"Ride On, Ride On in Majesty!", also titled "Ride On! Ride On in Majesty", is a Christian hymn written by

Henry Hart Milman Henry Hart Milman (10 February 1791 – 24 September 1868) was an English historian and ecclesiastic. Life He was born in London, the third son of Sir Francis Milman, 1st Baronet, physician to King George III (see Milman Baronets). Educa ...

in 1820. It is a

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Hol ...

hymn and refers to

Matthew 21 Matthew 21 is the twenty-first Chapters and verses of the Bible, chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament section of the Christian Bible. Jesus Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, triumphally or majestically arrives in Jerusalem and comm ...

:1–17 and Jesus'

triumphal entry into Jerusalem In the accounts of the four canonical Gospels, Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem took place in the days before the Last Supper, marking the beginning of his Passion, his time of suffering, death, and resurrection celebrated during H ...

History

While Milman wrote "Ride On, Ride On in Majesty!" in 1820, it was not published in a hymn book until 1827 when it was published in Bishop Reginald Heber's ''Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year''. This is reported to only have happened after Milman met Heber in 1823 before Heber became Bishop of Calcutta. It was described by composer Stanley L. Osbourne as "Objective, robust, confident, and stirring, it possesses that peculiar combination of tragedy and victory which draws the singer into the very centre of the drama. It is this which gives the hymn its power and its challenge". The hymn proved popular: in 1907, John Julian, in his ''Dictionary of Hymnology'', stated it was the most popular Palm Sunday hymn in the English language at that time. The hymn is viewed to be full of

dramatic irony Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

. The third line of the first verse "Thine humble beast pursues his road" has been disliked by some hymn book editors. In 1852 it was changed to "O Saviour meek, pursue Thy road" and in 1855 to "With joyous throngs pursue Thy road". Some hymn books have omitted the first verse. The unaltered original text, however appears in later collections such as the 1906

English Hymnal ''The English Hymnal'' is a hymn book which was published in 1906 for the Church of England by Oxford University Press. It was edited by the clergyman and writer Percy Dearmer and the composer and music historian Ralph Vaughan Williams, and wa ...

, and in some modern hymnals. The hymn is used as a

processional hymn A processional hymn is a chant, hymn or other music sung during the Procession, usually at the start of a Christian service, although occasionally during the service itself. The procession usually contains members of the clergy and the choir walki ...

during Palm Sunday.

Tune

The hymn is sung to a variety of tunes, including ''St Drostane'' by John Bacchus Dykes, and ''Winchester New''. The last of these is frequently employed in the United Kingdom. It first appears in ''Musikalisches Handbuch der geistlichen Melodien'' (Hamburg, 1690), and was reworked into a long-meter setting by William Henry Havergal in an 1864 publication, ''Old Church Psalmody''. Named after the county seat of Hampshire, it is appended with "new" to distinguish it from ''Winchester Old'', which is most commonly sung as the Christmas hymn " While shepherds watched their flocks by night". << << \new Staff %%\new Lyrics \lyricsmode \new Staff >> >> \layout \midi

References

{{reflist English Christian hymns Palm Sunday hymns 1820 songs 19th-century hymns Hymns in The English Hymnal