Written by Charles Wesley, “Jesus, Thine All Victorious Love” comes from the Wesleys’ great compendium, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (A Collection of Hymns).2 John Wesley, in the 1779 preface to that collection, calls it a “little body of experimental and practical divinity. This hymn stands out in that collection as an exemplary text for the Easter season. This is the fourth and last in a series of articles in the month of April exploring hymns especially appropriate for Eastertide. As with many Wesley hymns that we sing today, the four stanzas given in the are but part of a much longer hymn called “My God! I know, I feel thee mine.” The complete hymn is found in Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists in the section, “For Believers, Groaning for Full Redemption.” Atop the hymn text in the early editions sits a scripture reference to Romans 4:13, which speaks of the promise God made to Abraham and the righteousness of his faith1. Enjoy!
Jesus, thine all-victorious love
shed in my heart abroad;
then shall my feet no longer rove,
rooted and fixed in God.
O that in me the sacred fire
might now begin to glow;
burn up the dross of base desire
and make the mountains flow!
O that it now from heaven might fall
and all my sins consume!
Come, Holy Ghost, for thee I call,
Spirit of burning, come!
Refining fire, go through my heart,
illuminate my soul;
scatter thy life through every part
and sanctify the whole.
1umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-jesus-thine-all-victorious-love-wesley