Paper
Reflections
Charles Wesley
Part 4.
In this session we will focus on hymns – something that is a very significant part of our Wesleyan heritage and tradition. We will begin with the hymns of Charles Wesley and then touch base with a few other Methodist hymnwriters. This session will be much more participative than my first session as we will be engaging in singing.
But now let us return to the question: how significant is Charles Wesley for Methodism, its beginnings and its ongoing life? It is my belief that while John Wesley undoubtedly played a greater role than Charles in the early birth and spread of Methodism Charles has had a greater impact on the ongoing life and theology of Methodism since then. That may seem a rather rash statement as John is the Wesley that is more often mentioned when people think about the Methodist Church, and he is also the one that historians tend to write about, and biographers focus on. So, what then might be the rationale for such an assertion? I invite you to consider the following:
First, the beginnings of Methodism. John spent much longer in the saddle as an itinerant evangelist than Charles did, John touched base with a greater variety of people, John spelt out the basic theology of Methodism through his preaching and his writings, and John provided the structure, the framework for the early Methodist bands and societies, the Connexion and the Conference. Charles, on the other hand, while contributing through his evangelistic work over a period of some seventeen years and undoubtedly contributing to the shaping of Methodism in other ways as well, nevertheless exercised less influence following his marriage to Sally and his involvement in the demands of family life. So, yes, when it comes to the beginnings of Methodism John clearly had a greater impact.
But, when we consider the ongoing life of Methodism I believe that the reverse is the case. It is in the ongoing life of Methodism that Charles comes to the fore. In that ongoing life people in academic institutions, universities and theological colleges, and those who have felt the call to ordained ministry, will have touched base with John Wesley through reading his sermons and other writings. But, outside of such institutions, and amongst those multitudes of loyal Methodists who have not felt called to ordained ministry, very few touch base with John Wesley, except through the occasional Wesley Sunday sermon delivered by their presbyter or some visiting Wesleyan scholar.
On the other hand, for them, Charles Wesley’s ongoing influence is much more likely to be present and substantial. In most Methodist churches throughout the world hardly a month would go past without a congregation being in touch with the thinking, the theology, the poetic skill, the songs of Charles Wesley. In this way, through Charles Wesley’s hymns, our Methodist faith, has been shaped and continues to be shaped. Through those hymns, some of which we will look at shortly, hundreds of thousands of people, have encountered Charles Wesley and have been put in touch with the theology that both he and John shared. And this has been the case right from the beginning as far as ordinary people are concerned because in the beginning many of those to whom Charles and John ministered were illiterate, uneducated in any formal sense – to such people poetry and especially poetry that could be sung – had a significant educational function. One might not be able to remember a word or a sentence from John Wesley’s sermon but who can forget “Hark, the herald angels sing, Glory to the new born king!” or “Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, My God, shouldst die for me!” …you may or may not agree with the sentiments but you can’t forget them!
It is no wonder then that of the 6000 to 7000 thousand hymns that Charles Wesley wrote some 230 still found their way into the 1933 Methodist Hymnbook. A hymnbook produced almost two hundred years later. Years later, in 1975, fifty-eight of Charles Wesley’s hymns were included in With One Voice and 1983 155 appeared in the publication of Hymns & Psalms the British successor to the MHB. Of course, we should also acknowledge that Charles Wesley’s hymns have been translated and are now sung in other languages around the Pacific and elsewhere. In addition, they are also used by many denominations including Roman Catholics today.
Now let us turn to some of Charles Wesley’s hymns. Hymns that remind us of our heritage and of some of the priorities and theological perspectives that Charles would have us focus on:
1. All praise to our redeeming Lord.
For generations this has been a popular hymn due to its focus on fellowship. Fellowship with Christ and with each other, along with the concepts of “building each other up” and living in unity. Methodism has had a strong focus on fellowship right from the beginning. Its class meetings, bands, and societies had a focus on fellowship and building each other up in the faith. It has never been our focus to be individualistic in our worship – but to worship in community – to know that community – and to live, work and witness together as people of faith.
2. What shall I do my God to love
This hymn not only speaks about the immensity of God’s love but also that this love “reaches all”. All are included! The opposition of both Charles and John to the Calvinistic focus on predestination particularly the idea of double predestination which excluded all but the elect and consigned the rest to hell – is not our belief, is not our heritage – we are, or at least we seek to be, a welcoming and inclusive church. Extending God’s sovereign grace to all.
3. Lord, we believe to us and ours
One of the elements of Albert Outler’s quadrilateral is “experience”. This was a key factor in Charles and John’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Both as we have noted today had experienced the fact that God loved them. It was that experience that they longed to share with others. This hymn, a hymn for Pentecost, is a prayer that we too will experience God’s grace in our lives.
4. Behold the servant of the Lord
However important faith is, it is diminished if it is confined to mere belief. The Wesley brothers knew this. They were not about to be the kind of Christian that sits idly by, bathing in God’s grace as it were, or simply to stand gazing up to heaven, they knew that God’s call was a call to action “to prove and do God’s perfect will”. This hymn calls on us to seek God’s guidance but then, acknowledging our own weaknesses, to act in accordance with God’s will.
5. God of all power and truth and grace
John Wesley saw it as one of his tasks, and I suspect Charles did as well, to “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land”. This hymn seeks God’s empowerment that “perfect holiness” might be evident in our lives. But that holiness is holiness with a purpose, the purpose being that all humanity: God’s “truth may see”.
6. Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go
Many a Methodist service has ended with this hymn. It’s a sending forth into God’s world, hymn. Again, it underlines the Wesley’s belief that the Christian faith is seen in how we live. Both Charles and John were men of prayer, both were committed to regular worship and the partaking of the sacrament. For Charles and John these times were a means of recharging their batteries, for daily living, so as to be “delightfully” employed in God’s wider world.
These are just a few of Charles Wesley’s hymns that have nourished many of us over the decades. These, and many others, underline the theology and themes on which John and Charles were of one mind. You will find these themes in John Wesley’s sermons not just in Charles Wesley’s verses. In these things they were united. They were two voices but when it came to what they considered to be the essence of Christian faith they were undoubtedly singing from the same hymnbook!
It was Charles with his gift of poetry however who has made those themes accessible to the millions of Methodists who have followed in the footsteps of these two men of faith.
What has happened since … a few glimpses …
One of the interesting things about the MHB, the hymnbook some of us grew up with, with its compilation of almost 1000 hymns, is that apart from the 230 or so written by Charles Wesley very few of the hymns in the MHB were written by Methodists. I don’t know why that is – did we Methodists have an inferiority complex, a feeling that the master had delivered, and there was no way we could match the poetry of Charles Wesley? Maybe?
You will know that one of the most popular Christmas carols was written by Charles Wesley - I’m speaking of “Hark the herald angels sing” but did you know that there is one other carol in the MHB that is distinctively Methodist. It was written by George Stringer Rowe a British Methodist minister. George died in 1913. It’s the carol Cradled in a manger, meanly. I have always liked this carol and have found the tune St Winfred very singable. However, I have had problems with a couple of lines in the third verse and recently played around with rewriting part of that verse. I really like the sentiment expressed in the second half of that verse – and its one with which I am certain Charles Wesley would strongly agree:
Enter, then, O Christ most holy,
Make a Christmas in my heart;
Make a heaven of my manger;
It is heaven where You art.
Fred Pratt Green, who died aged 97 in the year 2000, was probably the most prolific British Methodist hymnwriter of the 20c. There are 27 of his hymns in Hymns and Psalms including a carol “Long ago, prophets knew, Christ would come born a Jew.” and two fine harvest hymns. There are three of his hymns in With One Voice. His best known hymn is probably the one we are about to sing: “Christ is the world’s light, he and no other”.
Amongst Methodist in Aotearoa New Zealand no NZ hymnwriter is better known than Colin Gibson who sadly died in December 2022. Colin has gifted us many fine hymns of which the best known and most widely used is probably “He came singing love”. In this hymn Colin reminds us of four great Christian themes: Love, Faith, Hope and Peace …
Many years ago Margaret and I lived in the Methodist parsonage in Murray Place, St Alban’s, in Christchurch. Directly opposite us was the Presbyterian manse – the residents there were John and Shirley Murray. I wasn’t aware that Shirley was a hymnwriter in those days, though she was a kindly child minder for us on several occasions. Since then, of course Shirley, who was born into a Methodist family, has provided us with many notable hymns. Not long ago I found a congregation in Lincoln Nebraska singing Shirley’s hymn “For everyone born a place at the table”. Here is one Shirley’s fine Easter hymns …
Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday. Several years ago I was reflecting on that and the great Christian themes that had adorned the three windows behind the communion table of the Methodist church in Sumner in Christchurch – Faith, Love and Love – and this led me to seek to blend the two: Faith, Hope and Love along with an affirmation of God as Trinity. It is set to Gustav’s Holst’s beautiful tune Cranham …
Postscript …
Of course, I know and you will too that times change, and theology has differing emphases to meet the needs of whatever is the current age. People’s preference for styles of music also change with the times. Today in many congregations worship songs compete with traditional hymns. Often that has as much to do with the style of music as it has to do with the lyrics. This is to be expected. What really matters is the theology that is being expressed – is it a theology that builds each other up, is it a theology of inclusion, does it open our lives to be touched by God’s grace, does it call for commitment, and does it lead on to service in God’s world? These things matter – so let’s not succumb to the trivial, or to vain repetition, or to the kind of singing that all about gazing into the face of God and ignores others and God’s creation and the challenge to live the Christian life.