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Christ The Lord Is Risen Today

We are about to witness again one of the great recurring rituals of Christendom. It's not a command of Scripture, nor a rubric in any denominational canon law or book of worship. It is a practice not taught in seminaries; but it is repeated again and again, year after year, in churches of all denominations and beliefs. It is the singing of Charles Wesley's "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" as the opening hymn on Easter Sunday morning. Even though it is not a universal practice, it happens in so many different churches every year that it may actually be one of the few liturgical practices that we hold in common. It's also interesting that many different churches sing another Wesley hymn — "Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus" — as the opening hymn on the first Sunday of Advent.

Here is the history of this great Easter hymn:

  • 1708: The anonymous tune is titled "The Resurrection" in its first publication in John Walsh's Lyra Davidica. The tune appeared with the anonymous fourteenth century Latin Easter text, "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today."
  • 1739: Text first published in Wesley's hymnal, Hymns and Sacred Poems, brought to the American colonies by George Whitfield. The hymn, which consisted of eleven stanzas, was titled "Hymn for Easterday."
  • ca. 1754: Thomas Butts named the EASTER HYMN tune CHRISTMAS DAY and used it with Wesley's "Hark, How All the Welkin Rings," which was later changed to "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing."
  • 1760: A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Martin Madan), reduced the hymn to eight stanzas.
  • 1780: John Wesley omitted it from A Collection of Hymns for Use of the People Called Methodists.
  • 1823: T. Cotterill's Selection of Psalms and Hymns included it with the addition of the "Hallelujahs."
  • 1831: The hymn entered general use through British Methodist hymnals.
  • 1849: The humn entered American Methodist hymnals in Hymns for the Use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with five of the original eleven stanzas.
  • 1905: First publication of the text with its present EASTER HYMN tune, The Methodist Hymnal.
  • 1935: The Methodist Hymnal changed the Hallelujahs to "Alleluia."
  • 1966: The Methodist Book of Hymns attempted to establish the EASTER HYMN tune as the primary tune for Wesley's "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," an attempt that failed to gain acceptance.
  • 1989: The final two stanzas of the original 1739 text were included in The United Methodist Hymnal as stanzas six and seven (hymn no. 302).
For additional information on the hymn text and tune, see the following sources for this article:

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