Talk:O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

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Please transwiki lyrics to wikisource. --Improv 04:54, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't know the meaning of "transwiki." The lyrics came out of the United Methodist Hymnal and are public domain. Thehappysmith later on 20 Sep 04

John, Charles, Aldersgate, and conversion

I referred to Charles' conversion to Methodism because, though he founded the club at Oxford, he wrote the poem to commemorate the May 1738 event wherein he "experienced the witness of adoption" and joined John's evangelistic work which was already then in progress. Of course you could argue that regardless of what Charles thought of his experience he was already in evangelistic work, having travelled with John to Georgia (despite his failures there), and so I'll agree that maybe the term "conversion" isn't quite what we're looking for. At the same time, Charles and John had both been prior to May 1738 presently studying with Peter Bohler, and so saying one of them arrived at Methodism before the other seems to be wrong in either case. So conceded. And anyway Charles tends to be lost in his brother's shadow and saying he converted to his brother's faith doesn't really illuminate the truth. Perhaps rather than conversion to Methodism, we should say instead he wrote the poem on the one year anniversary of his renewal of faith. Based on his journal entries from that day I think that seems fair so I've made that change. However, while Charles' day of renewal and John's Aldersgate Street incident happened about the same time (on the 23d and 24th), the two men did not sing O For 1000 Tongues at that time. Charles did write a hymn on the day of or the day after his renewal, and did sing that hymn together with John and some others on the evening of the 24th, when John visited Charles after his Aldergate experience. The hymn is not one I recognize as appearing in any modern hymnals and anyway the tune is lost to history, being rather made up on the spot I would suppose. However, Charles wrote O For 1000 Tongues on May 23 of 1739, on the year anniversary of his renewal. It was published with the recommendation that it be recited or sung on the anniversary of one's conversion. I have deleted the Aldersgate reference and added this bit of info, although more work probably remains to be done. Thehappysmith 05:03, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Helpful reference

[1] is a good place to get references for this article. Black and White 00:04, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Episcopalians

Added a citation from the current Episcopalian hymnal, The Hymnal 1982. The version in this book is the Lowell Mason arrangement. Hope it helps the verification cause a little. Todd.st