T. CRICHTON MITCHELL

To say the least, it is gratifying to have a theologian-historian of Dr. Timothy L. Smith's stature and caliber devoting so much time and serious study to the hymns of the Wesley brothers (see preceding article). He joins a very small coterie of gifted scholars who have placed Wesleyanism, Wesley students, and Christendom in their debt: men like Bernard Manning, Newton Flew, Ernest Rattenbury, Frank and Eric Baker, Findlay, Linklater, Sangster, Samuel Chadwick, and perhaps half-a-dozen others; no more than twenty in all, strung out across the past seventy-five years.

These are all theologians of distinction; some of them are historians too, of high repute, and one or two of them connoiseurs and masters of classical literature who have attempted to rouse the world of Evangelical Arminians to the wealth of biblical insight and devotion, and the treasuretrove of scriptural teaching we have in the hymns of the people called Methodists.

The hymns of the Wesleys are like some large jewel being examined by a bunch of experts, each of which has his own angle of the treasure and is prepared to facet the gem with his own tool and according to his own light.

(1) There was Henry Bett, concerned to show the value of the hymns in terms of Hebrew and Greek Scriptures of Old Testament and New Testament, the Church Fathers, and the classical writers of medieval and Reformation times.1

(2) There was Ernest Rattenbury whose interest was in terms of evangelical doctrine and Christian worship.2

(3) R. Newton Flew forsook his history of doctrine and New Testament theology for a little and concentrated on the delightful and subtle intricacies of the meters and structure of

the hymns.3

(4) Dear old Luke Wiseman, himself a Methodist music man of no mean ability, has a passionate concern to rehabilitate the hymns of Charles in the heartland of evangelism from which less passionate and more prosaic people had exiled them.4

(5) George Findlay was a little bit like Jude, he set out to write about one facet of the hymns and ended up writing about another! But he did beautifully succeed in demonstrating that there is little of the modern whine about these hymns and much of the New Testament battle-cry! He yells vigorously "The Sword of the Lord and of Wesley!"5

(6) Frank Baker's mission more resembles that of an over-office man who knows his way and can explore the main streets and mind tracks of a crowded city or quiet field. In my books he is the master of them all, and, in terms of my original metaphor, he seems concerned not to ruin the gem by over-dividing.

But until now no scholar of comparable stature has arisen from within the holiness ranks to demonstrate so surely the Pentecostal motif in the hymns of the Wesley brothers.

Roy Nicholson might have done so: certainly he had no difficulty in demonstrating to this Society that Charles Wesley's hymns adequately expounded and exprssed the doctrine and experience of perfect love.6 But he did so without regard to chronology or questions of authorship, and with examples drawn entirely from popular hymnals. But Dr. Smith has gone at least two steps farther:

(1) By observing carefully the chronology of the hymns he uses; and,

(2) By showing that the hymns relate entire sanctification to the Pentecostal baptism and not merely to the general area of Christian holiness.

The reason for this narrowing of the field of research is probably the debate, among specialists in doctrine, with reference to the question as to whether or not John Wesley related Pentecost and entire sanctification, a debate that to me seems merely academic, of small profit, and rather boring.

To come to grips meaningfully and not merely enjoyably with the Wesley hymns you must be a good reader. You must also have a sense of wonder at the grace and love of God. "One characteristic of the good reader is his capacity to enlarge his being by entering into the perspective of the poet. He is thus able to see with other eyes, imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts as well as his own." And, account for it as you care, or may, or can; whether or not you like Charles Wesley, his hymns will leave you panting for spiritual breath. And this will be so whether you survey his work as to quality, quantity, variety, popularity, extent, or influence. It gives you a chin-dropping eye-popping sense of the Incredible. Incredible divine love and grace, with utterly incredible possibilities, communicated through an incredible poetical celebration of "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," who, by His incredibly abundant mercy has begotten us again to a life of hope through the most incredible and astonishing of all the great incredibles, "the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"!

It was necessary to Dr. Smith's purpose, and it was characteristically smart of him, to limit this essay to what might be metaphorically described as a rockpool on the shoreline of Charles Wesley's Pacific of praise, prayer, and personal experience. For the four volumes of the Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley form a convenient and concise unit of research: they have a coherence and clear chronology and a historical context that gives them special claims to be studied in relation to the Pentecostal motif.

They were written and published during the years of "the inextinguishable blaze," when "a spark of grace had set the Kingdoms on a blaze." They were being circulated and sung at a time when the gales of God were blowing across the religious life of England with purging, bracing, and re-energizing force; aerating religion, and bearing away from multitudes of lives lusts and unholy lifestyle like withered leaves of the fall. It was a great time for living and right thrillingly did Brother Charles celebrate it!

We simply must remember the Pentecostal thrill as well as the Pentecostal theology. What you have in Brother Charles is not only a biblical, evangelical, experiential and thoroughly trained and equipped theologian, but a man amazed! Here is no phlegmatic, inanimate Scottish professor picking his words with tweezers and gingerly placing them in the silver ornamental claws of fashionable speech; or tacking them down with definitive pins to systematic backgrounds, like beautiful but dead butterflies. You have a man amazed: a man with a dancing heart: you have that all too rare specimen-a theologian who thinks and prays and sings! And don't you forget it! For if you do you will be about one million and one miles from even beginning to understand Brother Charles.

This dimension of historical context and personal rapture is surely a real part of the chronology of the hymns.

I submit also that unless you bring to them a heart-hunger for holiness, or a soul soaked in "wonder, love, and praise," you are probably not yet where you can most adequately appreciate the Pentecostal hymns of Charles Wesley. For is it not manifestly plain that the spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of astonishment even before He is the Spirit of power? Certainly it would seem so from the record of that "Bridal day of earth and sky" as Charles puts it, that "White" or "Whit" Sunday of the Church when a hundred and twenty persons assaulted heaven with songs and praises about "the wonderful works of God," and shocked the representatives of a dozen world areas into naked incredulity!

Charles Wesley's Pentecostal symbol is an exclamation mark! And in my opinion no wonderless soul need attempt to unlock the meaning and power of these Pentecostal hymns-for he alone who has an exclamation mark for a key will enter. The others will gather, not the song, but merely the syntax!

But Dr. Tim has shown clearly that the same

In John's introduction to the hymns he is careful to remind us of this, and also of the fact that only a few of the hymns are of his composing; and they are few indeed if one omits the

translations. As he wrote in the famous Preface:

John Wesley confesses his conviction that Charles has a claim to recognition as an authoritative theologian of holiness.

This familiar but too frequently forgotten or distorted fact should be laid beside its bedfellow, i.e. that the four volumes used by Dr. Smith were issued over the signatures of both

brothers, thus showing the approval of both on the language employed to present the Baptism of the Spirit and heart purity.

In these four volumes there are no fewer than thirty expressions that describe the radical cleansing of the heart, many, if not most, in the figure of fire. In my opinion, Dr. Smith is absolutely correct when he says that:

He could have added that there are many more "strong ones" that combine the symbols:

Send us the Spirit of Thy Son

To make the depths of Godhead known,

To make us share the life divine;

Send Him the sprinkled blood t' apply,

Send Him our souls to sanctify,

And show, and seal us ever Thine.

In endeavoring to observe the chronology of the hymns, Dr. Srnith has, in my opinion, given us a convincing approach to the hymns on Pentecost. Whether his findings would require modification or even alteration if he were to extend research into later years, especially those years when the brothers lovingly debated the nature of perfect love, would be another matter, but I think Dr. Smith has established his thesis that the Pentecostal baptism motif is in these early volumes synonymous with the purifying of the heart.

Another question that raises itself on one elbow is whether the poetical works of Charles, as edited or censored by John are admissible in the current, and to me profitless, debate. There are those scholars who will want to exclude any consideration of the hymns: some, I suspect, because Wesleyan hymnody is strange country to them; others will simply rule out poetry as a means of teaching theology, thus showing how unlike John they are.

Perhaps Dr. Smith would not care to be as adamant as W. E. Sangster and say:

But Dr. Smith may certainly be satisfied that the four early volumes express John's mind as assuredly as they express that of Charles. Too many so-called Wesleyan scholars know no more of Brother Charles than is contained in the ever-shrinking Wesley content of the average hymnal. But to know "Love Divine all loves excelling. . . . " and "O for a thousand tongues," and "O for a heart to praise my God....," while pleasant and better than ignorance, is not to know the sweep, the force, and the surging tides of biblical truth and Christian wonder in these hymns. And in any case, even these tops of the Christian pops are all too often misquoted and thus distorted, and otherwise mutilated by those infallible creatures-the editors of our hymnals!

Brother Charles needs, not a reference or two, a chapter or two, a paper or two with a response or two, nor even a volume or two; he needs a shelf of volumes. Apart from thousands of quotations, hints, allusion, etc. in scores of hymns not written expressly to expound Bible passages, there are five volumes devoted to poesysing select passages of Scripture. And there is a sixth volume, four-fifths of which is on select Psalms. Dr. Smith has done well, in the interests of chronology and the possible development of Charles Wesley's thought, to confine his work to the first four volumes of the Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley.

Frank Baker of Duke has clearly demonstrated that a true understanding of the message of Brother Charles requires that we scrutinize also his letters, his journal and the few sermons we know to be Charles's; nevertheless Dr. Smith has in my opinion established his proposition and done what he set out t o do, namely, to show that in their published hymns the Wesleys have maintained a strong connection between the Pentecostal baptism and the thorough purging of the regenerate heart; that the hymns go on to rejoice in the tenancy of the pure heart by the Pentecostal Spirit of Christ.

Dr. Timothy has elsewhere declared John to be "the first genuinely Biblical theologian." He has been supported by Dr. Outler, who said of John "His chief intellectual interest, and achievement, was in what one could call 'a folk theology': the Christian message in its fullness and integrity, 'in plain words for plain people.' "11

I have slightly less than no idea just how you are going to classify Charles: I have already quoted John's attempt, but in my opinion you have in Charles Wesley a close approximation to James Denney's ideal: "If evangelists were our theologians, and theologians our evangelists, we should be nearer the ideal."

Off the beaten track of Wesley studies there are many reminders of the importance of an understanding of Charles Wesley's hymns for an understanding of Wesleyan theology.

Anyone who hopes to adequately understand and interpret Charles Wesley's hymns without himself being first of all lost in wonder, love, and praise would have as much success as he who would hold water in a sieve or fatten a greyhound.13 He will of course require a reasonable knowledge of Greek, a familiarity with English literature, and a good grounding in Wesleyan theology, but first of all he must be a man with a dancing heart.

Charles Wesley told Byron of Manchester that he, i.e. Charles, did not write for the critic but for the Christian, evoking the familiar retort:

When you tell me that you write not for the critic but for the Christian, it occurs to my mind that you might as well write for both, or in such a manner that the critic may by your writing be moved to turn Christian rather than the Christian turn critic. That was a year before the conversion of Charles and two years previous to the publication of the first volume referred to by Dr. Smith. Twenty years later, John Wesley does a little bragging-of a sanctified nature of course-on the "unspeakable advantage" which the Methodist people enjoy:

I mean even with regard to public worship, particularly on the Lord's Day. The church where they assemble is not gay or splendid, which might be a hinderance on the one hand; nor sordid or dirty, which might give distaste on the other; but plain as well as clean. The persons who assemble there are not a gay, giddy crowd, who come chiefly to see and be seen, not a company of goodly, formal, outside Christians, whose religion lies in a dull round of duties; but a people most of whom do, and the rest earnestly seek to, worship God in spirit and in truth. . . .14

After describing the Methodist advantage in their form of public prayer, Wesley comes to the hymns his people sing:

And then this, for our music directors addicted to the disembowling and amputating habit:

My assessment must not be understood as a total acceptance of Dr. Smith's thesis, or at least his method. Some questions rattle about in my mind.

(l) While the chronological approach is undoubtedly necessary and realistic, it may also be somewhat ambiguous, especially when we deliberately limit the field. In my opinion, and despite the conclusions of Heitzenrater, the overwhelming bulk of the hymns are by Charles Wesley. Did Charles later modify his position? What effect on Dr. Smith's conclusion would result from a critical approach to the discussions of the brothers on perfect love?

(2) Ought we not to give more earnest heed to the immediate revival context of the hymns written between 1738-1748? And should we not also catch the spirit of revival prevalent 1739-1743?

(3) We do have many significant hyrnns written much later than the first four volumes, hymns that also seem to closely relate Pentecostal fire and power with the destruction of sin, heart

purity, and perfect love.

(4) Do not most of the hymns used by Dr. Smith express desire rather than realization?

(5) Should not those hymns published by Charles, without the approval of John, also be studied? Is it perhaps too much to deduce John's doctrine from his use of the red, or even the blue, pencil?

(6) Do the letters that passed between the brothers, but especially Charles, and John Fletcher also beg to be entered as admissible arguments?

Nevertheless, my heart goes with Dr. Smith. I salute him, (although he will not be much enriched by my salute!) for blowing some fresh breath onto the embers of the holiness movement's interest in the Wesley hymns, and for the rather splendid contribution he has made and continues to make towards demonstrating the necessity and efficiency of the Wesley hymns in the expounding and communicating of the Wesleyan distinctive in its relation to Pentecost.

And we had better listen! For it remains as true as ever that the hymns our people sing will eventually turn out to be as important as the sermons they hear. It was so with the Reformers; it was also so with the revivalists, and it will be so with the modern holiness movement. All the "learned papers" ever read at the Wesleyan Theological Society will avail little if we teach our people to sing something different from the Wesley distinctive. Give the people junk to sing and you will

have religious junkies on your hands. "Let me make a nation's songs," growled Carlyle, and "I care not who makes its laws!"

"Be filled with the Spirit, singing-"wrote Paul; and again "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, singing-." If Dr. Smith can rouse the Holiness Movement, or at least make it knuckle its eyes, to see something of the wealth and weaponry lying so largely unused in this Wesleyan hymnody-he will have served his generation well. It was not his purpose to review the field of the theology of the Wesley hymns, but we thank him for the work he has done. Let us remember brethren, that for every person who reads a couple of Wesley sermons in a lifetime, there are thousands who sing one or two Wesley hymns every Lord's Day!

And I repeat, let us remember, that these Pentecostal hymns were written in Pentecostal language, by men who understood Pentecostal meanings, who were grasped by the Spirit who came at Pentecost, in the radiant and joyous spirit of Pentecostal men, commending and expounding Pentecost as they understood it. And the language of the hymns indicates that the baptism of Pentecost is a baptism of purging, purifying flame.

Dr. Smith's well-chosen examples were all written and published in the early stages of the Revival. I would submit an example from the later period:

Thou God, that answerest by fire,

On Thee in Jesus' name we call,

Fulfill our faithful heart's desire,

And let on us Thy Spirit fall:

Bound on that altar of Thy cross

Our old offending nature lies,

Now for the honour of Thy cause

Come. and consume the sacrifice.

Consume our lusts as rotten wood,

Consume our stony hearts within,

Consume the dust, the serpent's food,

And lick up all the streams of sin,

Its body totally destroy,

Thyself the Lord, the God approve,

And fill our hearts with holy joy

And fervent zeal, and perfect love!

O that the fire from heaven might fall

Our sins its ready victim find,

Seize on our sins, and burn up all

Nor leave the least remains behind!

Then shall our prostrate souls adore,

The Lord, He is the God, confess,

He is the God of saving power,

He is the God of hallowing grace!

Thus does the Eternal Spirit of Burning, who knows no limits of time or space, the God of fire in the bush that burned but was not consumed, the God of fire that consumes all He cannot look upon, the God of fire that purifies, enlarges, and enflames the surrendered heart, the God of Elijah and Carmel, of Peter and Pentecost, become the Spirit of purging, purifying flame in the Wesleys and in me!

With admiration and genuine appreciation to Dr. Smith for so beautifully and efficiently opening our eyes a little bit further to a much neglected aspect of the Wes1eyan message of heart holiness, I close with my own favorite among the Pentecostal hymns of Charles Wesley:

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.

Jesus confirm my heart's desire

To work, and speak, and think for Thee:

Still let me guard the holy fire,

And still stir up Thy gift in me:

Ready for all Thy perfect will,

My acts of faith and love repeat,

Till death Thy endless mercies seal,

And make my sacrifice complete.

And that was written as a comment, not on Luke 12:49, but on Leviticus 6:13! Let us one and all pray with Brother Charles:

Come, Thou Spirit of burning, come,

Comforter through Jesus given;

All my earthly dross consume

Fill my soul with love from Heaven!

For, indicating the reasons for the Pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit, Charles Wesley wrote:-

To make an end of sin,

And Satan's works destroy,

He brings His Kingdom in,

Peace, righteousness, and joy:

The Holy Ghost to man is given:

Rejoice in God sent down from heaven.

The cleansing blood to apply,

The heavenly life display,

And wholly sanctify,

And seal us to that day.

The Holy Ghost to man is given,

Rejoice in God sent down from heaven!

1Henry Bett, The Hymns of Methodism, 3rd ed. (London: Epworth

Press, 1945).

2Ernest Rattenbury, The Evangelical Doctrines of Charles

Wesley's Hymns (London: Epworth, 1941). See also Rattenbury's

other works.

3R. Newton Flew, The Hymns of Charles Wesley (London: Epworth

Press, 1953).

4Frederick Luke Wiseman, Charles Wesley: Evangelist and Poet

(London: Epworth Press, 1933; Charles Wesley and His Hymns,

Bi-Centenary Manual No. 6 (London: 1909).

5George Findlay, Christ's Standard Bearer (London: Epworth

Press, L 1956).

6Roy S. Nicholson, "The Holiness Emphasis in the Wesleys'

Hymns," Wesleyan Theological Journal 5(1970):49-61.

7Timothy L. Smith, "The Holy Spirit in the Hymns of the

Wesleys," WTJ,16:2 (Fall 1981), p.37.

8John Wesley, "Preface," A Collection of Hymns, for the Use

of the People Called Methodists (1780), in The Works of John

Wesley, 14 vols. (rep. Grand RApids: Zondervan Publishing House,

1959),14:340-41.

9Smith, "The Holy Spirit in the Hymns," p. 28.

10W. E. Sangster, Path to Perfection (London: Epworth Press,

1935).

11Albert C. Outler, ed., John Wesley (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1964), p. vii.

12Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England. Watts and

Wesley to Maurice, 5 vols. (Oxford: Oxford Press, 1961).

13Rattenbury, The Euangelical Doctrines.

14John Wesley, "A Letter to a Friend," Works, 13:216-17.

15Wesley, "A Letter to a Friend," p. 217.

16Wesley, "A Letter to a Friend," p. 217.

Other Sources

Baker, Frarlk. Charles Wesley as Revealed by His Letters.

London: Epworth Press, 1948.

Slaate, Howard Alexander. The Arminian Arm of Theology.

Washington: University Press of America, 1977.

Wesley, Charles. Representative Verse of Charles Wesley. Edited

with an Introduction by Frank Baker. (London: Epworth Press,

1962).