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Hymn on The Conversion of St Paul: “We sing the glorious conquest”
by Scott Gilbreath ~ January 25th, 2009
“Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven” — Acts 9:3
This morning’s offertory hymn on The Conversion of St Paul/Third Sunday After the Epiphany at Christ Church, Windsor. Hymn #188 in The Book of Common Praise (1938), official hymn book for the whole of The Church of England in Canada (later Anglican Church of Canada).
We sing the glorious conquest
Before Damascus’ gate,
When Saul, the Church’s spoiler,
Came breathing threats and hate;
The ravening wolf rushed forward
Full early to the prey;
But lo! the Shepherd met him,
And bound him fast to-day.O glory most excelling
That smote across his path!
O light that pierced and blinded
The zealot in his wrath!
O voice that spake within him
The calm reproving word!
O love that sought and held him
The bondman of his Lord!O Wisdom, ordering all things
In order strong and sweet,
What nobler spoil was ever
Cast at the Victor’s feet?
What wiser master-builder
E’er wrought at thine employ
Than he, till now so furious
Thy building to destroy?Lord, teach thy Church the lesson,
Still in her darkest hour
Of weakness and of danger
To trust thy hidden power:
Thy grace by ways mysterious
The wrath of man can bind,
And in thy boldest foeman
Thy chosen saint can find.
Words: The Rev. John Ellerton, 1871.
Music: “Missionary”
This wonderful hymn emphasises a great teaching of St Paul’s conversion: God’s grace working through the Holy Spirit performs miracles in the hearts, minds, and souls of Christ’s enemies.
Saul was a leader in persecuting Christians. He encouraged and spearheaded campaigns of theft and murder against believers. Yet even this man who led efforts to eradicate the church in its infancy became Saint Paul, one of the gospel’s greatest champions.
Once he brought suffering on Christians, but then he himself gladly suffered for the sake of Jesus and his church. The hate-filled archenemy of Christ became his Apostle to the Gentiles. As the hymn’s opening line has it, he was God’s “glorious conquest”.
May we never fail to pray for the conversion of the church’s persecutors and other adversaries of the gospel. God still works miracles.
Deborah Gyapong has posted Evensong on the Eve of the Conversion of St Paul, along with Caravaggio’s gripping painting of the saint thrown down from his horse and struck blind.
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