Eloquence Favourite Hymns

Hymn singing is a wonderful way for people of all backgrounds, regardless of faith, regardless of any particular musical ability, to join together in worship and in song. It’s very often the text, rather than the tune to which it is set that has ensured a hymn’s lasting popularity. Indeed some of these texts, though conceived for collective worship, are very often taken up for individual private prayer.
The whole tradition of hymn singing in the English-speaking world is due, in no small part, to the enormous influence of Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and Charles Wesley (1707-1788), the younger brother of John. Charles Wesley wrote an astonishing 6000 hymns, and there can be no finer example of his consummate skill than the splendid ‘Jesu, lover of my soul’.