Tuesday Video: And Can It Be?

Today’s video features a congregation singing Charles Wesley’s famous hymn “And Can It Be.” I may be wrong in calling it famous because many Americans don’t know the hymn at all. A friend told me that it was mostly unknown in the US until after Billy Graham’s 1954 London Crusade at Harringay Arena. Cliff Barrows picked up the hymn from the British and after the crusade it became better known in America. I confess to never having sung it until we moved to Oak Park in 1989. It has become one of my favorite hymns because of the gospel-centered words of the text.

Although there are many versions of “And Can It Be” on YouTube, I chose this one because it features a multiethnic congregation singing these soul-stirring words. It seems like a foretaste of heaven when from every nation, tribe and tongue, we will sing praise to the Lamb around the throne.