Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 21:82 (Apr 1864)
Article: Charles Wesley And Methodist Hymns
Author: Frederic M. Bird

BSac 22:82 (Apr 1864) p. 284

Charles Wesley And Methodist Hymns

Rev. Frederic M. Bird

(Continued from No. 81, p. 162.)

We are now at liberty to glance over whatever may be most striking and important among the various poetical publications of the Wesleys. Their earlier volumes bear the names of both brothers, with nothing to distinguish the respective authorship of the separate poems; but it has been generally agreed by those who best understand the matter, to ascribe all the translations to John, and all the original poems — except in a very few cases, where there is some

BSac 22:82 (Apr 1864) p. 285

special reason to the contrary — to Charles (For particulars on this point, see Creamer’s Methodist Hymnology, pp. 18-26 et al.). In their first publication, 1739, John’s translations, adaptations, and selections occupy more room than Charles’s originals; but to no subsequent volume does John contribute more than six or eight pieces. This first, and the two which followed it, in 1740 and 1742, were of the general character indicated by their common title: “Hymns and Sacred Poems.”

In or before 1745 the Wesleys began to publish with reference to special subjects and occasions. Among the first and largest of these productions was “Hymns on the Lord’s Supper,” founded on Dr. Brevint’s “Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice.” This was one of their most popular books, and is valuable as an extensive, systematic, and well-versified collection of all that can be said on the subject; but not many of the hymns are in use, and a few only afford fair samples of the genuine Wesleyan power. Here is a sensible and pious acknowledgment of the mystery in the ordinance:

How he did these creatures raise, And make this bread and wine Organs to convey his grace To this poor soul of mine; I cannot the way descry, Need not know the mystery; Only this I know, that I Was blind, but now I see.

Yet Charles’s views of the rite were very churchly. Whatever he meant by the following, the sentiment is sufficiently high, and the language more than sufficiently strong:

Did thine ancient Israel go, With solemn praise and prayer, To thy hallowed courts below, To meet and serve thee there? To thy body, Lord, we flee: This the consecrated shrine; Temple of the Deity, The real house divine.

His “Hymns on the Trinity” (1767) is a book of exceeding value and interest. Mr. Jackson is within the truth when he says: “There is not in the English language a volume that, in so small a compass, shows more clearly the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity, with its practical importance; and it has this peculiar advantage, that it proposes the subject, not as a matter of c...