O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

As the first anniversary of his conversion approached, Charles Wesley wrote an eighteen-stanza hymn describing his praise to the Lord. It was titled, “For the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion,” and the first stanza began: “Glory to God, and praise, and love. . . .”  Verse seven began, “O for a thousand tongues to sing,” inspired by a statement Charles had once heard: “Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise Him with them all.”

Beginning with a 1767 hymnbook, the seventh stanza was made the first, and when John Wesley compiled his Collection of Hymns in 1780, he chose this for the first hymn in the book. Congregations today usually sing verses seven, eight, nine and ten of Wesley’s original, which we know today as “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.”