Mercy is Thy distinguished Name,
And suits the sinner best.
On the twenty-ninth verse of the same chapter, ‘Moses wist not that
his face shone,’ he writes
Thine image if Thou stamp on me,
Let others, Lord, the brightness see,
By me unseen, unknown.
As these verses are buried in the last four volumes of the _Poetical
Works_, I venture to quote a few others which have, I think, some
special value, reminding one at times of Herbert or Crashaw.
‘The Lord went His way’ (Gen. xviii. 33).
Unwearied let us still request
By instant prayer whate’er we want:
The patriarch from asking ceased,
Before the Almighty ceased to grant.
‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent’ (Exod. iv. 10).
How ready is the man to go
Whom God hath never sent!
How timorous, diffident, and slow
God’s chosen instrument!
Lord, if from Thee this mark I have
Of a true Messenger,
By whom Thou wilt Thy people save,
And let me always fear.
Slow of speech and slower still
Of heart, alas! am I,
Cannot utter what I feel,
Or speak to the Most High:
But I to my Brother look,
Mighty both in word and deed:
He my cause hath undertook
And lives for me to plead.
‘Where hast thou gleaned to-day?’ (Ruth ii. 19).
At evening to myself I say,
My soul, where hast thou gleaned to-day,
Thy labours how bestowed?
What hast thou rightly said or done?
What grace attained or knowledge won,
In following after God?
‘Oh that I knew where I might find Him’ (Job xxxiii. 3).
Where but on yonder tree?
Or if too rich thou art,
Sink into poverty,
And find Him in thine heart.
‘Israel served for a wife’ (Hos. xii. 12).
While Jacob for a wife doth wait,
A length of servile years
(His love to Rachel is so great)
As a few days appears:
And shall I think it long to stay
Or wish my labours passed?
A thousand years are but a day
If Christ be mine at last.
These verses on Num. xi. 27, 28 are in a different strain.
Eldad, they said, and Medad there,
Irregularly bold,
By Moses uncommissioned dare
A separate meeting hold!
And still whom none, but Heaven, will own,
Men whom the world decry,
Men authorized by God alone
Presume to prophesy!
How often have I blindly done
What zealous Joshua did,
Impatient to the rulers run
And cried, ‘My lords, forbid!’
Silence the schismatics; constrain
Their _thoughts_ with ours to agree;
And sacrifice the souls of men
To idol unity!
John Wesley lets this pass without note or comment, but when, on Num.
xvi. 10, Charles wrote
Raised from the people’s lowest lees,
Guard, Lord, Thy preaching witnesses,
Nor let their pride the honour claim
Of sealing covenants in Thy name.
he notes on the first line, ‘Query? J. W.’
Here our detailed consideration of Charles Wesley’s hymns must end,
though there are many others over which one would be glad to linger.
Some of the hymns on Death and the Future Life are of great power,
though some have lost and others are losing their hold upon Methodist
worshippers. Charles Wesley’s view of death is well illustrated in
these verses, which I quote the more readily because, to my regret,
they are not found in the _Methodist Hymn-book_. If they could not
often be sung in the congregation, there are times when they would
speak the inmost feeling of the devout disciple.
O when shall we sweetly remove,
O when shall we enter our rest,
Return to the Sion above,
The mother of spirits distressed!
Not all the archangels can tell
The joys of that holiest place,
When Jesus is pleased to reveal
The light of His heavenly face.
’Tis good at Thy word to be here,
’Tis better in Thee to be gone,
And see Thee in glory appear,
And rise to a share of Thy throne.
To mourn for Thy coming is sweet,
To weep at Thy longer delay;
But Thou, whom we hasten to meet,
Shalt chase all our sorrows away.
This is not the tone of modern worship. It is open to the charge of
that ‘other-worldliness’ of which our time is so impatient and knows
so little, but it is the language of the disciples whom Jesus loves.
‘Having the desire to depart and be with Christ: for it is very far
better.’ ‘He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come
quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!’
After Charles Wesley, Methodism had no great hymn-writer, though
Thomas Olivers (1725-99), one of the early preachers, wrote one of the
finest of our hymns of adoration.
He was a man of considerable ability, but Wesley had more confidence
in him as a corrector of errors of doctrine than of errors of the
press. He left Toplady to be ‘corrected by one that is full his match,
Mr. Thomas Olivers,’ but he rejected Olivers as assistant-editor of
the _Arminian Magazine_, because ‘the errata are insufferable.’
‘The God of Abraham praise’ was published at Nottingham in a pamphlet
of eight pages, with the title, ‘A Hymn to the God of Abraham. In
three parts, adapted to a celebrated air, sung by the priest, Signior
Leoni, &c., at the Jews’ Synagogue in London.’ There is only slight
verbal resemblance between Olivers’ version and the Hebrew
original.[156] He wrote a few other hymns, not to be compared with
this, yet indicating considerable poetic power. One of them, ‘On the
Last Judgement,’ was published at ‘Leedes.’ It contained twenty
verses, and was afterwards altered, and enlarged to thirty-six verses,
Scripture references being given in the margin of almost every line.
Some verses of this poem have been occasionally used in hymn-books,
and Lord Selborne gave twelve verses in his _Book of Praise_. It is,
however, little known. The following are among the best verses.
Come, immortal King of Glory!
Now with all Thy saints appear;
While astonished worlds adore Thee,
And the dead Thy clarions hear,
Shine refulgent,
And Thy Deity maintain.
Lo! He comes with clouds descending:
Hark! the trump of God is blown:
And the archangel’s voice attending,
Makes the high procession known.
Sons of Adam,
Rise and stand before your God!
‘Come, Lord Jesus, O come quickly,’
Oft has prayed the mourning Bride.
Lo! He answers, ‘I come quickly’;
Who Thy coming may abide?
All who loved Him,
All who longed to see His day.
Come, He saith, ye heirs of glory,
Come, ye purchase of My blood,
Claim the kingdom now before you,
Rise and fill the mount of God:
Fixed for ever,
Where the Lamb on Sion stands.
Now their trials all are ended,
Now the dubious warfare’s o’er,
Joy no more with sorrow blended,
They shall sigh and weep no more:
God for ever
Wipes the tear from every eye.
Hail! Thou Alpha and Omega!
First and last of all alone.
He that is, and was, and shall be,
And beside whom there is none.
Take the glory,
Great Eternal Three in One!
Praise be to the Father given:
Praise to the co-eval Son:
Praise the Spirit, One and Seven;
Praise the mystic Three in One.
Hallelujah!
Everlasting praise be Thine.
John Bakewell (1721-1819), a Methodist schoolmaster, wrote several
hymns, and is widely known as the author of ‘Hail, Thou once despisèd
Jesus.’[157] Benjamin Rhodes (1743-1815), converted under the
preaching of Whitefield, and for many years a Methodist preacher,
wrote one really fine hymn, ‘My heart and voice I raise.’ Another of
the early Methodist preachers, John Murlin, ‘the weeping prophet,’
published a small volume of hymns, some of which are quite as good as
most of the eighteenth-century songs.
IV
Eighteenth-century Hymns