By the end of the nineteenth century this ranked among the ten most widely printed hymns in English, and its author was a man in trouble with his own church. Edward Perronet (1721–92) was an itinerant Methodist preacher and an associate of the Wesleys, who meant to keep their movement inside the Church of England and forbade their preachers to hold Communion services. Perronet defied the order and published blistering attacks on the establishment. He was also an uneven poet: his original second stanza had “highborn seraphs” tuning their lyres and falling over while doing it, and another line hailed the Lord who “fix’d this floating ball,” leaving the earth both anchored and adrift until later editors gave us “terrestrial ball.” An early printing assigned each stanza to a different choir: Angels, Martyrs, Converted Jews, Believing Gentiles, Sinners of every Age and Nation, and finally Ourselves. Those stage directions are gone, but the structure survives in the hymn we sing, which summons martyrs, the “seed of Israel’s chosen race,” and sinners before gathering all into the “we” of the everlasting song. It appeared anonymously in 1779, and Perronet’s authorship was proven only when the hymnologist Louis Benson found an acrostic in an anonymous 1785 collection: the first letters of its verses spell Edward Perronet. By the end of the nineteenth century this ranked among the ten most widely printed hymns in English, and its author was a man in trouble with his own church. Edward Perronet (1721–92) was an itinerant Methodist preacher and an associate of the Wesleys, who meant to keep their movement inside the Church of England and forbade their preachers to hold Communion services. Perronet defied the order and published blistering attacks on the establishment. He was also an uneven poet: his original second stanza had “highborn seraphs” tuning their lyres and falling over while doing it, and another line hailed the Lord who “fix’d this floating ball,” leaving the earth both anchored and adrift until later editors gave us “terrestrial ball.” An early printing assigned each stanza to a different choir: Angels, Martyrs, Converted Jews, Believing Gentiles, Sinners of every Age and Nation, and finally Ourselves. Those stage directions are gone, but the structure survives in the hymn we sing, which summons martyrs, the “seed of Israel’s chosen race,” and sinners before gathering all into the “we” of the everlasting song. It appeared anonymously in 1779, and Perronet’s authorship was proven only when the hymnologist Louis Benson found an acrostic in an anonymous 1785 collection: the first letters of its verses spell Edward Perronet.
Sung at Our Saviour
2025