greatly offended at some of the preachers attempting to administer the sacraments, etc. These bits of satire were also dropt in the later edition. 177. Against Molther and the Quietists. The doctrine of stillness, it will be remembered, was one of the earliest thorns in the side of Methodism. See Life, I. 221. "The hymn,” says Mr. Jackson," guards against extremes both on the right hand and the left. . . . He used to call upon the right-minded people in his congregation at the Foundry to unite with him in singing it." 186. This appeared not in the volume of 1739, but appended to his brother's sermon on "Free Grace." Mr. Whitefield remonstrated (see Creamer's "Hymnology," p. 109). Verses 10-12 are a paraphrase of the following passage in a letter of Susannah Wesley (a woman, as we know, of masculine intellect, and as good a theologian as her husband) to her son John, July 18, 1726: "Whom, in His eternal Prescience, God saw would make a right use of their powers, and accept of offered mercy, He did predestinate adopt for His children, His peculiar treasure. And that they might be conformed to the image of His only Son, He called them to Himself by His eternal Word, through the preaching of the Gospel, and internally by His Holy Spirit: which call they obeying, repenting of their sins and believing in the Lord Jesus, He justifies them. absolves them from the guilt of all their sins, and acknowledges them as just and righteous persons, through the merits and mediation of Christ: - and having thus justified, He receives them to glory to heaven." 192. This is the "pawning his salvation," of which Whitefield complained. 193-208. If the use of so much wit, satire, and severity seem to any unpardonable in sacred subjects, we must rememper that the Arminian poet was fighting a demon which in our day is unseen. The Reprobation which then had a terribly real existence has now nearly vanished from the earth; but one who reads the Calvinistic writings of the last century will scarcely think that Wesley hit too hard. 215-224. As a versifier of the Psalms Wesley lacked the essentials of complete success, for he had not the power of condensation. His paraphrases, though vastly superior to Merrick's, must come under the same criticism: elegant, but diffuse, and often verbose even. 231-307. The Scripture Hymns are here represented at length, yet not out of proportion; for they constitute in number one half, and in quantity nearly one fourth, of C. W's. published poems. And they perforce have what is with him the rare charm of brevity. Too often he uses a text merely as a peg to hang his views upon, and these volumes are largely weighted down with the Doctrine of Perfection: still much of their contents shows him in an unaccustomed light. I have here given whatever, for justness of thought, force of fancy, or elegance of expression, seemed most valuable. 66 234. In the second verse, first line, the original is "Death's sentence." But the connection seems to require Earth's," which is the reading in the second edition. 304. This is noticeable as being quite out of its author's usual style, and near to that of the Latin hymns, then known to scholars only, but now, in their abundant translations, a leading element in our hymnology. 311. The last half of the third verse is perhaps the most objectionably strenuous expression C. W. ever used. The poem, however, is interesting as describing an ideal state of mind. 332. This should rather have gone among the Autobiographic poems, but was overlooked till too late for insertion there. See note above, on p. 31. 344. This also should be in the first part of this volume. It is one of his most terse, vigorous, and characteristic poems. 355. Printed in the original as three hymns, though evidently one: this was a not infrequent fashion in the Wesleyan volumes. 359. "The Last Wish." Possibly his noblest poem: a grand description of the loftiest conceivable mental state, did he not spoil the whole in the last line but one by that perversely Charles-Wesleyan word, "groan." 369. Amusing efforts have been often made by communions not Methodist to use a portion of this vigorous poem, making it refer to Heaven. Such attempts are scarcely honest: the Rest described is evidently and only that of temporal Perfection. 374-380. These three were plainly written about the same time, and under the same mental conditions: in a mood, indeed, that does not come often nor last long, even with poets. There are curious passages, as in the last verse but one, and expressions throughout almost of impatience; but here surely is "the vision and the faculty divine," that nameless some thing which has made every reader for a century feel with John Wesley, this is real poetry. INDEX OF FIRST LINES. In this Index the Scripture Hymns, except such as are of some length or have been used elsewhere, are not included; and first lines of verses other than the first are given, when they have come to form the beginning of hymns in common use. Such are marked ‡. † indicates that a hymn, or some portion of it, is found in the present Methodist book, or is otherwise familiarly known; and * that a hymn has been reprinted in at least one collection, old or new. Abba, Father, hear Thy child And did my Lord on earth endure † And let this feeble body fail.. † Be it my only wisdom here... † Blessing, honor, thanks, and praise Blest be the God, whose tender care. Brightness of the eternal glory. † Called from above, I rise.. Can we in unbelievers find. f Christ the Lord is risen to-day † Christ, whose glory fills the skies. Come, divine Emmanuel, come.. PAGE 368 248 147 193 363 345 5 21 308 139 378 344 376 330 69 36 14 282 143 82 304 302 182 64 331 17 |