If you're a returning reader to my blog, you've probably seen me make reference to Jonathan Powers, a doctoral student in worship studies at the Robert Webber Institute of Worship Studies. Jonathan is a gifted musician and insightful thinker into the relationship between theology and worship as you can read at his blog, Theology in Worship. He is also a Charles Wesley expert/scholar and I have enlisted his help on several posts and have enjoyed the correspondence we have shared during our studies. Jonathan was especially helpful in my recent series on the great Charles Wesley hymn, 'And Can It Be?' It is only fitting then that a good follow-up to that series would be written by him, so I am grateful for his input in what is below as he has gracefully taken time to write a guest post. Enjoy! Charles Wesley Conversion Hymns
Charles Wesley’s primary inspiration for his lyrical writing came from his own evangelical experience, one very similar to his brother John’s heart-warming experience.
In the month of May 1738, the Wesleys were in London. Charles was recovering from an illness in the home of some Moravian friends. On Pentecost Sunday, his brother John and some friends stopped by to visit Charles on their way to church. Later that morning, while in bed, opening his Bible to Isaiah 40:1, Charles felt God’s salvation come upon him. His Journal entry for May 21st reads: "I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ..... I saw that by faith I stood, by the continual support of faith.......I went to bed still sensible of my own weakness....yet confident of Christ's protection." Just three days later - May 24th - John himself found assurance of salvation during a meeting in nearby Aldersgate Street.
Exactly a year after his own conversion experience, Charles wrote the famous hymn, “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” which he recommended for singing "on the anniversary of one's conversion."
It was upon the experience of salvation in Christ that Charles Wesley began to find a specific message in his songwriting. Lyrical expression was more than a cathartic outlet. Instead, Wesley deeply felt the importance of communicating the theme of God’s universal invitation to salvation. Many of his hymns would thus reflect upon the experience on conversion. John Lawson writes, “It is natural to find that the Wesley hymnody contains a great volume of writing celebrating the glory of the conversion experience.”[1] With this personal assurance and experience of conversion, Charles began to place a new emphasis and power within his lyrical verse. John Tyson writes, “The bondage to sin and the darkness of doubt had been broken and driven away when Christ came into the poet’s life. Charles Wesley used images of manumission and liberation to communicate the freedom that he now felt because of his faith in Christ.”[2]
It is important to note that Charles saw his evangelical experience as a biblical one. Teresa Berger writes, “…the theme of God’s universal invitation to salvation is clearly at the foundation of Wesleyan preaching and the call to conversion.”[3] Often, Charles would reflect upon this experience by placing himself within certain passages of scripture. This is reflected in hymns such as “Come, O, Thou Traveler Unknown” and “And Can it be That I Should Gain?”
The first of these hymns, “Come, O, Thou Traveler Unknown,” is also known as “Wrestling Jacob.” Charles takes an “inside-out” allegorical approach within this hymn. He places himself inside the story as if it is part of his own testimony, and reinterprets the scripture thusly. In particular, “Wrestling Jacob” is a meditation on Charles Wesley’s own conversion through the story of Jacob and the angel found in Genesis 32:22-32. Charles becomes a figure of Jacob while the angel becomes a figure of Christ.
Though “And Can it be” is not as overt an allegory, Charles is still able to navigate through his own conversion by way of scripture. Verse four in particular reflects upon the freeing of the prisoners in Acts 12 as similar to Charles’ own experience of the freedom found in Christ. This verse may be one of the most robust verses in all of hymnody reflecting upon the transformative power of God’s grace.
Setting these reflections to hymn-form, Charles Wesley provided a scriptural language through which people of the church could reflect upon their own conversion experience while simultaneously worshiping God. Hence, for Charles Wesley the inner experience of salvation was manifest through lyrical praise of God.
[1] John Lawson, A Thousand Tongues: The Wesley Hymns as a Guide to Scriptural Teaching. (Atlanta, GA: Paternoster Press, 1987), 124-125.
[2] John R. Tyson, Assist Me to Proclaim (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007), 50.
[3] Teresa Berger, Theology in Hymns?: A Study of the Relationship of Doxology and Theology According to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780) (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1995), 109.
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