All hail the power

Author: Edward Perronet, 1726-1792

This hymn is often called the "National anthem of Christendom." The hymn first appeared in the November, 1779, issue of the Gospel Magazine, edited by Augustus Toplady, author of "Rock of ages." This text has been translated into almost every language where Christianity is known; and wherever it is sung, it almost every, it communicates to the spiritual needs ogf human hearts. One writer has said "So long as there are Christians on earth , it will be sung; and after that in Heaven.:
Edward Perronet was born at Sundridge, Kent, England, in 1726. He was a descendant of a distinguished French Huguenot family who had fled to Switzerland and later to England because of the religeous persecusion in France. Edward's Father, a pastor in the State Church of England, was strongly sympathetic with the evangelical movment spearheaded by the Wesleys and George Whitefield. Edward, too, became a minister in the Anglican Church but was always critical of his ways. Once he wrote, "I was born and I am likely to die in the tottering communion of the Church of England, but I despised her nonesence." Soon, however, he broke from the Church and threw himslef strenuosly into evangelistic endevors of the Wesleys during their followers suffered much persucution and even from those who disagreed with their ministry. Concerning these expiriances, the Wesleys made the following notation in his diary:

From Rockdale we whent to Bolton, and soon found that the Rockdale lions were lambs in comparison with those of bolton. Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken.

Another interesting account regarding the relationship between the Wesleys and Perronet concers the incident when John Wesley announced to a congregation that Edward Perronet would preach at the next service. Being eighteen years younger then Wesley, Perronet had always refused to preach in the elder statesman's presence. Desiring to avoid a public conflic with Wesley, perronet mounted the pulpit but quckly explained that he had never consented to preach. "However," he added, "I shall deliver the greatest sermon that has been preached on earth." He then read the sermon on the mount and sat down without comment.
Eventually, Perronet's strong-mindedness and free caused a break with the Weslys, espesially on the issue of whether the evangelists as well as the regular ministers could administer the sacraments. Perronet continued to the end of his days as the pastor of an independant church at Canterbury, England. His last words have also become classic:

Glory to God in the hight of his divinity!
Glory to God in the depth of his humanity!
Glory to God in his all-sufficiency!
Into His hands I commend my spirit.

No author portrait available.
Sorry, could not find a good youtube.