THE HYMNS OF CHARLES WESLEY – Part 1 of 3

 O Love divine, what hast Thou done!
Th’incarnate God hath died for me!
The Father’s co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree!
The Son of God for me hath died:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified.  (Charles Wesley)

There was substantial content in Charles Wesley’s hymns, and this must have played a great role in the nurture of the first generation of people called Methodists. Whatever other books they had, or whatever other training, one could be sure that every time they sang one of Wesley’s hymns -- especially those dealing with salvation -- they would get some solid theology. The text encouraged analysis, thought, meditation, and growth.

And of course it was classical theology. There is nothing trendy in Wesley’s theology. His doctrine was ancient and catholic (universal). It was never incidental or peripheral. A modern publisher might feel Wesley’s theology wouldn’t sell, at least if it were in prose. One often has a feeling that much contemporary theology is aimed for the marketplace, either in the scholarly journals or perhaps, at the extreme, something popular enough to get a sensational book review. Wesley was always sensitive to his times, but his theology was classical and catholic. He worried not so much about what was currently popular in the universities as what was needed on the streets and in the mines. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley”

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