30t a bit about Charles Wesley

30t Love Divine

Words: Charles Wesley, 1747

Love divine, all love excelling -- this is a very well known hymn (to a different tune) in mainstream protestant churches.

A few words about Charles Wesley, author of words set to 28 tunes in the 91 revision (far fewer than Watts, but more than anyone else. A quick look at our UCC hymnal shows 10 tunes with Charles Wesley words -- which puts him among the handful of most represented hymn writers there.)

Born December 18, 1707
Epworth, Lincolnshire, England
Died March 29, 1788 (aged 80)

Charles was the younger brother of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism (a reform/revitalization movement originally within the Church of England though eventually leading to a distinct denomination). Though very much a part of the Methodist movement, Charles maintained his faithfulness to the Church of England in which both he and his brother (and their father) were ordained. Two of his children were composers and musicians.

In these words, Wesley is equating Jesus with love that will make its home in us. Among the scriptural sources one might think of:

John 14.23:
Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

John 17.26: /Jesus is praying to God/
I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

1 John 4.8:
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4.12:
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.