And Are We Yet Alive: History, Meaning, and Tune
"And are we yet alive"
- Written
- 1749
- Category
- Hymn
- Rights
- Public domain
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Story
And Are We Yet Alive is Charles Wesley's 1749 hymn of reunion, preserving grace, perseverance, and sanctification. Long used at Methodist conferences, it is often sung in North America to DENNIS, Lowell Mason's 1845 arrangement from a source attributed to Hans Georg Nägeli.
Overview
And Are We Yet Alive is Charles Wesley's hymn for Christians meeting again after absence. It receives renewed fellowship as evidence of Jesus Christ's sustaining grace, yet it does not turn reunion into easy nostalgia. The community gathers with memories of conflict, fear, and testing as well as gratitude.
The hymn moves from thanksgiving for preservation toward testimony, perseverance, and holiness. Its hope is not merely that a group or institution has survived. Worshipers confess that Christ has kept them, continues to save them, and calls them to bear the cross while awaiting the completion of his work.
That combination has made the hymn especially fitting for Methodist conferences, where people return after another year of ministry. It can also serve church anniversaries, covenant renewals, clergy gatherings, reunions, and services following disruption or loss. Used well, it joins honest remembrance with mutual encouragement and renewed discipleship.
Historical Background
Charles Wesley published And Are We Yet Alive in the second volume of Hymns and Sacred Poems, printed at Bristol by Felix Farley in 1749. In that volume it is hymn 236 within the large section Hymns for Christian Friends and bears the heading At Meeting of Friends. The scholarly Duke transcription notes manuscript precursors in two Wesley collections, but those witnesses do not establish a precise composition date or a particular reunion that prompted the hymn. The firm historical claim is its 1749 publication.
The original text consists of four eight-line stanzas. Its scope is wider than a greeting after absence: it moves through preservation, trials endured, redemption, cross-bearing, Christ's return, and the promised completion of holiness. The fourth original stanza makes sanctification explicit. Later Methodist books frequently omitted that stanza and divided the remaining three eight-line stanzas into six four-line units, producing the form most familiar today.
John Wesley gave the hymn a decisive institutional setting in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists in 1780. He placed the shortened text at the beginning of the subsection For the Society, at Meeting. Methodist tradition subsequently made it an opening hymn for annual gatherings and conferences. Later accounts often imply an exact first conference performance, but the available evidence more securely documents the 1780 placement and the long-established practice that followed.
No original tune accompanied Charles Wesley's 1749 printing. The Short Meter text, 6.6.8.6, has therefore circulated with several melodies. British and North American books have used different settings, including ST THOMAS, ST MICHAEL, TRENTHAM, and FALCON STREET. In much American Methodist use, however, DENNIS became the customary pairing. This musical association belongs to a later stage of the hymn's reception and should not be projected back to Wesley's publication.
Lowell Mason and George James Webb first published DENNIS in The Psaltery in 1845. Mason marked it as an arrangement from Hans Georg Nägeli but cited no source. Hymnal scholarship has proposed a relationship to a melody connected with Nägeli's late-1820s Christliches Gesangbuch, while closer comparison suggests that Mason's version substantially reshapes its possible model. Nägeli is consequently the attributed source and Mason the arranger of the form known in English-language hymnals; the exact path from one melody to the other remains uncertain.
The text's identity became especially concentrated in Methodist conference worship, though hymnal indexes also document use among other Wesleyan bodies and in broader Protestant collections. Both Wesley's 1749 text and the nineteenth-century musical materials underlying DENNIS are public domain in the United States. Modern harmonizations, accompaniments, editorial revisions, recordings, and alternative settings may carry separate rights, so the status of a particular edition must still be checked.
Biblical Foundations
Lamentations 3:22-23 gives biblical language to the hymn's gratitude for preservation. Survival is attributed to God's unfailing mercy rather than human resilience alone. Philippians 1:6 adds confidence that the God who begins a good work also brings it toward completion, supporting the hymn's movement from present thanksgiving to future holiness.
Hebrews 10:24-25 and 1 Thessalonians 5:11 explain why reunion matters spiritually. Christian assembly is a setting for mutual exhortation, love, good works, and the strengthening of faith. The hymn's gathered voice is therefore more than recollection among friends; it is a community helping its members persevere toward the day of Christ.
Psalm 133:1 celebrates the goodness of life together, but the hymn prevents unity from becoming sentimental. Fellowship is renewed among people who have passed through real conflict and fear. Read together, these passages ground communal joy in mercy, patient endurance, and God's continuing work.
Verse Explanation
Detailed line-by-line commentary is intentionally omitted. In its 1749 form, the hymn has four eight-line stanzas under the heading At Meeting of Friends. Most modern six-stanza versions divide three of those original stanzas into four-line units and omit the original conclusion.
The opening movement receives reunion and continued discipleship as gifts of Christ's grace. The next movement remembers serious trials without allowing them to become the final word. Thanksgiving is therefore grounded in deliverance rather than denial.
The later movement turns from recollection to renewed commitment. Redemption leads to cross-bearing and perseverance, so the community's testimony also becomes a vocation.
The omitted original conclusion looks toward Christ's coming and the completion of holiness. Teachers should consult a reliable historical edition when comparing forms, since the structural change affects the theological emphasis as well as the stanza count.
Theological Reflection
The hymn's governing doctrine is preserving grace. Life, faith, and reunion are received as gifts of Christ. This does not imply that faithful people are protected from every loss; it means that the community interprets its continuing discipleship through God's prior and sustaining action.
Its Wesleyan account of salvation is dynamic. Redemption is not reduced to a past decision, because grace continues to form holy people. The original conclusion directs hope toward Christ's coming and perfected likeness to him. Omitting that stanza makes many modern versions more concise, but it also weakens the explicit goal of sanctification.
The hymn also presents Christian fellowship as a means of grace. Believers recount what they have endured, give thanks together, and renew their willingness to follow Christ. Conference is holy when it becomes truthful mutual discernment and encouragement, not merely institutional business or celebration.
Finally, the opening question must not become a boast about denominational survival. Churches can remain active while avoiding repentance or excluding wounded members. The hymn's gratitude is properly Christ-centered when it leads to humility, reconciliation, cross-bearing, and renewed attention to the people whose absence is also part of the community's story.
Church Impact
The hymn's most distinctive reception is its place in Methodist conference life. Its location in John Wesley's 1780 collection gave gathered societies a concise act of thanksgiving after absence, and subsequent Wesleyan practice carried it into annual and general conferences. The song allows a returning body to remember those present, those missing, and the ministry endured since the previous gathering.
Its use has never been limited to administrative meetings. Methodist and related hymnals place it with fellowship, providence, perseverance, thanksgiving, and the church. Congregations can sing it at anniversaries, covenant services, clergy gatherings, reunions, and occasions of recovery after disruption.
The common shortened form also shaped the hymn's reception. Removing the original final stanza made the immediate themes of reunion and endurance more prominent, while reducing the explicit emphasis on entire sanctification. Recovering the publication history helps worship leaders interpret the familiar version without assuming it represents Wesley's whole design.
Different tune traditions further broaden the hymn's character. DENNIS is strongly associated with American Methodist memory, but British and other books have selected alternatives. The text's durable church impact lies less in one melody than in its capacity to turn a recurring gathering into gratitude, honest testimony, mutual encouragement, and renewed hope in Christ.
Musical Notes
And Are We Yet Alive is a Short Meter text, 6.6.8.6, and was not printed with a tune in 1749. Its compact lines allow multiple standard melodies, so no single tune should be described as Charles Wesley's original pairing.
DENNIS, familiar in many American Methodist settings, appeared in Lowell Mason and George James Webb's The Psaltery in 1845. Mason identified the tune as arranged from Nägeli but gave no specific source. The often-repeated connection with a Nägeli melody published in the late 1820s is plausible but not conclusive, and Mason's familiar form represents substantial arranging rather than a transparent transcription.
DENNIS has a restrained, lyrical shape that supports communal reflection and is commonly indexed in F major. A moderate pulse and connected phrasing keep the short lines from becoming fragmented. The opening question benefits from clarity and directness; excessive slowing can turn a hymn of resilient thanksgiving into mere nostalgia.
Other traditions use ST THOMAS, ST MICHAEL, TRENTHAM, FALCON STREET, and additional Short Meter tunes. A stronger or more forward-moving setting can highlight discipleship and sanctification, while DENNIS often emphasizes reunion. Leaders should identify the tune and harmonization in their own hymnal and credit modern musical contributions separately.
Application
- Begin reunions and anniversaries by naming both gratitude and grief rather than celebrating survival without reflection.
- Invite worshipers to identify how God's grace has sustained faith through conflict, fear, illness, bereavement, or change.
- Use conference and committee meetings as occasions for prayer, mutual encouragement, repentance, and discernment as well as business.
- Reconnect with people who are absent, isolated, estranged, or no longer represented in the gathered community.
- Teach sanctification as God's continuing work that forms believers in love, holiness, and faithful endurance.
- Verify the rights in the exact accompaniment, harmonization, projection file, or recording even though the historical text and tune materials are public domain.
Discussion Questions
- What changes when a church treats continued life and faith as gifts of grace rather than achievements?
- How can a reunion acknowledge people who died, departed, or remain estranged since the community last met?
- Why are mutual encouragement and accountability essential to Christian perseverance?
- What theological emphasis is diminished when the original concluding stanza is omitted?
- How can conference worship move beyond nostalgia toward repentance, reconciliation, and mission?
- What different qualities do DENNIS and alternative Short Meter tunes bring to the text?
Teaching Tips
- Show the 1749 heading At Meeting of Friends and explain that the text appeared among Hymns for Christian Friends.
- Compare the original four eight-line stanzas with the common six four-line form without reproducing the full text.
- Explain that John Wesley's 1780 placement, not the original publication, established the hymn's formal connection with Methodist society meetings.
- Use Lamentations 3:22-23, Hebrews 10:24-25, and Philippians 1:6 to connect preservation, assembly, and sanctification.
- Present DENNIS as Mason's 1845 arrangement from a source attributed to Nägeli, while acknowledging that its exact derivation is uncertain.
- Invite testimony about the year since the last gathering, including gratitude, unresolved conflict, and people whose absence should be remembered.
Sources
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Duke Divinity School — Charles Wesley's Published Verse, including the scholarly transcript of Hymns and Sacred Poems, volume 2 (1749)
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Duke Divinity School — Hymns and Sacred Poems, volume 2 (1749), original-spelling scholarly transcript
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Internet Archive — John Wesley, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780)
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Hymnary.org — Text authority for And Are We Yet Alive
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Discipleship Ministries — History of Hymns: And Are We Yet Alive
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Hymnary.org — Tune authority for DENNIS
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Hymnology Archive — Lowell Mason biography and bibliography, including The Psaltery (1845)
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Hymnology Archive — Historical analysis of DENNIS and its relationship to Nägeli
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University of Manchester Library — Charles Wesley Papers and biographical note
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Zentralbibliothek Zürich — Nägeli's postbox: Zurich's music publisher at work
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World English Bible Classic — Public-domain Scripture text
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