St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Charles Wesley - 300 years on

Our service on 23rd December has a special focus on Charles Wesley. Here's a bit about him:

Charles Wesley was born on 18th December 1707, so this month is the 300th anniversary of his birth. The son of an Anglican clergyman, he and his older brother John went to Oxford University and were nicknamed “Methodists” in 1726 (with a few others) because they felt that they should be methodical in prayer and bible reading. He was ordained in 1735, but it wasn’t until 1738 that he “experienced the witness of adoption” - that’s how he described what it meant to him to know Jesus deep within his heart.

He and John travelled and preached, and that’s how Methodism was spread. John was the more natural leader of the movement, which tried to bring people into a living faith, and to work alongside the parish churches of the land.

Charles is best remembered for his hymns. He wrote the words of about 7,500 hymns during his life (he didn’t write tunes), and we have more hymns by him than by any other writer in our hymn books nowadays. He wrote constantly: while on horseback or travelling in stage-coaches, even on his death-bed he was dictating a hymn to a friend. After his death about 2,000 hymns were discovered besides the 5,500 which had already been published.

Charles Wesley wrote hymns for almost every occasion of life, as well as a vast number of verses based on bible texts and passages. He seemed to express emotions better in verse than in prose, and he could put feelings and experiences into “an affluence of diction and a splendour of colouring never surpassed and rarely equalled." The more popular of his hymns (there are about 50 in common use in our hymn books) don’t really give a proper impression of the broad sweep of his work, which was one of the main reasons that Methodism grew so much and was able to speak to the hearts of so many.

Methodism was never intended to be a new denomination, and I personally am ashamed of the attitude of the Anglican clergy of the day, who belittled the importance of the class meetings (what we would call small groups) and the personal response to the call of Jesus. In the end it was obvious to John Wesley that he would have to ordain ministers to look after the new Christians who couldn’t settle in their parish churches. But in fact the two brothers didn’t agree on this, and Charles didn’t want to break away from the Church of England.

Charles had eight children although only three survived: his two sons were both organists and composers, and his grandson Samuel Sebastian Wesley was one of the foremost composers of the 19th century. And his influence lives on ... in fact, I suppose I too am one of his pupils (see p6).

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. December 2007, Page 4.
Home Page. Index of articles: by subject, by date. In this issue: (December 2007) Christmas, Isaiah, Charles Wesley, Hymn. Other events.	Charles Wesley - 300 years on Our service on 23rd December has a special focus on Charles Wesley. Here's a bit about him: Charles Wesley was born on 18th December 1707, so this month is the 300th anniversary of his birth. The son of an Anglican clergyman, he and his older brother John went to Oxford University and were nicknamed “Methodists” in 1726 (with a few others) because they felt that they should be methodical in prayer and bible reading. He was ordained in 1735, but it wasn’t until 1738 that he “experienced the witness of adoption” - that’s how he described what it meant to him to know Jesus deep within his heart. He and John travelled and preached, and that’s how Methodism was spread. John was the more natural leader of the movement, which tried to bring people into a living faith, and to work alongside the parish churches of the land. Charles is best remembered for his hymns. He wrote the words of about 7,500 hymns during his life (he didn’t write tunes), and we have more hymns by him than by any other writer in our hymn books nowadays. He wrote constantly: while on horseback or travelling in stage-coaches, even on his death-bed he was dictating a hymn to a friend. After his death about 2,000 hymns were discovered besides the 5,500 which had already been published. Charles Wesley wrote hymns for almost every occasion of life, as well as a vast number of verses based on bible texts and passages. He seemed to express emotions better in verse than in prose, and he could put feelings and experiences into “an affluence of diction and a splendour of colouring never surpassed and rarely equalled." The more popular of his hymns (there are about 50 in common use in our hymn books) don’t really give a proper impression of the broad sweep of his work, which was one of the main reasons that Methodism grew so much and was able to speak to the hearts of so many. Methodism was never intended to be a new denomination, and I personally am ashamed of the attitude of the Anglican clergy of the day, who belittled the importance of the class meetings (what we would call small groups) and the personal response to the call of Jesus. In the end it was obvious to John Wesley that he would have to ordain ministers to look after the new Christians who couldn’t settle in their parish churches. But in fact the two brothers didn’t agree on this, and Charles didn’t want to break away from the Church of England. Charles had eight children although only three survived: his two sons were both organists and composers, and his grandson Samuel Sebastian Wesley was one of the foremost composers of the 19th century. And his influence lives on ... in fact, I suppose I too am one of his pupils (see p6). John Hartley
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