and Ps. ix.—
Thee will I praise with all my heart.
Here the whole psalm, as it appears in the _Poetical Works_, consists
of fourteen verses, most of them impossible for singing in a Christian
Church, but there are four good verses, especially this, with its
tender trustfulness that the humble seeker must at length find his
Saviour—
A helpless soul that looks to Thee
Is sure at last Thy face to see,
And all Thy goodness to partake;
The sinner who for Thee doth grieve,
And longs, and labours to believe,
Thou never, never wilt forsake.[154]
The 23rd Psalm is also very beautiful, and is worthy to take its place
amongst the many lovely renderings of this sweetest of the praises of
Israel. I venture to quote the whole, as it is little known outside
Wesleyan Methodism, and not too well known in our own Church. It is
the 23rd Psalm read in the light of the tenth chapter of St. John’s
Gospel.
Jesus the good Shepherd is;
Jesus died the sheep to save;
He is mine, and I am His;
All I want in Him I have,
Life, and health, and rest, and food,
All the plenitude of God.
Jesus loves and guards His own;
Me in verdant pastures feeds;
Makes me quietly lie down,
By the streams of comfort leads:
Following Him where’er He goes,
Silent joy my heart o’erflows.
He in sickness makes me whole,
Guides into the paths of peace;
He revives my fainting soul,
Stablishes in righteousness;
Who for me vouchsafed to die,
Loves me still,—I know not why!
Unappalled by guilty fear,
Through the mortal vale I go;
My eternal Life is near;
Thee my Life, in death I know;
Bless Thy chastening, cheering rod
Die into the arms of God!
Till that welcome hour I see,
Thou before my foes dost feed;
Bidd’st me sit and feast with Thee,
Pour’st Thy oil upon my head;
Giv’st me all I ask, and more,
Mak’st my cup of joy run o’er.
Love divine shall still embrace,
Love shall keep me to the end;
Surely all my happy days
I shall in Thy temple spend,
Till I to Thy house remove,
Thy eternal house above!
Dr. Watts’s ‘grand design’ in his version of the Psalter was ‘to
teach’ the ‘author to speak like a Christian.’ Charles Wesley took St.
Augustine’s view, that we ought to hear the voice of Christ in all the
psalms. His version of Ps. xlv. is typical of his attitude toward the
Psalter as a whole.
My heart is full of Christ, and longs
Its glorious matter to declare!
Of Him I make my loftier songs,
I cannot from His praise forbear;
My ready tongue makes haste to sing
The beauties of my heavenly King.
In 1762 Charles Wesley took advantage of a time of physical weakness
to write a large number of verses, forming a kind of running
commentary on the Holy Scriptures. They are, for the most part, purely
devotional; but the events of the time and, perhaps, of the day on
which a poem was written are mirrored in some of the verses. In the
preface he says—
Many of the thoughts are borrowed from Mr. Henry’s _Commentary_, Dr.
Gell on the _Pentateuch_, and Bengelius on the _New Testament_.
Several of the hymns are intended to prove, and several to guard,
the doctrine of Christian Perfection. I durst not publish one
without the other. In the latter sort I use some severity.
On this point the brothers differed, and especially as to the method
of treating those who discredited the doctrine by extravagance in
teaching or by inconsistency of life.
The _Short Poems_ account for the enormous number of Charles Wesley’s
hymns. On the Old Testament he wrote 1,609, on the New Testament
3,491, a total of 5,100 poetical notes on the Holy Scripture. But very
many consist of only one verse.[155] By skilful combination some very
good hymns have been made, and in a few instances we come upon a
complete hymn of great strength or beauty. Many of these are familiar
in Methodist congregations, though probably few worshippers recognize
the passages of Scripture which suggested the verses. The well-known
hymn
A charge to keep I have,
is the poet’s meditation and prayer after reading Lev. viii. 35:
‘Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the
Lord, that ye die not.’ After reading Lev. vi. 13: ‘The fire shall
ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out,’ he prays
O Thou who camest from above
The pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart!
There let it for Thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze;
And trembling to its source return,
In humble prayer and fervent praise.