Charles Wesley
Born: December 28, 1707, Epworth, Lincolnshire, England.
Died: March 29, 1788, London, England.
Buried: Marylebone Parish Church, London.
Charles Wesley ... was the great hymn-writer of the
Wesley family, -- perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the
great hymn writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th
child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, [England]
December 18, 1707.
In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a
home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until
1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and
education free. While he was at Westminster, his father received a letter from a
wealthy Irish man, asking him if he had a son named Charles, and if so offering
to adopt him and make him his heir. The acceptance of the offer was left to
Charles himself, who declined it.
In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster
studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and
became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious
impressions were much deepened, and he became one of the first band of
"Oxford Methodists."
In 1735 he went with his brother John to Georgia, as
secretary to General Oglethorpe, having before he set out received Deacon's and
Priests Orders on two successive Sundays. His stay in Georgia was very short; he
returned to England in 1736, and in 1737 came under the influence of Count
Zinzendorf and the Moravians, especially of that remarkable man who had so large
a share in moulding John Wesley's career, Peter Böhler, and also of a Mr. Bray,
a brazier in Little Britain. On Whitsunday, 1738, he "found rest to his
soul," and the same year he became curate to his friend, Mr. Stonehouse,
Vicar of Islington, but the opposition of the churchwardens was so great that
the Vicar consented that he "should preach in his church no more."
Henceforth his work was identified with that of his brother John, and he became
an indefatigable itinerant and field preacher.
On April 8, 1749, he married Miss Sarah Gwynne. His marriage,
unlike that of his brother John, was a most happy one; his wife was accustomed
to accompany him on his evangelistic journeys, which were as frequent as ever
until the year 1756, when he ceased to itinerate, and mainly devoted himself to
the care of the Societies in London and Bristol. Bristol was his headquarters
until 1771, when he removed with his family to London, and, besides attending to
the Societies, devoted himself much, as he had done in his youth, to the
spiritual care of prisoners in Newgate.
He had long been troubled about the relations of Methodism to
the Church of England, and strongly disapproved of his brother John's
"ordinations." Wesley-like, he expressed his disapproval in the most
outspoken fashion, but, as in the case of Samuel at an earlier period, the
differences between the brothers never led to a breach of friendship.
He died in London, March 29,1788, and was buried in
Marylebone churchyard. His brother John was deeply grieved because he would not
consent to be interred in the burial ground of the City Road Chapel, where he
had prepared a grave for himself, but Charles said, "I have lived, and I
die, in the Communion of the Church of England, and I will be buried in the yard
of my parish church." Eight clergymen of the Church of England bore his
pall. He had a large family, four of whom survived him; three sons, who all
became distinguished in the musical world, and one daughter, who inherited some
of her father's poetical genius. The widow and orphans were treated with the
greatest kindness and generosity by John Wesley.
As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to
have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number
some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly marvelous how many there are which
rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of
importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn.
His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumors of an
invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the
Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the
Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which
came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one,
before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift. Nor
must we forget his hymns for little children, a branch of sacred poetry in which
the mantle of Dr. Watts seems to have fallen upon him. It would be simply
impossible within our space to enumerate even those of the hymns which have
become really classical. The saying that a really good hymn, is as rare an
appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for
hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick
succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream.
In addition to hymn writing, Charles and his
brother John Wesley founded the movement which became the Methodist
denomination.
John Wesley's expression, "his least praise was his
talent for poetry," is unmeaning: whatever his other gifts and graces, it
is because he was "the poet of Methodism" and one of the most gifted
and voluminous of English hymn-writers that his fame and influence live. The
Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, as reprinted by the Wesleyan
Conference (London, 1868-72), fill thirteen volumes, or near 6,000 pages. Of the
original publications, the earlier ones bore the names of both brothers, but
most were the work of Charles alone. While in the books of joint authorship it
is not always possible to distinguish with absolute certainty between the two,
it is generally agreed that John wrote only the translations (almost wholly from
the German, some forty in all) and a very few originals. Their style is the
same, save for a little more severity and dignity on John's part. Their first
volume (or perhaps John's alone, for it bears no name), possibly also the first
English Collection of Psalms and Hymns, appeared at Charleston, S. C.,
1737 (cf. C. Evans, American Bibliography, vol. ii., no. 4207, Chicago, 1904;
there is a copy in the Public Library, New York). A single, copy was found in
London, 1879, and reprinted 1882. The original contains some pieces by John, but
apparently none by Charles, who perhaps had not then begun to write. Another
small Collection was published in London, 1738; and in 1739 began the
long series of original works in verse. The more extensive of these were Hymns
and Sacred Poems (1739, 1740, 1742; three separate books); the same (2
vols., 1749); Hymns on God's Everlasting Love (1741); On the Lord's
Supper (1745); For those that Seek and those that have Redemption
(1747); Funeral Hymns (1746-59); Short Hymns on Select Passages of
Holy Scripture (2 vols., 1762; 2,348 pieces); Hymns for Children
(1763); For Families (1767); On the Trinity (1767). Besides these
there are some twenty tracts, minor in size, but containing some of Charles
Wesley's most effective lyrics, and a few elegies and epistles. The work of
publication went on, though less vigorously in later years, till 1785, and that
of composition till his death, at which he left in manuscript a quantity of
verse, chiefly on Bible texts, equal to one-third of that printed in his
lifetime. His huge fecundity hindered his fame; had he written less, he might be
read more; but he had not the gift of condensing. His thoughts, or at least his
feelings, flowed more readily in verse than in prose; he wrote on horseback, in
a stage-coach, almost in "the article of death." His fifty-six Hymns
for Christian Friends, some of them continuously and widely used, were
dedicated to Miss Gwynne; and his last verse, taken down by her "when he
could scarcely articulate," preserves something of the old fire.
Nearly every occasion and condition of external life are provided for in the
vast range of his productions, which have more "variety of matter and
manner" than critics have commonly supposed; and, as to feelings and
experiences, "he has celebrated them with an affluence of diction and a
splendor of coloring never surpassed and rarely equaled." Temperament and
belief alike inclined him to subjective themes, and, guiding his unique lyrical
talent, made him preeminently "the poet of Methodism." To the
wonderful growth and success of that system his hymns were no less essential
than his brother's government. They are the main element in most Wesleyan
collections, both English and American. In the newest official hymnal of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, no fewer
than 121 of the 748 hymns are Charles Wesley's. The most widely used, in America
at least, are "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing," "Jesus, lover
of my soul," and "Love divine all loves excelling." Probably no
school or system in any age or land has owned so mighty an implement in the way
of sacred song, and no other hymn-writer has succeeded in voicing so
felicitously the varied states of religious feeling. His productions are still
esteemed as among the most choice and helpful devotional literature, and many of
them seem to be wholly unaffected by the marked changes in religious thought and
in the emphasis placed upon various doctrines.
Non-Methodists long suspected and shunned this poetry, and still need to
exercise discrimination in making selections from it. Its author was given not
only to extravagances of expression (which were sometimes pared down by his
brother's severer taste), but to unrestrained and often violent emotion. Withal
he is too fluent, too rhetorical; his mannerism at times involves a lack of
simplicity; his "fatal facility of strong words" is a fault both
literary and religious. Yet his intensely sincere and fervent piety, his
intellectual strength and acuteness, his unmistakably high culture, and the
matchless spontaneity of his eloquence, place him easily near the head of
British sacred lyrists. No collection is complete — probably for a century
none has been formed — without his hymns; and they are now perhaps more
generally and widely used than of old. He is entitled to rank not merely as a
hymn-writer, but among Christian poets. Many of his pieces which are not adapted
to public worship, and very little known, possess much literary and human
interest; his autobiographic and polemic verses, e.g., are probably unequaled.
He cannot be adequately judged by his fragmentary appearances in the hymnals,
not even by John Wesley's Collection for the Use of the People called
Methodists (1780; supplement 1830); though that presents a considerable
fraction of his writings, with much less abridgment and alteration than any
other, and has nearly all the qualities claimed by its editor in his vigorous
and memorable preface.
Hymns by Charles Wesley include: