"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" is a 1744

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

and

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a Carol (music), carol on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas and holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...

common in Protestant hymnals. The text was written by

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English Anglican cleric and a principal leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It ...

. It is performed to one of several tunes, including "Stuttgart" (attr. to Christian Friedrich Witt), " Hyfrydol" (by Rowland Prichard), and "Cross of Jesus" (by

John Stainer Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of ''The Crucifixion (Stainer), The Crucifixion'', still heard at Passiontide in some Angli ...

). The hymn is considered an enduring classic in Christian hymnody.

History

In 1744, Charles Wesley considered

Haggai Haggai or Aggeus (; – ''Ḥaggay''; ; Koine Greek: Ἀγγαῖος; ) was a Hebrew prophet active during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the author or subject of the ...

2:7 and looked at the situation of orphans in the areas around him. He also looked at the class divide in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. Through this train of thought, he wrote "Come, Thou long expected Jesus" based upon Haggai 2:7 and a published prayer at the time which had the words:

"Born Your people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now Your gracious kingdom bring. By Your own eternal Spirit, rule in all our hearts alone; by Your all sufficient merit, raise us to Your glorious throne. Amen."

Wesley adapted this prayer into a hymn in 1744 and published it in his "''Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord''" hymnal. Wesley wrote "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" with the intent for people to remember

and Christmas as commemorating the

Nativity of Jesus The Nativity or birth of Jesus Christ is found in the biblical gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew and Gospel of Luke, Luke. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, in Herodian kingdom, Roman-controlled Judea, th ...

and preparing for the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" was the first of a number of Wesley's hymns that became known as the "Festival hymns". These "Festival hymns" were published outside of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

by German,

John Frederick Lampe John Frederick Lampe (born Johann Friedrich Lampe; probably 1703 – 25 July 1751) was a musician and composer. Life Lampe was born in Saxony, Germany but came to England in 1724 and played the bassoon in opera houses. In 1730, he was hired by ...

in 1746. The hymn came into popular knowledge across Christian denominations in England via popular

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

preacher,

Charles Spurgeon Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 – 31st January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, to some of whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers." ...

. Spurgeon made a Christmas sermon in London in 1855 when he was 21 and included sections of "Come thou long expected Jesus" in it. He did this to illustrate his point that very few are "born king" and that Jesus was the only one who had been born king without being a prince. As a result of its growing popularity, including in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and American hymnals, it was first published in the Methodist ''

Wesleyan Hymn Book Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

'' in 1875 after having previously been excluded. The original reason for exclusion was that there had been no officially suitable music intended for it before then. In recent times, "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" has not been as well known as a Christmas Carol as others written around the same time. "

Joy to the World "Joy to the World" is an English hymn and Christmas carol. It was written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnist Isaac Watts. It is usually sung to the American composer Lowell Mason's 1848 arrangement of a tune attributed to George Fride ...

" being one such example but "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" is still used to focus on the hope of the

Second Coming of Jesus The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christian and Islamic belief that Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his ascension to Heaven (which is said to have occurred about two thousand years ago). The ...

. The lyrics of "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" focus on God choosing to give a

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

to the world in the form of Jesus. It also focusses on the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

longing for the Messiah to come and take the burden of sins from them to take them upon himself. The last line of the first verse may have come from Wesley being inspired by 17th century philosopher;

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...

's claim that "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person that cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator."

Music

"Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" has been set to a number of tunes. It is not known which tune Wesley originally intended for the hymn, hence why it was excluded from the "''Wesleyan Hymn Book''", but it is likely that the first tune it was set to was "Stuttgart" by Christian Friedrich Witt which had been written in 1716. A later tune used for it was " Hyfrydol", a Welsh tune written in the 1800s by Rowland Hugh Prichard, which is also used for Wesley's "

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley, first published in 1747. It was initially published as part of his ''Hymns for Those that Seek and Find'' and quickly became a central hymn in both Methodist and wider Chr ...

". Both tunes are popular. In the United Kingdom, the hymn is often set (e.g. in the ''

Hymns Ancient and Modern ''Hymns Ancient and Modern'' is a hymnal in common use within the Church of England, a result of the efforts of the Oxford Movement. The hymnal was first published in 1861. The organization publishing it has now been formed into a charitabl ...

'' series or the ''

New English Hymnal New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

'') to the 4-line tune "Cross of Jesus", by

, which he wrote as part of his oratorio ''

The Crucifixion The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being nailed to a cross.The instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus forming a "cruciform" or T-shaped structure. ...

''.

Lyrics

The original text by Charles Wesley has two stanzas of eight lines each. These may also be divided into four stanzas of four lines each. An additional 2 stanzas, by Mark E. Hunt, were inserted in the middle of the hymn and used in a version published in the 1990

Trinity Hymnal The ''Trinity Hymnal'' is a Christian hymnal written and compiled both by and for those from a Presbyterian background. It has been released in two editions (both of which are used in churches today) and is published by Great Commission Publicatio ...

Recorded versions

Chris Tomlin Christopher Dwayne Tomlin (born May 4, 1972) is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, and worship leader from Grand Saline, Texas. He is signed to Universal Music Group, Universal's Capitol Christian Music Group. Some of h ...

's version of "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" appears on his Christmas album '' Glory In the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship''. On the compilation ''Love Divine: The Songs of Charles Wesley For Today's Generation'' released by

Integrity Music Integrity Music is part of the David C. Cook nonprofit group. Founded as a direct-to-consumer music club in 1987 as ''Integrity Music'', Integrity was at the forefront of contemporary worship music's widespread popularity of praise and worshi ...

in 2010,

Brian Johnson Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1980 at the age of 32, after the death of Bon Scott, he became the third lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC. Johnson was one of the founding members of th ...

also sang a version of "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus".

Fernando Ortega Juan Fernando Ortega Work ID No. 332498534 (born March 2, 1957) is a singer-songwriter in contemporary Christian music. He is noted both for his interpretations of many traditional hymns and songs, such as " Give Me Jesus", " Be Thou My Vision ...

also recorded "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" on his 2011 album ''Christmas Songs''. Red Mountain Music has recorded a version of "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" which appears on their album ''Silent Night'', and includes all four verses.

Meredith Andrews Meredith Frances Sooter (born January 19, 1983), known professionally as Meredith Andrews, is a contemporary Christian music artist, songwriter and worship leader. She has won two Dove Awards. Biography Andrews grew up in Wilson, North Caroli ...

also recorded "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" on her 2017 Christmas album ''Receive Our King''. In

Solid State Records Tooth & Nail Records is a record label founded by Brandon Ebel in California in November 1993. The label later moved to Seattle where it is today. History Brandon Ebel and Michael Knott conceived the label as a joint venture, before Knott backe ...

’s compilation ''Midnight Clear'' is featured a cover of this hymn by

Christian metal Christian metal, also known as white metal, Jesus metal, or heavenly metal, is heavy metal music distinguished by its Christian-themed song lyrics and the dedication of the band-members to Christianity. Christian metal is typically performed by ...

band Wolves at the Gate. A version of "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" also appears on the "A Worship Initiative Christmas, Vol 2" by

Shane and Shane Shane & Shane is a Texas-based contemporary worship music band known for acoustic praise and worship music. The band consists of Shane Barnard (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Shane Everett (vocals). They are often joined by their drummer and manag ...

recorded in 2018.

References

External links