Charles Wesley

The Methodist movement began in the eighteenth century as an effort to revitalize the Anglican Church. The Methodists became a society within the Church of England, and its founders, John and Charles Wesley, never wanted the society to split from the Church of England. In 1795, a few years after the death of the Wesleys, the Methodists separated from the Anglican Church. John Wesley is historically credited with founding the Methodist movement, but Charles Wesley's role as a "preacher, organizer and leader" (Haas 3) in the establishment of the movement is often overlooked. The hymns of Charles Wesley depict common Christian struggles and show the doctrinal standpoints that caused him to come into conflict with popular religious institutions of eighteenth century Europe and to lie on the edge of the Anglican tradition.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the son of Reverend Samuel and Susanna Wesley. Reverend Wesley worked in the Anglican Church; the Wesley parents worked excessively because they were poor, and until Charles was eight years old, he schooled at home with his mother. In 1715, he went away to school at Westminster. During his time at Westminster, he remained in close contact with his eldest brother Sam Wesley, but had little contact with his parents.

In 1726, Charles Wesley was elected to Christ Church, Oxford. He was a diligent student, and in 1729, he received his BA. At Oxford, he came into contact with his brother, John Wesley, again. John's friends and fellowship group immediately accepted Charles. During college, Charles enjoyed reading the classics and watching dramas. His popularity soared at parties because he could create impromptu rhymes, and his talent with the German flute facilitated his involvement in the college musical life. When Charles was in his middle ages, he reflected on his activities in college as "harmless diversions" that caused him to be "dead to God and in the arms of Satan for eighteen years" (Brailsford 55). "While John could not fail to recognize that his young brother was able and willing to carry on the Wesley tradition of scholarship, he saw the misgiving that play held equal attractions with work for the lively boy" (Brailsford 56). While Charles and John were at Oxford together, John tried to talk with Charles about religion, but Charles was more interested in his studies; Charles answered, "'What, would you have me be a saint all at once?' and would hear no more" (Brailsford 57).

John Wesley left Oxford, but he returned in 1729 to fulfill fellowship requirements and found a very different Charles Wesley. Charles now led a fellowship group; but when John returned, Charles immediately relinquished power to John. This group of five men received the nickname The Holy Club or The Methodists. They met three to four evenings a week to read the classics and on Sunday evening to read either the Bible, a book about the Bible, or a book about Christianity. The Holy Club held frequent communions, and advocated private prayer and self-examination. They spent their free time teaching the illiterate to read, visiting prisoners, helping the sick and needy, and spreading the Gospel to unenlightened people in need of help. The ideals of The Holy Club included pure morality and hard study.

William Law's standards set forth in A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life were regarded as part of The Holy Club's guidelines. These standards consist of the following: 1) A life bequeathed or faithful to God indicating devotion, 2) Psalm-singing, 3) Getting up early, 4) Better education for women, and 5) Beginning each day with a charitable act. "Charles Wesley, who had rebelled against his brother's attempts to make him a 'saint,' now began to follow Law's directions for a devout and holy life in the most literal sense, and the most minute particulars" (Brailsford 67). These guidelines advocate personal discipline and self-denial of material objects while also caring for and helping others. "For six years this little band of brothers endured an iron personal discipline, forcing themselves to distasteful tasks, and earning thereby not only the mockery of their contemporaries, but also the disapproval of their elders" (Brailsford 75).

In 1735, the Wesley brothers (Charles and John) journeyed to Georgia to provide spiritual guidance for the colonists and to be missionaries to the Native Americans. Charles Wesley was ordained specifically for this task in 1735, but his rigid belief system prevented him from adapting his teachings and methods of teaching to the colonists' needs. For example, Charles asked the colonists to come to church for prayer four times per day. In the New World, housewives and other workers did not have the time, energy or the desire to go to church so many times in one day. But Charles firmly believed it was necessary for the colonists to do so. Obviously Charles Wesley was not very popular in the colonies as an evangelist. While his brother stayed in the colonies for years, Charles stayed only a few months. "Spiritual despair and physical exhaustion" (Goetz 584) caused him to return home; he traveled back to England happily, but feeling a sense of failure.

The next few years were filled with illness for Charles Wesley. During this illness, he met Peter Böhler and John Bray. Böhler, a Moravian,[1] discussed the Reformation crux of salvation through grace alone with Wesley. Later, Bray further pressed the issue with Charles "until Charles reached an experiential and theological point of transition-his 'conversion.' Theologically his conversion meant a reordering of his soteriology on the basis of the Moravian's doctrine of justification by faith. It signaled a transition from what Charles described as 'the legal state' (which sought salvation by good endeavors) to what he termed 'receiving atonement' or 'receiving Christ, and living by faith in His merits. Experientially, it meant a 'comfort' or 'perfect peace,' an inward sense of God's acceptance made real to Charles, and a concomitant and continuing sense of assurance of that same acceptance. (Tyson 92-93) Many of Charles Wesley's attempts to find a comfortable salvation failed, but in 1738, he felt "at peace with God" (Goetz 584). It was at a Moravian gathering where Romans 5 was being discussed that Charles experienced his conversion. The turning point in Charles Wesley's life and part of the basis of the Methodist following is exhibited in Romans 5:1-5: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, Because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy spirit, Whom he has given us." (Romans 5:1-5 NIV) After the gathering, Charles found the spiritual peace he had been searching for his entire life. The above passage states that salvation is justified through faith in Christ alone, and that suffering creates Christian perfection. Self-denial of material objects is a Methodist device used to further one's spiritual development, and John and Charles Wesley found the inspiration for this device in Romans 5. The idea that Christian suffering helps a person find salvation is also a prominent theme in Wesley's hymns.

Of all the Methodist hymn writers, Charles Wesley was the most prolific. He published more than 4,500 hymns and left manuscripts of numerous others.[2] The hymns deal with a variety of topics, and the tunes come from many different sources. Charles composed some of the melodies used in his hymns as did two of his children; Handel composed others (e.g., Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) because he was a close friend to Charles, but the rest were borrowed from popular songs of the time, existing liturgical tunes, and bar tunes. Some of the most popular Wesleyan hymns include: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling; Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today; Soldiers of Christ, Arise; Rejoice, the Lord is King; and Jesu, Lover of My Soul.

Meter was a major component of Wesley's hymns. His first hymns use the long, short and common meters[3] traditionally demanded in English church music. But as he grew as a hymn writer, various meters became apparent. Many times, the meter emphasized the ideas presented in the hymn. The most common meter, and thought to be Charles Wesley's favorite meter, was a six line form, each containing eight poetic feet and having the rhyme scheme ABABCC. He mainly used iambic feet, but he also explored anapests and trochees.[4] The use of anapests cause people to clap and stomp their feet in time with the music; thus, the anapestic hymns were nicknamed 'jigs.' These characteristics of Wesley's hymns exhibit his talent as a hymn writer and help distinguish his work from the work of others.

"Wesley's classical training and thorough biblical study combined to give his work a 'purity of poetic diction'" (Tyson 29). Some scholars charge Wesley with introducing secular literary allusions into his hymns. The problem with this attack is that Wesley did not read much except for the Bible after graduating from Oxford when he began his hymn writing. Only one out of every 2,000 lines of poetry contains an image that may be construed as secular. "[T]he influence of secular writers, and also religious, though obvious is really no more conspicuous than might be the tang of erudition to a kind of poetry in which it is often missing" (Tyson 31). Thus, any classical or secular ideas introduced into Wesley's hymns were used in an instructional way; these ideas provided a connection to the people he was trying to reach. Wesley did not introduce secularity as a means of straying from the purpose of worship, but rather as a means of luring the people into studying worship.

Christian suffering was a typical Biblically based subject of Wesley's hymns. Charles Wesley suffered sickness often throughout his life, and he expressed deep emotions in verse. These emotions comprised much of the content of his hymns. Since he was ill much of the time, many of his hymns express the benefit of suffering to a Christian life. "Mourning, weeping and physical suffering" (Tyson 25) were "purifying agents in the . . . quest for Christian Perfection" (Tyson 24), according to Charles in his early hymn writing years. One verse of a hymn exhibiting sorrow follows:

Thou know'st the Spirit of prayer
I groan for a speedy release,
And long have pined to be there.
Where sorrow and misery cease;
Where all temptation is past,
And loss and affliction are o'er,
And anguish is ended at last,
And trouble and death are no more. (Tyson 25)

Many words in this excerpt express suffering, such as "groan," "sorrow," "misery," "affliction," and "anguish" (Tyson 25). The connotations of these words implant painful and uneasy pictures in the mind of the listener--earthly suffering and a longing for death. While sorrowful words bring the listener's attention to the gloomy mood of the excerpt, biblical allusions show how earthly suffering leads to Christian perfection.

Charles Wesley's own spiritual experiences were one influence of his hymns. "Many of them could not have been written by any man who had not himself experienced the anguish of soul they record" (Rattenbury 30). Some of his hymns depict moods so melancholy that they could not be a created reflection of anyone's experience except the writer. He created hymns for private penance, and these hymns were probably not written for publication. "Most of them were either the expressions of some depressed hour of his own experience, or had behind them a remembered bitter hour of spiritual combat" (Rattenbury 30). Charles Wesley tried to attain perfection spiritually. After his conversion experience, Wesley continued to believe he could be closer to perfect in God's view. He describes this experience as the first step toward perfection in this hymn:

Jesus, the first and the last,
On Thee my soul is cast;
Thou didst Thy work begin
By blotting out my sin;
Thou wilt the root remove
And perfect me in love.

Yet when the work is done,
The work is but begun:
Partaker of Thy grace,
I long to see Thy face;
The first I prove below,
The last I die to know. (Rattenbury 31)

In the preceding verses, Wesley measures his spiritual perfection and salvation by his own perception of peace at the time. According to this hymn, salvation occurs in stages. In these verses, he describes his place in the search for peace as begun but not attained after accepting the faith alone doctrine.

John Wesley was one influence of Charles Wesley's hymns. "In John's absence Whitefield[5] or the Moravians swayed him hither and thither; and for the last forty years of his life his beloved wife Sally governed him through his affections . . . Charles's genius was derivative, and took its color from the associate with whom he was most in sympathy at the moment" (Brailsford 130). Since Wesley was in love with his wife, he wrote numerous hymns about his relationship to her and their relationship to spirituality. One example of this type of writing was created during the time Sally had smallpox:

God of love, with pity see,
Succour of our infirmity;
Father, let Thy will be done;
Thine we say, but mean our own.

* * *

Dearest of Thy gifts below,
Nature cannot let her go;
Nature, till by grace subdued,
Will not give her back to God. (Tyson 332)

This hymn deals with Wesley's struggle to accept his wife's illness. He says that he wants God's will to be done, but he really wishes for his own desire. This struggle is common to most humans. People diligently try to allow God's will to be carried out, but sometimes people lose someone or something by doing so. Wesley takes a common Christian battle, interprets this battle according to doctrine and provides comfort to the people through hymnody.

Besides his wife Sally, Charles found inspiration for hymns in his children. He was a devoted husband and father. Therefore, it is no surprise that Wesley felt very deep pain when one of his children died. Wesley writes, "Dead! Dead! the child I loved so well! / Transported to the world above!" (Tyson 334) These lines express great sorrow, but also provide a piece of hope. Although Charles Wesley is grieving the death of one of his children, he uses this opportunity to remark that the child has enlisted in the heavenly realm. The idea of a dead child entering heaven provides comfort to the listener after he or she has been so shocked by the interjections "Dead! Dead!" (Tyson 334) Even in the most dire situations, Wesley presented people with comfort and hope through Christian hymns.

Although experience provided the subject of Wesley's hymns, theological doctrines were also presented in them. He was not a formal theologian, but he studied the Bible extensively. In fact, John and Charles Wesley did not readily preach doctrine; they mainly taught ethical issues. The hymns imply the doctrine the men did not explicitly teach. John Wesley agreed that the hymns provided the best way to teach doctrine. In treatises and hymn books, John referred to Charles's hymns as authoritative. According to John Ernest Rattenbury, it is frequently claimed that 'Charles Wesley's hymns are the true theology of Methodism.'

One would not consider Charles a conventional theologian, but theological doctrines are present in his hymns.
"He was a theological artist, not a theological scientist, but when he gave rich, beautiful, and poetic form to truth which convinces, was it less true because it had been reached by the intuitional mode of the penitent rather than by the intellectual technique of the philosopher?" (Rattenbury 86) Wesley's hymns were more effective during his lifetime than they are now although many of them continue to teach and inspire Christians. This is due to cultural differences including the fact that a greater number of people knew more about the Bible back then than they do now. Some Biblical allusions in his hymns that were so meaningful to followers then may be completely overlooked now. The most prominent theme of Wesley's hymns is Biblical knowledge. Many of his hymns are actually paraphrases of Biblical passages. In his hymns, Wesley discussed the relationship of the Old Testament to the present age; he also examined sin, salvation, God as love, Christian perfection and the Eucharist.

"According to Charles Wesley, the Old Testament is a book of shadows, of which Jesus is the substance" (Rattenbury 92). Wesley preached the Old Testament and treated it as if it were equivalent in stature to the New Testament. For example, he interprets stories of Aaron, Amalek and Jacob into Christian knowledge. In the following hymn about Jacob's Ladder, Wesley writes "What doth the ladder mean, / Sent down from most high? . . . Jesus that ladder is, The incarnate Deity, / Partaker of celestial bliss and human misery" (Rattenbury 92). In this excerpt, Jesus becomes the realized Jacob's ladder from the Old Testament. Of the prophets, Wesley says,

Vain in themselves their duties were,
Their services could never please,
Till joined with thine, and made to share
The merits of thy righteousness. (Lawson 35)

The works of the prophets were trivial until Jesus completed their work. These are only a few examples of the Old Testament related hymns by Charles Wesley.

Wesley believed that man inherited sin from Adam and Eve, and the moment when Adam and Eve sinned was 'Eden Lost.' Wesley never defined 'Eden Lost' because doing so would be frivolous. According to Wesley, the sinner is "'dead in trespasses and sins.' For, 'to be carnally minded is death.' Even as it is written, 'By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men;' not only temporal death, but likewise spiritual and eternal. 'In that day that thou eatest,' said God to Adam, 'thou shalt surely die;' not bodily (unless as he then became mortal), but spiritually; thou shalt lose the life of thy soul; thou shalt die to God; shalt be separated from him, thy essential life and happiness." (Wesley) He understands that one makes the choice to sin, be lost and die or to be virtuous and obtain God's grace. He exhibits this choice in the following lines:

Selfish pursuits, and nature's maze,
the things of earth, for Thee I leave;
Put forth Thy hand, Thy hand of grace,
Into the ark of love receive. (Lawson 87)

God dislikes the sin, not the sinner; through flawless love, His grace can redeem human sin. Although one makes the choice to sin or not to sin, man cannot save himself; the initiative to be saved comes from God. Just as one can fall into grace, one can also fall out of grace. When one falls out of grace, he loses the "peace and assurance" (Rattenbury 273) and a love that expresses itself through grace.

Salvation was a promised event to Charles; it is promised in the future, not in the present. He agreed with the Moravian and Lutheran view of salvation through faith alone, but he included another stipulation. Salvation occurs through faith as long as one disciplines himself. To have faith, one must experience faith as Charles experienced faith during his conversion experience. Once one has achieved salvation, one creates a new relation with God; this new relation leads to a new life order. This concept is called the doctrine of new birth. The new order would come in the future when all sin was gone and love dominated the entire man. "[I]n the midst of natural 'life, we are' now in spiritual 'death.' And herein we remain till the Second Adam becomes a quickening Spirit to us" (Wesley). The new order would be an earthly paradise in which the inceptive unfallen human nature is restored.

In Wesley's theology, God is pure universal love. Humans learn about God through Christ, the humanity of Jesus through the suffering servant's tenderness toward others, and the divinity through the Savior. Love shown toward others is the only form of Godly love. To know God is to know love according to Wesley; to know love is to receive the grace of God. God does not discriminate when offering love. Therefore it is possible for every man or woman to receive the divine gift of salvation because God's love is not just for an elected few. In poetic form, Charles celebrates God's gift of universal love:

Ho! every one that thirsts, draw nigh!
'Tis God invites the fallen race:
Mercy and free salvation buy;
Buy wine, and milk, and gospel grace.

In this verse, every one is invited to 'buy' grace for 'free.'

The doctrine of universal grace "was bounded on the one side by Charles's emphasis on his doctrine of an unlimited atonement and by his preaching of the 'universal call' of the Christ on the other" (Tyson 37). As Charles Wesley wrote, "Know every child of Adam's race / Thy Savior died for Thee!" (Tyson 38) In many other hymns dealing with redemption, blood was a symbol of Christ's death and of human atonement. In his latest hymns, the word 'blood' occurred approximately eight hundred times, and could be considered his best liked symbol for redemption. In order to receive the grace, one must remove the imperfection of the destroyer and accept the perfection of the Creator. Universal grace contrasts with the Calvinist doctrine of predestination.

Christian perfection serves as a goal of Methodists. Both John and Charles Wesley strove for this type of perfection although Charles took the quest to extremes. The aim of Christian perfection was to become like Christ, and to be like Christ was to suffer. John thought Charles was too strict in approach to perfection. John knew that Charles could not attain the type of perfection he was looking to find. Both of the brothers taught this doctrine, but each of the brothers had a different view of the doctrine. John's idea of Christian perfection was attainable, while Charles's was not. Charles searched for heavenly perfection rather than practicable Christian perfection, i.e., the ideal rather than the attainable. According to Charles, "Christian perfection is not a higher form of Justification, but a completion" (Rattenbury 303). This doctrine of perfection was often misinterpreted as a form of eighteenth century antimonianism which said that the believer could be as perfect as angels. Charles's goal was to find God's love, but he constantly felt as if he failed. He did not believe he could know God when he was not perfect--when he continued to have earthly, evil desires.

The mode of the Eucharist was widely debated during the eighteenth century. Different Christian groups argued over whether the elements of the Eucharist actually became the body and blood of Christ during the Communion ceremony or simply a symbol of Christ's body and blood. Although Charles Wesley wrote one-hundred sixty-six hymns dealing with the Eucharist, he refused to discuss the mode of activity in it. Discussion of this activity only created a series of unanswerable questions. He did believe that "[t]he elements were real channels of saving grace to those who humbly partook of them in grace" (Rattenbury 218). His view of the Eucharist can be clearly seen in the following hymn verse:

And shall I let him go?
If now I do not feel
The streams of Living Water flow,
Shall I forsake the well?

* * *

Because He saith, Do this,
This I will always do. (Manning 75)

Since the Wesley brothers believed in a strong doctrinal background, it was inevitable that theological disputes would arise. For example, the Calvinist controversy occurred in the mid-eighteenth century. The Calvinist controversy was an argument centered on the doctrine of predestination between the Wesley brothers and a group of Calvinists. Calvinists argued that salvation was only for an elect few who were chosen before creation; earthly actions cannot gain divine grace for one who was not chosen. In opposition to this doctrine, the Wesleys preached universal grace for all, not just an elect few. In the 1740 Methodist hymn book, Wesley published some anti-Calvinist hymns. The following hymn was published in the 1740 hymn book:

Who'er admits; my soul disowns
The image of a torturing God,
Well-pleased with human shrieks and groans,
A fiend, an Moloch gorged with blood!

Good God! that any child of Thine
so horribly think of Thee!
Lo! All my hopes I here resign,
If all may not find grace with me. (Rattenbury 117)

This hymn in combination with a sermon Charles gave on free grace for all disproved the Calvinist views on predestination. Wesley showed that the Calvinist interpretations of scripture passages dealing with predestination were incompatible with the entire history of Bible teaching. He even refused to argue scripture if it professed the reality of an unfair, fickle and severe God.

The Calvinists, in Wesley's view, believed in a God of hate. In another hymn, Wesley personates a Calvinist teacher:

The God of truth did not intend
The thing His words declare;
He offers grace to all,
Which most cannot embrace,
Mock'd with an ineffectual call
And insufficient grace.

The righteous God consign'd
Them over to their doom,
And sent the Saviour of mankind
To damn them from the womb;

To damn for falling short
Of what they could not do,
For not believing the report
Of that which was not true

* * *

He did not then bereave
Of life, or stop their breath;
His grace He only would not give,
And starved their souls to death. (Rattenbury 118-119)

To the message delivered in this personation, Wesley responds:

Satanic sophistry!
but still, all-gracious God,
They charge the sinner's death on Thee
Who bought'st him with Thy blood. (Rattenbury 119)

The Calvinists felt that Charles Wesley ridiculed their devotion and distorted Calvinist teaching. Charles could not believe that God could create all of humanity only to condemn a majority of them to an eternity of torment in hell. He wrote,

'Tis we, the wretched abjects we,
Our blasphemies on Thee translate;
We think that fury is in Thee,
Horribly think, that god is hate. (Rattenbury 121)

Theological differences between the Methodist societies and the Church of England began to arise as well. Within the Church of England, the Communion sacrament was distributed infrequently. During the time of the Methodist societies, the Communion was only administered on Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. The lay people felt that only a few pious congregation members should attend Communion. It was also common for a certificate stating that one had participated in the Holy Communion to be required for a government post. "This unspiritual abuse helped to cast an air of formality upon the Lord's Supper. It was in these somewhat unpropitious circumstances that the Methodist preaching was accompanied by a remarkable wave of sacramental fervor" (Lawson 164). It should be remembered that The Holy Club had received the disapproval of the elders of the Church because the club held frequent Communions.

Hymn singing was unpopular in the Anglican Church in the eighteenth century. The Church preferred for the congregations to sing psalms rather than hymns. "[D]uring the height of Charles Wesley's poetic activity, hymns continued to play an insignificant role within the worship service of the Church of England. Outside of certain charitable institutions in London (the Foundling Hospital, the Lock Hospital, and the House of Refuge for Female Orphans, for example) that published their own hymnals and encouraged congregational singing by inmates, hymnody made little impression upon those who controlled and directed the Anglican establishment. Anglicans resented what they believed to have been the unhealthy atmosphere of Nonconformist enthusiasm and even fanaticism." (Rogal 97) "The Anglican view was that the practice [of hymn singing] was unscriptural, schismatical, and doctrinally dangerous, and this view was widely persisted in well into the nineteenth century" (Gillman 232). Apparently the hymn singing in the Methodist societies was disdained by the Anglican clergy. The view that the hymn singing was schismatical was true because the Methodist following split from the Church of England partly because of the issue of hymn singing. Of course, John and Charles Wesley saw the benefits of hymn singing--instilling doctrine and keeping the congregation's interest during services. The benefits of hymn singing as a teaching tool outweighed the disapproval of the Church elders.

Charles Wesley considered the Church of England to be Christ's Church. He saw this Church as divinely instituted and authorized through the succession of the apostles.[6] John and Charles never wanted to create a new sect of the Church of England. They were both attached to the Church and protested that "they lived and died in her communion" (Gillman 232). Both of the brothers were ordained in the Anglican Church. They sought to revitalize the church, not recreate it. They differed on one issue concerning the Church, though. Charles did not approve of John ordaining preachers for the Methodist societies. Charles saw more clearly than John that ordaining ministers took the societies one step farther from the Anglican Church.

Charles Wesley remained on the edge Anglicanism throughout his adult life. Beginning with The Holy Club partaking in extra communion meals, Wesley's ideas gradually distanced the Methodist followers from the Church of England. His hymns often support the prevailing doctrines of the Church of England. Reverend Samuel Wesley provided his children with a strong church doctrinal background. John and Charles did not part from this doctrine. The Wesley brothers disagreed with the Church of England as to how the doctrine should be presented. The Church did not find hymn singing as a valid vehicle for doctrinal teaching. It is interesting that Charles could remain allied with a tradition that frowned upon the use of hymns in worship.

Charles Wesley borrowed religious doctrines and ideas from traditions other than Anglicanism. For example, he accepted the Moravian and Lutheran doctrine of justification through faith alone. He also admired the sincerity by which the Moravians sang hymns at congregational gatherings. Both of the Wesley brothers saw the Moravian hymn singing as a valid tool for worship. By accepting modes of worship from sources other than the Church of England, Wesley began creating a gap between the official Anglicanism and his version of Anglicanism.

The Church of England was too comfortable with its religion according to Wesley. The Wesley brothers wanted to reform the Church from within the Church. Charles truly understood a meaningful Christian life to entail suffering. The wealthy member of the Church of England did not see Christianity in that light. Church members relied upon good works to assure their salvation. The Wesleys created a new point of view. They agreed that people need to do good works, but the brothers saw suffering as necessary along with the good works.

Toward the end of his life, Wesley began to see the path Methodism was going to take. He must have known that the Methodist societies would break from the Church of England. Why would he otherwise disapprove of John ordaining ministers? Charles saw the ordination as a sign of change--a sign of movement away from the original tradition. The Wesleyan message catered more to the outcasts of society than to the aristocrats. Since the Wesley brothers grew up poor, it is not surprising that they would found a movement and be the cause of a new religious denomination that serves the needs of the poor.

An eighteenth century reform movement from within the Church of England evolved into an entirely new religious denomination with new ideas about worship services and new approaches to Church doctrine. Charles Wesley's hymns served as conveyors of the Methodist message. The hymns could teach doctrine without seeming like a lesson on doctrine. The movement sparked controversy within and outside of the Church of England. Some of the hymns were used to combat other theologies, as was the case with the anti-Calvinist hymns. Charles Wesley's role as a leader in the Methodist movement is often overlooked because of his brother's fame as the founder of Methodism, but his contribution to Christianity through hymns is immeasurable.

[1]The Moravian Church is a Protestant denomination founded by Hussite emigrants in 1722 in Saxony. It is a Christocentric faith which believes that the Bible is the only standard of faith and practice. Moravians have no creed of their own because they believe the large church bodies have already captured the essence of Christianity, but they believe in both the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.

[2]The exact number of hymns by Charles Wesley is debatable. Some sources claim he wrote as few as 7,500, while others claim that he wrote 9,000.

[3]The meters are classified by the number of syllables per poetic line. Long meter is 8.8.8.8, i.e., eight syllables per line in a four line stanza. Short meter is 6.6.8.6, and common meter is 8.6.8.6.

[4]The accent pattern for the iambic foot is . Anapestic accent patterns are . A trochee is .

[5]George Whitefield (1714-1770) was an evangelist in the Church of England, who taught in the New World and in Great Britain. During college at Oxford, he met the Wesley brothers. He disregarded differences in religious denominations, and he believed that before a person can be truly religious, he or she must undergo a spiritual awakening.

[6]This view differs from the Roman Catholic view that all denominations other than Roman Catholicism have split away from the succession of apostles.

WorksCited

-Brailsford, Mabel Richmond. A Tale of Two Brothers. London: Richard Clay and Company, Ltd., 1954.

-Gillman, Frederick John. The Evolution of the English Hymn. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927.

-Goetz, Philip W.ed. "Charles Wesley." Encyclopedia Brittanica: Micropaedia. 1986.

-Haas, Alfred Burton. "Charles Wesley." The Papers of the Hymn Society of America. Vol. XXII. Fort Worth, Texas: The Hymn Society of America, Inc., 1957.

-Lawson, John. The Wesley Hymns As a Guide to Scriptural Teaching. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Francis Asbury Press, 1987.

-Manning, Bernard Lord. The Hymns of Wesley and Watts: Five Informal Papers. London: The Epworth Press, 1960.

-Rattenbury, John Ernest. The Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley'sHymns. London: The Epworth Press, 1971.

-Rogal, Samuel J. A General Introduction to Hymnody and Congregational Song. New Jersey: The American Theological Society Library Association and The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991.

-Tyson, John R. Charles Wesley: A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

-Wesley, Charles. Sermon 3: "Awake, Thou That Sleepest." 4 April 1742.