[1]“It was their love of social psalmody that made Methodist hymnody
what it was, and it was the desire to better parochial psalmody
that furnished John Wesley with the original motive of his work in
hymnody.” (Dr. Louis F. Benson, in _The English Hymn_. [New York:
Harper and Bros.] Used by permission.)
[2]“John Wesley was a good writer and preacher, and possessed
extensive learning. He was a man of unfailing perseverance, great
self-denial, large liberality, singular devotedness to his
Master’s service, and eminent piety. But perhaps his most
remarkable gift was the power he possessed of making men willing
to fall in with his purposes and of organizing systematic action
for the benefit of his followers.” (Josiah Miller, in _Singers and
Songs of the Church_.)
[3]“Wesley, like Watts, wrote very freely and spontaneously, as the
thousands of lyrics he wrote bear witness. Not all of them were
good; much of the verse reminds one of a painter’s tentative
sketches. But had he not freely written so many, he might not have
written the smaller number so consummately well.” (J. Balcom
Reeves, in _The Hymn in History and Literature_.)
[4]“The Wesley hymnbooks constitute an extraordinary interesting human
document, palpitating with real life. Every event of those
wonderful years, every experience, public or private, through
which the singers passed, is mirrored in some sweet song. But
there is more in them than that. They are _Pilgrim’s Progress_ in
verse. They trace the religious life of every man as he travels
from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. They unfold
the spiritual drama of man, his hopes and fears, his aspirations
and affections, his failures and victories; each chequered
experience trembles into songs, and scarcely a note is missing.
Springing from the heart of the eighteenth century, their music
seems to drown its licentiousness and frivolity in paeans of
praise.” (Frederick J. Gillman, in _The Evolution of the English
Hymn_.)
[5]Charles Wesley’s best hymns—and who would dare estimate his genius
on any other basis?—meet John Drinkwater’s two tests of vital
poetry:
(1) It must spring from vital and intense personal experience.
(2) It must transfer to the reader by “pregnant and living words”
the ecstasy that swelled the heart of the poet.
[6]“The style of Watts is austere, objective, formal; the style of
Wesley is warm, subjective, intimate.” (J. Balcom Reeves, in _The
Hymn in History and Literature_.)
[7]Dr. Benson in his exhaustive treatise on _The English Hymn_
remarks: “The Wesleys inaugurated a great spiritual revival; and
their hymns did as much as any human agency to kindle and
replenish its fervor.... John Wesley led an ecclesiastical revolt
and, failing to conquer his own church, established a new one of
phenomenal proportions: the hymns prefigured the constitution of
the new church and formed the manual of its spiritual discipline.”
[8]He frankly expressed his inhospitable attitude: “Were we to
encourage little poets, we should soon be overrun.”