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METHODIST HYMNOLOGY.

PART I.

CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHORS OF THE HYMNS IN THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK.

In the Hymn-book of the Methodist Episcopal Church there are six hundred and ninety-seven hymns; and, although Mr. Charles Wesley wrote at least five hundred, and Mr. John Wesley about thirty, the remaining hymns were contributed by upward of thirty different authors. Among these are the elder and younger Samuel Wesley, father and brother of the founder of Methodism. It will be our province, in this part of our work, to give some account of these several authors: principally, however, as relates to their contributions to Methodist hymnology; their association, incidental, or otherwise, with Methodism; or their character as hymnologists, derived from such sources of information as may be within our reach. These, in some instances, being very limited, our sketches will be correspondingly brief; nor shall we in any case substitute our own imperfect observations for what we may find already prepared to our hand, of an authentic character, and in a more finished style; making always due acknowledgment for every such quotation. We begin with the poet of Methodism.

Charles Wesley.

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THE Rev. Mr. Burgess, author of a valuable and highly interesting work, entitled "Wesleyan Hymnology," remarks: "While contemplating the human agency by which God was pleased to carry on the great work of Methodism, we should never forget the venerated name of Charles Wesley. He was a lively and powerful preacher of the gospel, and, in his earlier days, assisted his brother very considerably by his ministerial labors. But his chief and distinguishing excellence was, his talent for sacred poetry. He has been denominated, with great justice and propriety, the bard of Methodism.

"As God was about to raise up a new body of professing Christians, who were in time to become very numerous on both sides of the Atlantic, it was proper and necessary that they should be furnished with a sufficient variety of suitable hymns for public worship and for all devotional purposes. Nothing existed in those days, that could by any means answer the de

* In the "Wesleyan Takings," supposed to be written by the Rev. James Everett, Mr. B. is thus taken: "Considerable skill in music, both as a composer and player on the piano forte. A good volume of voice; clear in his conceptions, and exquisite in his definitions; full of interest. A man upon whom the sun of science has shone from above, and upon whom industrious teachers have scattered the seeds of instruction below; but whose mental soil, independent of these, stirred and manured by selfcultivation, would have produced not only flowers and fruit, but trees of stately and noble growth. Son of a preacher, set out in 1812-no inapt illustration of-For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak.”

mands or supply the wants of this new society. The version of the Psalms by Brady and Tate, though it possesses some merit, and exhibits some specimens of tolerably good poetry, would, on the whole, have been very meagre and unsatisfactory to those who had entered so largely into the enjoyment of Christian experience and Christian privileges. Even Watts's Psalms and Hymns, though by far the best collection of devotional poetry then extant, were in some respects unsuitable, and, as a whole, insufficient. As John Wesley and Fletcher had each his own peculiar department in the common work—a department for which each was eminently fitted, and to which their energies were faithfully and perseveringly applied-so also Charles Wesley had his own peculiar department; one for which he was specially qualified, and in which no other person could have succeeded so well. Had not Charles Wesley been providentially led to write sacred poetry, there would have been a very serious deficiency in the system of Methodism; its progress would not have been so rapid, nor its influences so extensive. It could not have been so serviceable in kindling and sustaining the devotional spirit in the great congregation, or in aiding the religious exercises of the family and the duties of the closet. It could not have contributed so largely to alarm the careless and impenitent sinner; to encourage and assist the sincere seeker of salvation; to comfort the Christian believer amid all the difficulties and discouragements of his way; to urge him on to the pursuit and attainment of high degrees of holiness; to administer consolation to the subjects of pain and affliction; and to enable the dying Christian to meet the last enemy with composure and fortitude, triumphing

through his great Redeemer. To Watts and to Charles Wesley this honor peculiarly belongs; and to the latter in as high a sense as to the former. Watts, indeed, took the lead; he had the precedence, in point of time: but, in every other respect, the two poets may be considered as occupying the same rank: only with this difference, that Wesley's talents were destined specially to serve the interests of Methodism; and Watts's, those of other Christian denominations.

"If we view the Wesleyan hymns merely as poetical compositions, we shall find them to be of a very superior description, and deserving of the highest rank among productions of this class. Excepting a small proportion of Watts's hymns, and some of more recent date by Cowper, Montgomery, Heber, and a few others, there are no hymns whatever that deserve to be ranked with those of Charles Wesley. Doddridge, Toplady, Newton, Cennick, Steele, Beddome, and a host of others, are of an inferior class. Even Watts, with all his greatness and excellence, is not entitled to that unqualified commendation which by many has been bestowed upon him. It has long been the opinion of the writer of these remarks, that in a poetical point of view the great majority of Watts's psalms and hymns are not a whit above mediocrity, and many of them below it. It was a circumstance highly advantageous to the poetical character of Charles Wesley, that his compositions were submitted to the keen and discriminating eye of his brother John, and that from the whole was formed that admirable selection which is found in the

general Hymn-book. For, on examining the entire mass, it will appear that those hymns and verses which were omitted, were, with few exceptions, much inferior

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