I shall His power adore,
And sing the wonders of His grace
Forevermore.
THE TUNE.
The precise date of the tune “Leoni” is unknown, as also the precise date of the hymn. The story is that Olivers visited the great “Duke's Place” Synagogue, Aldgate, London, and heard Meyer Lyon (Leoni) sing the Yigdal or long doxology to an air so noble and impressive that it haunted him till he learned it and fitted to it the sublime stanzas of his song. Lyon, a noted Jewish musician and vocalist, was chorister of this London Synagogue during the latter part of the 18th century and the Yigdal was a portion of the Hebrew Liturgy composed in medieval times, it is said, by Daniel Ben Judah. The fact that the Methodist leaders took Olivers from his bench to be one of their preachers answers any suggestion that the converted shoemaker copied the Jewish hymn and put Christian phrases in it. 43 / 21 He knew nothing of Hebrew, and had he known it, a literal translation of the Yigdal will show hardly a similarity to his evangelical lines. Only the music as Leoni sang it prompted his own song, and he gratefully put the singer's name to it. Montgomery, who admired the majestic style of the hymn, and its glorious imagery, said of its author, “The man who wrote that hymn must have had the finest ear imaginable, for on account of the peculiar measure, none but a person of equal musical and poetic taste could have produced the harmony perceptible in the verse.”
Whether the hymnist or some one else fitted the hymn to the tune, the “fine ear” and “poetic taste” that Montgomery applauded are evident enough in the union.
“O WORSHIP THE KING ALL GLORIOUS ABOVE.”
This hymn of Sir Robert Grant has become almost universally known, and is often used as a morning or opening service song by choirs and congregations of all creeds. The favorite stanzas are the first four—
O worship the King all-glorious above,
And gratefully sing His wonderful love—