I was interested to hear Matt Redman, the celebrated hymnwriter, lamenting the fact that we lack hymns on the topic of holiness. I think he’s right.
When I am searching for a closing hymn on holiness after I preach, my ‘go to’ hymn is Purify my Heart. Holy, holy, holy is the other one, but beyond that I am stuck for any clear, singable hymn that my congregation will recognise.
Perhaps I just don’t know my hymns well enough, or perhaps the concept of holiness was much better articulated in a bygone age than it is today. Either way, holiness is an idea we desperately need to recover in the church, not least with recent scandals concerning well-known evangelicals which I don’t want to rehearse here, but which should lead us to our knees with a desire for the fear of the Lord to fall upon us all and cleanse His church once again.
