Charles Wesley: the Making of a Hymn Writer
Charles Wesley: The Making of a Hymn-writer (Early Life)
Charles Wesley was born on December 18, 1707, in Epworth, Lincolnshire, the eighteenth of nineteen children born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley. His home was rich in both faith and learning. His father was an Anglican clergyman, and his mother—an extraordinary woman of intellect and devotion—took personal responsibility for the early education and spiritual formation of her children. Susanna’s methodical instruction and unwavering faith left a profound imprint on Charles, laying a foundation that would shape his entire life.
Charles showed academic promise from an early age. After attending Westminster School in London, he entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1726. There, alongside his brother John, Charles became deeply involved in religious life, eventually helping to form a small group of students committed to rigorous spiritual discipline. This group would come to be known—somewhat mockingly—as the “Holy Club.” It was here that Charles’s lifelong passion for ordered devotion, scripture study, and acts of mercy began to take clearer shape. Though deeply religious, Charles had not yet experienced the kind of personal assurance of salvation that would later define his evangelical faith.
During his time at Oxford, Charles also developed his love of poetry and music. He was a gifted writer with a sensitive ear for rhythm and language. While he never formally trained as a composer, his poetic instincts and exposure to Anglican hymnody and psalm singing would blossom into the extraordinary musical legacy for which he is best remembered. His immersion in classical education—rich in Latin, Greek, and poetic form—provided him the tools to write hymns that were not only theologically robust but lyrically beautiful.
In 1735, Charles accompanied his brother John to the American colony of Georgia as a missionary, hoping to serve God through good works and religious discipline. But their time there was difficult and spiritually unfulfilling. Charles returned to England disillusioned and empty—still striving, still unsure of his standing before God. It was in this spiritual wilderness that Charles, like John shortly after, would come to experience a deep, transforming encounter with the grace of Christ.
Conversion and Calling: Charles Wesley’s Evangelical Awakening
Charles Wesley’s long pursuit of holiness through effort and discipline finally reached its breaking point in 1738. Though outwardly devout and inwardly sincere, Charles remained deeply unsettled about his salvation. His journey to America had left him weary and spiritually dry, his efforts to earn God’s favor having yielded little but restlessness and doubt.
Then, on May 21, 1738, just three days before his brother John’s more famous Aldersgate experience, Charles Wesley had his own encounter with grace. While recovering from illness at the home of a friend in London, he was visited by a group of Moravian Christians who shared with him the joy and assurance of salvation by faith in Christ alone. That evening, Charles read from the Gospel of John and came to a personal conviction that Christ had died not only for the world, but for him. He described it simply in his journal:
“I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.”
This quiet but profound conversion changed the course of his life—and of English Christianity.
Almost immediately, Charles began to write hymns. In fact, he composed a hymn on the very day of his conversion, and over the next few years, his spiritual experience poured out in poetic form. He didn’t just write songs of praise—he wrote theology, testimony, prayer, and proclamation, all set to meter and verse. His hymns gave voice to the new movement of revival spreading across England, helping people sing the truths that were stirring their hearts.
Charles Wesley would go on to write over 6,000 hymns, many of which are still sung today: “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” “And Can It Be,” “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” These hymns were more than music—they were a way for ordinary people to learn and live the gospel. His gift was not just writing poetry, but helping people feel the truth of God’s love and grace.
A couple of his lesser known works, which display both beauty and depth are:
- His Communion hymns, which reflect deep Eucharistic theology and heartfelt worship. And,
- His massive and ambitious project: “Scripture Hymns”, a poetic rendering of nearly every chapter in the Bible.
Here are a few meaningful samples from both collections:
🕊️ From Wesley’s Hymns on the Lord’s Supper (1745)
These hymns reflect Charles’s reverent, sacramental view of Communion—not as mere symbolism, but as a spiritual encounter with the living Christ.
1. “Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast” (a Eucharistic invitation)
Come, sinners, to the gospel feast,
Let every soul be Jesus’ guest;
Ye need not one be left behind,
For God hath bidden all mankind.
This hymn echoes Jesus’ parables and emphasizes the open invitation of grace. It was often sung before receiving the Eucharist.
2. “Victim Divine, Thy Grace We Claim” (on the mystery of the sacrament)
Victim Divine, Thy grace we claim
While thus Thy precious death we show;
Once offered up a spotless Lamb,
In Thy great temple here below.
Thou didst for all mankind atone,
And standest now before the throne.
Here, Wesley draws from Hebrews and the theology of Christ as both priest and sacrifice. The language is rich with reverence and theological depth.
📖 From Scripture Hymns (1762–1765)
Charles Wesley’s Scripture Hymns is an extraordinary project—literally thousands of poetic verses walking through the Bible. Here are two samples, slightly adapted for readability.
3. On Genesis 1 (Creation & Light)
Out of chaos, light and order,
Sprang the all-creating Word;
Nature rose in beauteous border,
Called to being by her Lord.
He who formed the earth and heaven,
Gives our souls their second birth,
Life and light to us is given,
By the same almighty breath.
Wesley connects the creation of the world to the new creation in the soul through Christ—a beautiful theological thread from Genesis to the Gospel.
4. On Job 14 (the brevity of life)
Man that is born of woman is few of days,
Swift as a shadow, fading as a dream,
He blooms awhile—then vanishes from gaze,
Lost in the grave, life’s short and flickering beam.
Yet God regards him with a father’s eye,
Marks all his sorrows, numbers every tear,
And lifts the soul, though doomed on earth to die,
To endless hope, beyond this mortal sphere.
Here, Wesley reflects on the book of Job—not with despair, but with deep hope in God’s mercy and eternal promise.
Some Differences with His Brother
Charles Wesley and his brother John were deeply united in their mission, theology, and experience—but they were not identical in every respect. One of the most interesting areas where their views intertwined yet diverged is in their understanding of sanctification, particularly the idea of Christian perfection.
Here’s a summary of their shared views—and how Charles’s poetic sensibility and pastoral tone gave his own view a slightly different character.
Shared Belief: Sanctification as the Goal of Salvation
Both John and Charles Wesley believed that salvation was not just about forgiveness, but about transformation—a process by which the believer becomes more and more like Christ. They taught that God’s grace doesn’t just pardon sin; it empowers holy living.
They also both believed in the possibility of entire sanctification—sometimes called Christian perfection—a state where the heart is so filled with love for God and neighbor that willful sin no longer rules a person’s life. Importantly, they did not mean moral or intellectual perfection, but a heart perfect in love.
Charles’s Distinctive Emphasis: Sanctification as Aspiration, Not Achievement
Where John often taught sanctification with a doctrinal precision and logical structure, Charles approached it more devotionally and poetically. His thousands of hymns express not just the doctrine of sanctification, but the longing for it—the deep desire to love God wholly, even while still aware of one’s ongoing weakness.
🌿 A Tension in Charles’s Thought
Charles was sometimes more cautious than John about claiming that Christian perfection could be fully attained in this life. He worried that some might claim to have reached a sinless state too easily, without enough self-examination or humility. In his personal correspondence and later hymns, Charles shows a deep awareness of ongoing spiritual struggle, even in mature believers.
This doesn’t mean he denied Christian perfection—it means he preferred to emphasize the hunger and prayer for it, rather than its completion.
🎵 Sanctification in Charles’s Hymns
Consider this famous line from “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”:
Finish then Thy new creation,
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee:
Here, Charles prays for perfect love—not as a boast, but as a hope grounded in grace. It reflects his theology beautifully: sanctification is real, attainable by grace, but always received with humility and longing.
Conclusion: Brothers in Mission, Partners in Grace
John Wesley built the doctrinal scaffolding of Methodism; Charles gave it a human voice—in song, in longing, in lived devotion. While John confidently taught the possibility of Christian perfection as a present reality, Charles gave space for the inner struggle, the slow maturing, and the quiet hope that God would indeed finish the work He began.
Together, their vision of sanctification remains one of the most hope-filled and grace-drenched in Christian history: not content with forgiveness alone, but aiming for nothing less than a heart made whole in holy love.
Charles and the Methodist Movement: Preacher, Poet, and Pastor
Though Charles is remembered primarily as a hymn writer, he was also an effective and passionate preacher during the formative years of Methodism. After his evangelical conversion in 1738, he threw himself wholeheartedly into the revival alongside his brother John and their friend George Whitefield. Charles preached in the open air, traveled long distances, and bore the same hardships and rejections that marked the Methodist mission.
But Charles was never quite as organizationally inclined as John. While he believed in the renewal of the Church of England from within, he grew increasingly uneasy with the way Methodism was evolving—particularly in how it was functioning as a de facto denomination outside the structures of the Anglican Church.
The Dispute over the New Room at Bristol
One pivotal moment came in the 1740s, when John Wesley oversaw the establishment of the New Room in Bristol—a meeting house, training center, and administrative base for the growing Methodist societies. Charles was uneasy about this move from the beginning. He feared that permanent Methodist buildings, lay preachers, and the emerging organizational structure would unintentionally pull the movement away from Anglican accountability.
In particular, Charles objected when John allowed lay preachers (unordained men) to take on more formal preaching roles, and when Methodist societies began to hold services that resembled worship apart from the local parish church. To Charles, these developments edged too close to schism.
While he did not break with his brother, Charles made it clear that he disagreed. His loyalty to the Church of England was strong, and he continued to attend and support Anglican worship even as he preached in Methodist contexts. Over time, the strain between his high-church sensibilities and the growing independence of Methodism became increasingly difficult to reconcile.
Retirement and the Turn to Domestic Life
By the late 1750s, Charles began to scale back his itinerant ministry. In 1756, he moved to London, where he spent the last decades of his life primarily as a husband, father, writer, and occasional preacher.
This wasn’t retreat or failure—it was a conscious decision to root his life more locally and to focus on his family and the spiritual care of his immediate community. He married Sarah (Sally) Gwynne in 1749, and their marriage was a happy and fruitful one. They had several children, including Charles Wesley Jr., who became a renowned musician.
Though Charles no longer traveled widely, he never stopped writing. His hymns, poems, and reflections continued to nourish the Methodist movement and the broader Church. He died in 1788, just a few years before Methodism formally separated from the Church of England—a separation Charles never supported.
A Legacy of Song and Faithfulness
Charles Wesley’s legacy is quieter than John’s, but no less profound. While John built the Methodist structure, Charles gave it a soul. His hymns taught theology, stirred affections, and united doctrine with devotion. His commitment to the Church of England, his caution about institutional independence, and his eventual domestic life all reflect a man deeply thoughtful about faithfulness in both public and private life.
He may not have shaped the Methodist institution, but he helped shape its heart—a heart that still beats every time one of his hymns is sung.