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”

#5634

IN THE COMMUNITY OF A SMALL GROUP

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up… A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”  (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV)

Ecclesiastes provides a visual image of what it means for us to be present in Christian community with a small group of fellow disciples. The first Methodists both believed and practiced that principle.

John and Charles Wesley were engaged in small groups that were designed to counteract the widespread spiritual apathy and casual immorality of the time by promoting holiness of heart and life. Those groups were the first examples of the kinds of small groups that Wesley would later organize into a network of “class meetings,” “bands,” and “societies.” These groups would become the organizational genius of the Methodist movement. When the movement had grown to the point that John Wesley was preaching to thousands of people at a time, he observed that those who were active participants in the small groups continued to grow in their faith, while those who were not engaged in such a group quickly fell away.

That principle is just as true today as it was in eighteenth-century England. The evidence is clear that if an individual’s only contact with the congregation is worship, there is a good chance that he or she either will fall away or will miss out on the concern and care of the church community. Growth to maturity as a disciple is connected to others in the community of a small group.  

-- Adapted from “A Disciple’s Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church” by James A. Harnish

#5550

A MAN OF ONE BOOK

John Wesley wrote: “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven…. God Himself has condescended to teach me the way…. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God! I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri (a man of one book).”  (From “An Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion”)

Wesley called himself “a man of one book.” The Latin phrase homo unius libri originated with Thomas Aquinas and demonstrated Wesley’s saturation in the writings of the early church fathers. Wesley applied that term not only to himself, but also to [the early Methodists at Oxford].

It wasn’t literally true. Wesley was one of the best-read and most widely published Christians of his era. When Benjamin Ingham asked for a method for his spiritual growth, Wesley gave him a list of classic writers of Christian devotion for use in his small group.

He was, however, a “man of one book” in that nothing took priority over reading Scripture. In his “Complete English Dictionary” (1753), Wesley defined a Methodist as “one that lives according to the method laid down in the Bible.” He instructed Ingham to test everything he read or did by what he found in Scripture. Wesley knew that we can be “spiritual” without the Bible, but we can never be growing disciples of Jesus Christ without disciplined study of and reflection on the written Word. 

-- James A. Harnish in “A Disciple’s Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church”

#5510

CONFESSING SIN

At the earlier Methodist class meetings, members were expected every week to answer some extremely personal questions, such as the following:  Have you experienced any particular temptations during the past week?  How did you react or respond to those temptations?  Is there anything you are trying to keep secret, and, if so, what?  At this point, the modern Christian swallows hard!  We are often coated with a thick layer of reserve and modesty which covers "a multitude of sins" -- usually our own.  Significantly, James 5:16-20, the original context of that phrase, is the passage which urges, "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed." 

-- Michael Griffiths in “Cinderella with Amnesia” [1975]

#5419

MAINTAINING THE GLOW

“Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10:25 BSB)

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Methodist awakening in the 1700s was organizing people into groups in order to "maintain the glow" that the Lord had ignited in the hearts of so many. Thus, every Methodist conference (or regional group) would be subdivided into classes, every member expected to participate in a class -- 12 persons with a leader. And the classes, like home groups today, would meet once a week between Sundays. Under the class leader, these small groups would pray together, discuss Scripture, share their experience with each other, and try to encourage each other. 

-- Marshall Shelley in “Leadership Journal”

#5396