All Hail The Power Of Jesus Name
Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 1 Peter 3:22
In the November, 1799, issue of The Gospel Magazine, edited by Augustus Toplady, there appeared an anonymous hymn entitled "On the Resurrection, the Lord is King":
All hail the power of Jesus' Name! Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all. The author it was later revealed, was Reverend Edward Perronet. Edward's Protestant grandparents had fled Catholic France, going first to Switzerland then to England. Edward's father had become a vicar in the Anglican Church, and Edward followed in his footsteps. For several years, he became closely allied with the Wesleys, traveling with them and sometimes caught up in their adventures. In John Wesley's journal, we find this entry: "Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken." In time, however, Edward broke with the Wesleys over various Methodist policies, and John Wesley excluded his hymns from Methodist hymnals. Edward went off to pastor a small independent church in Canterbury, where he died on January 22, 1792. His last words were: Glory to God in the height of His divinity! Glory to God in the depth of His humanity! Glory to God in His all-sufficiency! Into His hands I commend my spirit. Edward Perronet's hymn, "All Hail the Power," has earned him an indelible place in the history of church music. It also has a place in missionary history, being greatly used in evangelistic endeavors. Rev. E. P. Scott, for example, missionary to India, wrote of trying to reach a savage tribe in the Indian subcontinent. Ignoring the pleadings of his friends, he set off into the dangerous territory. Several days later, he met a large party of warriors who surrounded him, their spears pointed at his heart. Expecting to die at any moment, Scott took out his violin, breathed a prayer, closed his eyes, and began singing, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!" When he reached the words, "Let every kindred, every tribe," he opened his eyes. There stood the warriors, some in tears, every spear lowered. Scott spent the next two years evangelizing the tribe.
Excerpt from "Then Sings My Soul" by Robert J. Morgan
Thomas Nelson Publishers
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