I want to bring your attention to hymn #84 in our hymnal. This was written by the master hymn writer Charles Wesley. At that time, two hundred years ago, the light of the truth was not as clear as it is today. In verse 4 he refers to the “second Adam.” Most people would not sense anything wrong when they read this. However, in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul speaks of “the second Man” (v. 47) and the “the last Adam” (v. 45). The first Adam became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The last Adam is not the second Adam, but the second Man. The first man came out of the dust; the second Man came from heaven. To say that the Lord is the second Adam is a great error. There can only be the second Man, not the second Adam. Therefore, we changed it to “final Adam.”
Many things should be considered in revising a hymn, because once a word or a phrase is changed, the meter and the rhyme are affected. We all know that whenever the literature of a language reaches its peak, poems, songs, and lyrics come forth. In the past twenty years the Lord has given us much light. I hope that the young generation will learn to write hymns. This is a very scriptural point. In the Old Testament there are the Psalms. In the New Testament both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 say that we should use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Psalms are long, hymns are medium in length, and spiritual songs are short. As we are speaking and experiencing the word of the Lord, hymns should spontaneously come forth from our midst.
When writing a hymn, we must lay hold of the truth. Every line of the hymn should contain some truth, so that every word is a gold nugget and every phrase is truth. Pay attention to the rhyme and also to the meter. For example, verse 4 of hymn #84, which we just mentioned, says “Come, Desire of nations, come.” Here, “Desire” is used as a noun. Suddenly it switches from ”Come, Desire of nations, come” to “Fix in us Thy humble home.” From the initial objective desire, it turns to speak concerning the Lord making home in us. This is excellent! The next line says, “Rise, the woman’s conquering seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head.” “The woman’s...seed” is taken directly from Genesis 3:15. “Bruise...the serpent’s head” is also out of Genesis 3. Then this verse continues, “Adam’s likeness now efface, Stamp Thine image in its place.” Each of us has Adam’s likeness, but may the Lord stamp His image on us. This is transformation, to be transformed into His image from glory to glory. The fourth line in the Chinese version says, “The fullness of the last Adam my whole being revives.” The revival within us comes from His making His home in our heart. The Lord not only destroyed the old serpent on the cross, but also, as the seed of the woman, the Conqueror, He destroys the old serpent within us. There is an old serpent, Satan, within us today. The Lord in us would destroy this old serpent. The fullness of the last Adam is the issue of His being resurrected and becoming the life-giving Spirit. If He did not become the life-giving Spirit, His fullness could not have come into us, and He would still be objective to us. But He became the life-giving Spirit, and a subjective relationship has been thus produced between His fullness and us.
Perhaps you may say, “Brother Lee, how could you change others’ hymns?” I would answer, “What is wrong is wrong.” If we would sing, “The fullness of the second Adam our whole being revives,” it would imply that there is a third, a fourth, and so on. We changed it to the “final Adam” according to the truth. He is the last Adam. He terminated Adam. After Him, there are no more. He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. The riches of all things are here. In the last Adam everything has been terminated; in the life-giving Spirit everything has a new beginning. This is the truth. As long as I was correcting this hymn for the right reason, I did have the boldness to change it. This is not because I am proud. Which version do you think is better—the original one, or the one I changed according to the Bible?