The writer of the preface to Methodist hymn book of 1933 wrote these
words. ‘Methodism was born in song. Charles Wesley wrote the first hymns of the
Evangelical Revival during the great Whitsuntide of 1738 when his brother and
he were “filled with the Spirit”, and from that time on Methodists have never
ceased to sing. Their characteristic poet is still Charles Wesley. While for
half a century hymns poured continually from his pen on almost every subject
within the compass of Christianity, and while no part of the New Testament
escaped him, most of all he sang the “gospel according to St Paul”. He is the
poet of the Evangelical faith. In consequence Methodism has always been able to
sing its creed.’
John Wesley produced a hymn book for
the ‘use of people called Methodists’ in October 1779. In these hymns, he said,
‘there is no doggerel; no botches; nothing put in to patch up the rhyme; no
feeble expletives. 2. Here there is nothing turgid or bombast, on the one hand,
or low and creeping on the other. 3. Here are no cant expressions, now words without meaning… We talk common sense,
both in prose and verse, and use no word but in a fixed and determinate sense. 4.
Here are, allow me to say, both the purity, the strength and the elegance of
the English language; and at the same time, the utmost simplicity and plainness,
suited to every capacity. Lastly I desire men of taste to judge… Where there
not be in some of the following hymns the true Spirit of Poetry… That which is
of infinitely more moment than the Spirit of Poetry, is the spirit of piety… It
is in this view chiefly that I would recommend it to every truly pious Reader,
as a means of raising or quickening the spirit of devotion, of confirming his
faith; of enlivening his hope; and of kindling and increasing his love of God
and man.’
What makes the Wesleys’ hymns so
compelling is their knowledge of the Biblical text and their ability to place
it into poetry. In Ephesians 3:18 Paul prays that we may have the power to
comprehend ‘what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the
love of Christ that surpasses knowledge’ so that we may be filled with the
fullness of God. Here is how Charles Wesley translates this into poetry for
song, with allusion to the refiner’s fire (Isaiah 48:10):
O that in me the sacred fire / might
now begin to glow, / Burn up the dross of base desire / And make the mountains
flow!
O that it now from heaven might fall /
And all my sins consume! / Come, Holy Ghost, for thee I call, / Spirit of
burning come.
Refining fire, go through my heart, /
Illuminate my soul, / Scatter thy life through every part, / and sanctify the
whole.
No longer then my heart shall mourn, /
While purified by grace, / I only for his glory burn, / And always see his
face. (Paul Wesley Chilcote, The Song Forever New. Lent and Easter Meditations on Charles Westley’s Hymns (2009), pp. 97-8.)
And we have also encountered Paul
stating in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that ‘if anyone is in Christ, there is a new
creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!’
Charles Wesley translates this
sentiment into poetry thus:
The gift unspeakable impart, / Command
the light of faith to shine, / To shine in my dark drooping heart, / And fill
me with the life divine’ / Now bid the new creation be, / O God, let there be
faith in me!
Thee without faith I cannot please: /
Faith without thee I cannot have: / But thou has sent the Prince of Peace / to
seek my wandering soul, and save: / O Father! Glorify thy Son, / And save me
for his sake alone! (Chilcote, p. 72).
In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God while
in prison when there was an earthquake so violent that the foundations of the
prison were shaken and everyone’s chains fell off. The jailer was about to kill
himself, but Paul shouted out that he should not harm himself because no one
had escaped. Then the jailer brought them outside and asked what he had to do
to be saved: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your
household’, Paul declared (Acts 16:31).
In Charles Wesley’s great hymn, ‘And can it be’, the incident is taken
as the paradigm of Christian conversion and was written immediately following
his own conversion on 21 May 1738:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, / Fast bound in sin and nature’s night: /
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray; / I woke; the dungeon flamed with light; /
My chains fell off, my heart was free, / I rose, went forth, and followed thee
(Chilcote, p. 89).
It is God who sends ‘the Prince of Peace to seek our wandering souls and
save’ (Chilcote, p. 73). That is why we always and everywhere should be ‘…filled with the Spirit, as [we] sing psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs among [ourselves], singing and making melody to the Lord in
[our] hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 5:18-20). Amen.
Note: your blogger will be on leave for a couple of weeks but will return with renewed zeal on 9 September at the latest, depending on internet connections.
