Amazing Love! How Can It Be

Studies on Hymns by Charles Wesley

Chris Fenner, Brian G. Najapfour, Chris Fenner, Brian G. Najapfour

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781725264755, 9781725264762
• eBook ISBN: 9781725264779
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

The present collection of essays examines specific texts by Charles Wesley in multiple dimensions (theological, poetical, historical, biographical, etc.), demonstrating both the profound nature of the hymns and their continued relevance for Christians today. The discussions are organized by theological/liturgical topics, and each essay treats us to the hymn in its complete original form (noting significant variants as necessary), explains the historical context of its composition, provides a theological interpretation, and relates it to the life and faith of the believer.In the pages of this book, the reader will find both information and inspiration. Scholars of hymnody and of Charles Wesley will appreciate the depth of inquiry in the chapters. Just as importantly, laypersons and hymn lovers (as well as scholars) will find much spiritual benefit from the study of hymns they know and love, as well as texts with which they may be less familiar. This exploration of these profound hymns will surely lead to a deeper understanding of the "amazing love" responsible for changing the course of Charles Wesley's life, who in turn changed the course of Christian worship.With contributions from: Steve WeaverJonathan A. PowersPatrick A. EbyChristopher P. McFaddenC. Michael HawnJosh DearJoe HarrodPaul W. ChilcoteRoger D. DukeMichael A.G. HaykinMargaret GarrettJim Scott Orrick

1

Where shall my wondering soul begin?

Brian G. Najapfour

Born on December 18, 1707, in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England, Charles Wesley grew up in an Anglican family. In 1726, he entered Christ Church College at Oxford University, where he received his BA (1730) and MA (1733). At Oxford in 1729 he started the Holy Club, a religious organization promoting piety through systematic study of the Bible, prayer, fasting, Communion, and other religious acts. In 1735, Charles was ordained an Anglican priest, and that same year he and his brother John (1703–1791) journeyed to the newly founded colony of Georgia to help spread and develop Anglicanism there, especially among the Native Americans. When their mission was unsuccessful, they were compelled to return to England—first Charles in late 1736, followed by John in early 1738. Despite this failure, however, this mission trip became memorable to the brothers. During this period they met the Moravians, who had a profound impact on their pursuit of personal conversion and their passion for hymns.

On May 21, 1738, despite being raised and trained in the Church and devoted to ritual holiness, Charles Wesley experienced evangelical conversion, which he expressed this way: “I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.”1 Two days later, he wrote what he called “an hymn upon my conversion.”2 Although Wesley did not name the hymn in his journal, scholars generally believe it was “Where shall my wondering soul begin?” This hymn, originally titled “Christ the Friend of Sinners,” was first published the following year in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), in eight stanzas of six lines. It was revised in 1743, 1761, and 1780.3

Stanza 1

Where shall my wond’ring4 soul begin?

How shall I all to heav’n aspire?

A slave redeemed from death and sin,

A brand plucked from eternal fire;

How shall I equal triumphs raise,

Or5 sing my great Deliverer’s praise!

Amazed by his life-changing experience of redeeming grace, Charles Wesley opened his hymn by asking rhetorically, “Where shall my wondering soul begin? How shall I all to heaven aspire?” The hymnist was astonished the most glorious God would redeem a “slave” like him. Wesley indicated his humility by considering himself a slave, the lowest of the low in society. Some of his readers might have found this language jarring; especially the clergymen who thought highly of themselves, or the members of lower classes who saw their religious leaders as elevated or superior. But what really struck Wesley with wonder was God’s redemption of an insignificant person like him from sin and its wages, which is death in eternal fire. His choice of the word “redeemed” should not surprise us, for two reasons: first, it fits well with Wesley’s self-portrait as a slave. A slave who has been purchased is redeemed, not just saved. Second, the day before Wesley wrote his hymn, he had been meditating on Isaiah 43:1–3.6 The first of these verses reads, “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (KJV). Wesley’s meditation on this passage led him to this conclusion: he wanted his readers and singers to know he was but a worthless slave redeemed by God’s wonderful grace.

To further emphasize his worthlessness before God, Wesley compared himself to a “brand plucked from eternal fire,” phrasing borrowed from Zechariah 3:2. His use of biblical words and phrases in this and other hymns is one of the earmarks of his hymnody—so much so, J. Ernest Rattenbury once remarked, “a skillful man, if the Bible were lost, might extract it from Wesley’s hymns. They contain the Bible in solution.”7 This comment might be an exaggeration, but it demonstrates how Wesley’s hymns are saturated with scriptural language. The fiery phrase was probably also an allusion to a significant moment in John Wesley’s life, in which he was rescued from a fire in Epworth in 1709. Later in life, John commissioned a visual representation of the ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Contributors
• Chapter 1: Where shall my wondering soul begin?
• Chapter 2: And can it be that I should gain
• Chapter 3: O for a thousand tongues to sing
• Chapter 4: Jesu, lover of my soul
• Chapter 5: Come, O thou traveller unknown
• Chapter 6: Come, Thou long-expected Jesus
• Chapter 7: Hark! the herald angels sing
• Chapter 8: Christ the Lord is ris’n today
• Chapter 9: The Means of Grace
• Chapter 10: O the depth of love divine
• Chapter 11: Love divine, all loves excelling
• Chapter 12: Sun of unclouded righteousness
• Chapter 13: Operatic influences on the hymn tunes used by John and Charles Wesley
• Chapter 14: A Baptist preacher and a Methodist hymnal
• Appendix
• Bibliography