurrection of our Lord that we observe on Easter Sunday is a day of high celebration for Christians.
Church congregations are larger, hymn singing more enthusiastic and preaching more vibrant.
Occurring often in the Old Testament psalms, it occurs four times in the New Testament in Revelation 19. Charles Wesley wrote the hymn in 1739, only two years after he had returned to England from the American colony of Georgia. There he had served as personal secretary to Governor James E. Oglethorpe. Wesley's poetic skills increased in the passing years, and during his lifetime he wrote more than 6,500 hymns. His hymns were written with rare facility at the slightest provocation-at home, at church, in the fields, on horseback and while walking in the street.