Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/52

40 George Whitefield, on April 14, 1739, after receiving letters from some of his Bristol converts, exclaims, 'O that I had a thousand tongues with which to praise my God.'

Mentzer's hymn—

had been published in 1704, and may have suggested Böhler's phrase. It takes quite a different line from Charles Wesley's hymn.

R. Conyers introduced the hymn into his Psalms and Hymns, 1767. In Wesley's Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1753, it is No. 44, and is headed 'Invitation of Sinners to Christ.' Its premier place in the Wesleyan hymn-book since 1780 has given it a hold on universal Methodism such as scarcely any other hymn possesses. It is also the first hymn in The Methodist Hymnal (1905) of America. The Rev. E. Theodore Carrier describes it as 'A Church bell calling to Worship." The sentiment of the first verse is earlier than Böhler.

Charles Wesley was born at Epworth on December 8, 1707, and died in Marylebone, March 29, 1788. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. Mr. Garret Wesley offered to adopt him, and he had what his brother John used to call 'a fair escape' from being drawn into the world of rank and fashion. He was the first Oxford Methodist, and went to Georgia as secretary to General Oglethorpe. He was 'converted' on Whit Sunday, 1738, and John Wesley on the following Wednesday. The first effort of his muse which is preserved was addressed to his sister Martha before her marriage. His conversion unlocked his soul, and for half a century he was the poet of the Methodist revival. John Wesley said truly in the obituary of his brother, which was read at the Conference of 1788, 'His least praise was his talent for poetry.' He was a restless evangelist, a glorious preacher, a brave soldier of Christ. It is, however, as the 'Sweet Singer' of Methodism that he will always be remembered. Poetry was for him a sixth sense. Every experience of his own inner life, every phase in the history of the Evangelical Revival, every Christian festival, every national event, furnished him with