Hymn Story: Crown Him with Many Crowns

Revelation 19:12

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

 

The text of this great hymn is a composite or combination by two different authors, both of whom were inspired by Revelation 19:12. The first printing was a six-stanza hymn in Hymns of the Heart (1851) by Matthew Bridges, who later in his life left the Church of England and became a Roman Catholic. Bridges' hymn was originally titled: "The Song of the Seraphs."

In 1874, Godfrey Thring feared that some of the Bridges' verses spoke too much of Catholic doctrine. Verse two, for example, said:

Crown Him the virgin's Son, the God incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won which now His brow adorn;
Fruit of the mystic rose, as of that rose the stem;
The root whence mercy ever flows, the Babe of Bethlehem.

He wrote six new stanzas for the hymn. The new six stanza text was published in Thring's Hymns and Sacred Lyrics."

Over the years, the twelve stanzas (six by Bridges and six by Thring) became intermingled in various hymnbooks.

Hence, the hymn that had two entirely different six-stanza texts appears in most hymnals with a composite 4 stanza text.

Listen to it here: Crown Him with Many Crowns