Exclamations of Praise

Fifty years after Thomas Ken wrote the Doxology, the Christian world entered a dynamic new era.  With the conversion of John and Charles Wesley from religious men to born again Christian men, a renewal of the revival spirit from the Book of Acts swept across the world.  The Wesleys followed the biblical pattern of taking the Word to the world and not waiting for the world to show up to hear the Word.  Jesus was a peripatetic preacher, which means He went around preaching, and that is what now began to happen.  In the fields and near the coal mines you could find John and Charles preaching Christ.  They preached to thousands, much like Jesus on the mountain sides, and tens of thousands were born again to a new living hope in Christ. 

George Whitefield brought their work and methods to America.  At the same time Jonathan Edwards preached his great sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.  It remains a classic primer today for all who want to preach the clear message of heaven and hell.  Both England and America were now stirred to reach the world for Christ.  Mission boards were founded and tens of thousands of earnest believers set out to be witnesses of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

The music of the revivalist period, 1735-1950, shows the same exuberance that the church felt in coming alive again with evangelistic zeal.  Certainly that exuberance sometimes exceeded sound doctrine, but in the Book of Numbers God showed us that the Holy Spirit can even use a dumb donkey to make His message known to the praise of His glory.  This revival didn’t just take place in and for the church.  This was also the same period that saw Christians renew their interest in living Christ to the benefit of mankind.  All manner of societal reform came from the efforts of those who became Christians during this evangelistic era. 

“Praise God” became a common theme in both speech and music.  One of my favorite hymns of praise comes from the beginning of the evangelistic era and from one of its most prolific hymn writers, Charles Wesley, “O for a Thousand Tongues”.

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise

The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace

Glory to God and praise and love be ever ever given

By saints below and saints above, the Church in earth and heaven

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