Favourite Charles Wesley verses

[spot]

I'm tired of seeing titles as vague and all-encompassing as "Favourite Songs/Hymns/Poetry/Quotes" where there's practically nothing that isn't in context. Let's have at least one thread which has a close-in focus.

Go for it, team. I expect to see a hundred posts in here by the weekend.

[neffy]

i could put a thread on shelleys poems spot

[Imladris]

And can it be that I should gain

an interest in the Savior's blood!

Died he for me? who caused his pain!

For me? who him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be

that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be

that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?



2.

'Tis mystery all: th' Immortal dies!

Who can explore his strange design?

In vain the firstborn seraph tries

to sound the depths of love divine.

'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;

let angel minds inquire no more.

'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;

let angel minds inquire no more.



3.

He left his Father's throne above

(so free, so infinite his grace!),

emptied himself of all but love,

and bled for Adam's helpless race.

'Tis mercy all, immense and free,

for O my God, it found out me!

'Tis mercy all, immense and free,

for O my God, it found out me!



4.

Long my imprisoned sprit 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.

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

5.

No condemnation now I dread;

Jesus, and all in him, is mine;

alive in him, my living Head,

and clothed in righteousness divine,

bold I approach th' eternal throne,

and claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Bold I approach th' eternal throne,

and claim the crown, through Christ my own.





I know it's the whole hymn but I do like it.

[Imladris]

Love divine, all loves excelling,

joy of heaven, to earth come down;

fix in us thy humble dwelling;

all thy faithful mercies crown!

Jesus thou art all compassion,

pure, unbounded love thou art;

visit us with thy salvation;

enter every trembling heart.



Just the first verse this time!

[spot]

Neffy, you have just posted a proposal for a Favourite Percy Bysshe Shelley Verses thread in the middle of a Favourite Charles Wesley Verses thread. Worse yet, you didn't include a Charles Wesley verse while doing so, such as:Harlots and publicans and thieves

In holy triumph join!

Saved is the sinner that believes

From crimes as great as mine.See, Immy's got the hang of it. Great choices Immy.

[neffy]

ok so i am thick must of read it the wrong leaving this post shutting the door bye

[spot]

neffy;668388 wrote: ok so i am thick must of read it the wrong leaving this post shutting the door bye


My evangelizing skills need working on, I can tell.Righteous God! whose vengeful phials

All our fears and thoughts exceed,

Big with woes and fiery trials,

Hanging, bursting o'er our head;

While thou visitest the nations,

Thy selected people spare;

Arm our cautioned souls with patience,

Fill our humbled hearts with prayer.

[spot]

I've always felt that Charles Wesley paid his main attention to a fear of just retribution. It's not as fashionable these days, but without the one it seems pointless to consider the alternative of reward. The happy-clappy brigade go on at length about the joys of eternal bliss but they'd have trouble expressing a view like this:No matter which my thoughts employ,

A moment's misery, or joy;

But O! when both shall end,

Where shall I find my destined place?

Shall I my everlasting days

With fiends, or angels spend?

Nothing is worth a thought beneath

But how I may escape the death

That never, never dies;

How make mine own election sure,

And, when I fail on earth, secure

A mansion in the skies.

[KB.]

I'm going cheap, but it is my favorite.

"Jesus, lover of my Soul."

Wesley was an amazing man. His faith and his ability to express it are second to none. Very good post Spot, thank you for that. It has been a long while since I read Wesley.

[spot]

KB.;668587 wrote: Wesley was an amazing man. His faith and his ability to express it are second to none. Very good post Spot, thank you for that. It has been a long while since I read Wesley.There's threads can be made out of the oddest material.

He went in a lot for millenial imagery did Charles Wesley, the dividing of the sheep and goats and the howling of the damned. It's seriously out of fashion these days I'd have thought. How many congregations still use this?Every eye shall now behold him

Robed in dreadful majesty;

Those who set at nought and sold him,

Pierced and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing, Deeply wailing

Shall the true Messiah see.

The dear tokens of his passion

Still his dazzling body bears;

Cause of endless exultation

To his ransomed worshippers;

With what rapture, With what rapture

Gaze we on those glorious scars!- and I've not gone anywhere near his extraordinary vocabulary yet.

[chonsigirl]

He is a master of the hymns, and once in a while in the traditional service we still sing them. When we look at the dates, they amaze us.

[spot]

I'm delighted that people recognise him still. Do you stick to hymns just from your current church hymn book, chonsi, or have you got more flexible in this Internet age? I know some ministers take hymns from a wider source than their central church makes available. I'm always aware of the power hymn-selectors have over their generation, bringing in this and taking out that as they compile the hymn book which will be used for the next thirty years.

The hymns I'm thinking of as I write that aren't content with "everything in the garden's rosy", they go down into the gutter. More to the point they don't assume that the sinners outside the church are in it - Charles Wesley addresses the sinners in the church benches directly:Sinners, turn, why will ye die?

God, the Spirit, asks you why?

He who all your lives hath strove,

Wooed you to embrace his love:

Will you not his grace receive?

Will you still refuse to live?

Why, ye long-sought sinners, why

Will you grieve your God, and die?

Dead, already dead within,

Spiritually dead in sin,

Dead to God while here you breathe,

Pant ye after second death?

Will you still in sin remain,

Greedy of eternal pain?

O ye dying sinners, why,

Why will you for ever die?

[KB.]

A very old friend of mine, a friend who went through many things with me. We used to drive around on old gravel roads late at night and discuss religion. My faith is strong always has been, his was not always so. We used to have some of the most convoluted discussions about faith. He is now a church leader, he leads services, sings, and this man can sing, in the choir. He holds bible study meetings. It is the total other end of the spectrum. He told me one night a couple of months ago, "I just wanted to tell you thank you, you are the reason I am who I am today. You never gave up trying to show me that it wasn't about the brick and mortar, that it wasn't about what other people did or didn't do; that it was about me and my faith only".

Then he told me he had been teaching Wesley, sharing the hymns with his peers.

1.

Let us plead for faith alone,

faith which by our works is shown;

God it is who justifies,

only faith the grace applies.

2.

Active faith that lives within,

conquers hell and death and sin,

hallows whom it first made whole,

forms the Savior in the soul.

3.

Let us for this faith contend,

sure salvation is the end;

heaven already is begun,

everlasting life is won.

4.

Only let us persevere

till we see our Lord appear,

never from the Rock remove,

saved by faith which works by love.





Most times sinners really do make the best saints.

[chonsigirl]

That is true, KB.

We have 3 Sunday morning services: traditional, blended and contemporary. The Wesleyan hymns could be in the first two, or evening service. Blended and contemporary add choruses, but we have orchestration for them, I have a little orchestra that plays with me first and second, a band for third. (I set up the way services are, they hired a full time music pastor to take my place, he can pick out the music now, I am just in charge of the musicians, hand bell choir, etc. It takes a long time to select the proper music every Sunday, for it to blend together and go with the sermon)

[KB.]

I assume, and forgive me for doing so, that this is a Methodist church. The man I am referring to goes to the same Methodist church I used to attend when I still went to church.

[chonsigirl]

We are a Nazarene church, based on Weslyan principles.

[KB.]

Makes sense, most pre-modern Methodist churches held strongly to Wesley's teachings. Nazarene churches still do for the most part, lot of similarities between the two.

[chonsigirl]

Yes, I do think there are many similarities in doctrine.

When I moved to Baltimore, it was the closest denomination to what I had gone to before, and I like the Nazarene church very much.

[spot]

chonsigirl;668710 wrote: Yes, I do think there are many similarities in doctrine.I've just been browsing the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene at http://media.premierstudios.com/nazaren ... 005_09.pdf and you do seem to have held more tightly to some of the earlier social guidelines than has the Methodist Church of Great Britain. I was checking the position on alcohol and gambling, since those are the two parts that were so contentious over here. The Nazarene view is covered extensively in 34: We hold specifically that the following practices should be avoided etc.

From what I've seen of the main church site I'd feel quite at home among you, it has much the same primitive Methodist feel that I'm familiar with.

[KB.]

I have erred. I meant to say,"he has been teaching John Wesley", all family, but it changes some things. I am more of a fan of John than Charles, but hold great respect for them both.

[spot]

KB.;668743 wrote: I have erred. I meant to say,"he has been teaching John Wesley", all family, but it changes some things. I am more of a fan of John than Charles, but hold great respect for them both.


There was one major final Methodist hymnbook in their lifetime, which came out in 1780. From memory, 12 hymns in it were translations by John, and 511 were written by Charles.

Both of them wrote huge Journals which are instructive. John wrote several books. One of the doctrinal standards of British Methodism is a collection of sermons preached mostly by John but a few of them are from Charles - "Awake, Thou That Sleepest" is a good example. He does have a different voice, though as you'd expect he has a similar theme.

While they both remained ordained ministers of the Church of England all their lives, Charles wasn't frowned on so much, the CoE gave him a church in London but they banned John from their pulpits eventually.

Charles is particularly prone to "I" hymns instead of "We" hymns, though obviously he has both. It does mean that his verses work well for private devotion and prayer. The trouble with leaving them out of modern hymn books is that fewer people know them, or intuitively put an appropriate tune to them. I think we need a new edition just for people to read at home. This is the sort I'm thinking of:I seem desirous to repent,

But cannot without thee

Soften this hard heart, or lament

My own obduracy;

Gladly I would thy word believe,

My dear Redeemer know,

But neither can rejoice, nor grieve,

Till thou the power bestow.

I would more sensibly distressed,

Throughout this evil day

Struggle to utter my request.

But cannot, cannot pray,

Until the Spirit from on high

His needful aid impart,

And raise a supplicating cry

Within my broken heart.