Ruach Breath Of Life

In 1752 the Moravian preacher and minister John Cennick wrote a hymn called 'Lo he comes with countless trumpets' based on Revelation 1:7, referring to Jesus coming with the clouds in such a way that every eye will see Him. Six years later in 1758, Charles Wesley, the prolific composer of over 6500 hymns, substantially revised the piece to make it what it remains to this day: one of the best loved and most anointed of all Anglican hymns, cram full of Biblical references. It was first published that same year in John and Charles Wesley's 'Hymns of Intercession for all Mankind', a publication that sought to honour Paul's command in 1 Timothy 2:1: ‘I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men’. Amongst the forty hymns in that volume can be found hymns for monarchs (George II and Frederick the Great), institutions (courts, parliament, the army and navy, universities), childbirth, young children, prisoners and captives, widows, ‘our Ene