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No account of Charles Wesley’s life would be complete without a bit of family background. Both his mother, Susanna, and his father, Samuel, came from strong Puritan families – those who had reacted to the Roman Catholic tendencies in the Church of England and felt the Church needed “purifying”. In reaction to their Puritan upbringing both Susanna and Samuel became strong supporters of the StateChurch – something that greatly influenced Charles for the rest of his life. Though both held the same intense commitment to the Church of England their marriage was marked by marital conflict. Much of this was caused by Susanna’s strong opposition to the 1688 “Bloodless Revolution” which replaced James II, a radical Catholic, with William and Mary as co-sovereigns. Samuel, on the other hand, was a fervent supporter of the new king and queen. This conflict was so severe that it sometimes led to separate marital beds! When Susanna refused to say “Amen” to Samuel’s prayers for the new rulers he said to his wife, “You and I must part; for if we have two Kings, we must have two beds!” The home life of the Wesleys was also in constant turmoil because of Samuel’s inability to handle money matters, which placed the family in terrible poverty. Samuel even had to spend some time in debtor’s prison.

At the time of Charles’ birth his father was the priest at the parish church in the impoverished village of Epworth, Lincolnshire – a situation to which Samuel was totally unsuited. A number of children had been born previous to Charles but several of them had not survived. (It is believed that Susanna had a total of 19 children but only 10 lived past infancy), When he was only 18 months old a terrible fire broke out in the Epworth Rectory. Charles was rescued by a maid but his older brother John was trapped upstairs in a bedroom and was only snatched from the house literally minutes before the burning thatched roof collapsed.

Charles was a bright child – learning the whole alphabet and able to read the first verse of Genesis 1 in one day. He was sent off to WestminsterSchool in London when only 9 years old. While the school was strong in academics it had a reputation as a place where many of the students were known for their immoral and drunken behaviour. Charles struggled to resist the temptation around him. Academically however, he was greatly challenged in his studies by an outstanding teacher in the “art of thinking, writing and speaking” which very much contributed to his later skills as a hymn writer and preacher.

At age nineteen he won a scholarship to ChristChurchCollege in Oxford at the same time that his brother John was also in attendance at the University. Not only was Charles a brilliant student but he was later described by those who knew him over those years as “a man made for friendship”. For some time Charles and John lived a life that contradicted the s trict training of their parents’. However, in 1728 both Charles and John became concerned at their own waywardness. In order to discipline themselves in the Christian life the brothers met together with other students (among whom was George Whitefield) to pray, to encourage each other in strict self-examination, in service to the poor and to engage in excessive fasting – something that was to impair Charles’ health through his later years. Other students jokingly began to refer to this group as “The Holy Club”. Also during this time those meeting in such groups began to be referred to as “Methodists” because they were seeking to be “methodical in their worship and lifestyle”. This word was not new. It had been used 90 years earlier as a term of contempt for Jacob Arminius who taught that a Christian was to methodically seek to live a holy life.

In 1735, after the death of their father, Samuel, John announced that he was leaving Oxford and would start missionary work aboard. He demanded that Charles accompany him! A new colony named Georgia had been founded in the New World as a place to send English debtors. Though unhappy at the prospect, Charles felt he could not deny his brother’s demands. John and Charles sailed with James Oglethorpe, the leader, and two other “missionaries”. The brothers had idealist plans for what they would accomplish in their venture. On the trip over they encountered very rough seas. Both were miserable and terribly afraid of dying. In contrast to their great fears they noted the peaceful assurance of a small group of German Moravians who were sailing to the New World to escape religious persecution.

The time in the Georgia colony was in every way a disaster for the two brothers. They faced rejection from those to whom they came to minister as well as possible attacks by the Indians and Spanish. While swimming Charles even narrowly escaped the jaws of an alligator! Feeling a failure in every way Charles, in very poor health, sailed back to England less than a year later.

 Upon his return to England he soon met up with a band of Christians in London who were delighted to have a “genuine missionary” in their midst. He pretended to them that his return from the colonies was primarily to give information to the Georgia trustees about the colony. His health was in a perilous state and his doctor told him that he was in danger of dying. Charles was struggling with his own crisis of faith when he was surprised to learn that John, who had unexpectedly returned to London, was also going through a spiritual crisis. John had written in his journal, “I, who went to America to convert others, was never myself converted to God.” It was during this time that the brothers once again met up with a band of Moravians. Peter Bohler, a Moravian leader, talked to both John and Charles about their need to focus less on what they could do for God and rely on what God could do for them.

 Because of his continuing illness Charles took accommodation in the home of a Moravian brazier. During this time of serious health problems someone brought him a copy of Martin Luther’s Commentary on the Galatians. As he read this over the next few days he experienced great spiritual struggles. Finally on May 20^th the certainly of his salvation flowed over him and he had a new reliance on God’s saving grace. He wrote, “There came a power over me as I cannot well describe; my great burden fell off in an instant; my heart was so filled with peace and love that I burst into tears. I almost thought I saw our Savour!” In an amazing way his brother John, just three days later, through listening to a reading of L uthe r on justification through faith alone was also converted. In those words familiar now to many John described his conversion experience, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation and an assurance was given that He took away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

 Charles was keen to share his new faith with family, friends and with people he frequently visited in prison. He began to see many converted and even accompanied all of his converts to their place of execution at Tyburn.

By July he began public preaching. At first he preached sermons that John had written but soon he began preaching his own sermons that clearly reflected his evangelical beliefs. His stated guide for preaching was, “I design plain truth for plain people…I labour to avoid all words which are not easily understood and in particular those kinds of technical terms that so frequently occur in bodies of divinity but which to common people are an unknown tongue.”

 Initially parish ministers were willing to let Charles preach in their churches. Westminster Abbey even permitted him to speak about the doctrine of salvation through faith alone. However, as his connections with George Whitefield, an outstanding open air preacher, became known, he was invited to preach less and less by the Church of England clergy. As he began to minister to the lower classes of society, especially to those working in the mines, his preaching changed drastically. He no longer was bound to his notes which led to more inspirational preaching. The willingness of both Charles and John to preach to the masses led to them being forced to appear before the Bishop of London who charged them with heretical preaching and even plotting against the government. One writer said of Charles, “He preached indoors in any home, meeting house or church prepared to have him but was frequently forced to speak in the open, often choosing hills and hollows so that his voice would carry further. In towns he preached in the streets and in yards attached to houses, shops, inns and churches. In villages he often chose the village green or square, but he also spoke in fields, meadows, orchards and gardens. In coastal regions he spoke on the beaches and on the cliffs”.

 Not only were churches closed to him but great hostility was shown by many to these Methodist brothers. Clergy falsely accused them and often aroused the volatile population to become violent toward them. Many times they were in physical danger and sometimes were seriously injured. In spite of this persecution by some, vast crowds would gather to hear them and many came to Christ through their preaching.

One of the great encouragements to Charles and helps in his ministry was the provision of a godly wife (unlike the disastrous marriage undertaken by John). On one of his ministry journeys through Wales Charles stayed in the home of Marmaduke Gwynnes. Though almost twice her age Charles was immediately taken with Mr. Gwynnes’ 21 year old daughter Sally. He latter told her, “At first sight my soul seemed pleased to take acquaintance with thee and never have I found such a nearness to any creature as to you.” Until death separated them she was a constant help and joy to him.

 One painful chapter in Charles’ ministry was the growing discord within Methodism over the Arminian beliefs held by the Wesleys and the Calvinistic beliefs held by George Whitefield. Whitefield tried to maintain fellowship in spite of their differences but John was adamantly oppo sed to W hitefiel d’s doctrines. Though strongly holding his Arminian convictions, Charles often tried to make conciliatory gestures between the two camps. Whitefield, in the midst of this, maintained a most gracious and loving attitude to both of the Wesleys. A story has been often told that when a Calvinist asked Whitefield if he would see John Wesley in heaven, Whitefield replied, “I fear not because he will be so near the throne, and we shall be at such a distance, that we shall hardly get sight of him.”

 Another account in connection with this broken fellowship occurred after the death of Charles, John, George Whitefield and Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (an aristocratic woman who had been converted through the Methodist revivals but sided in doctrine with George Whitefield). Upon being told of Countess Selina’s death an elderly and godly vicar named John Berridge commented, “Ah, is she dead? Then another pillar is gone to glory, Mr. Whitefield is gone. Mr Wesley and his brother are gone and I shall go soon.” The man who brought the news to the vicar commented that in heaven there would be perfect harmony between all godly people. The vicar replied to this statement, “Ay, that we shall; for the Lord washed our hearts here and he will wash our brains there.”

 People have often forgotten that Charles was a great preacher – perhaps even better than John. It is for his hymns that he is best remembered. Early in the ministry of the two brothers Charles wrote hymns that could be used during the worship services. He wrote a collection of hymns for communion services, hymns for times of persecution and a special collection of hymns was written called “2000 Short Hymns on Select Passages of Holy Scripture. Sometimes he even wrote hymns to express his disagreement with Brother John on theological issues such as John’s one-time teaching on sinless perfection. His most definitive hymnbook was published in 1780 called Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists. One writer mentions that John wrote in the preface of this hymnbook that the hymns should contain “no doggerels, no botches, nothing put in to patch up the rhyme, no feeble expletives, nothing turgid or bombastic and no cant expression, no words without meaning” and that the language was to be “simple and plain and suited to every capacity.” Because many of his hymns were written as he travelled thousands of miles by horseback one historian has commented, “The hoof-beats hammered out the rhythm of the song as it shaped itself in his brain.”

 A recent biography of Charles Wesley says this of his hymns, “Most of his hymns were poetic versions of scriptural passages because Charles more than John was a man of one book, the Bible. Scriptural language and thought was the warp and woof of the texture of his poetry. He saw the Bible as a major channel through which the grace of God was experienced.” Another writer has commented that “a skilful man, if the Bible were lost, might extract it from Wesley’s hymns!”

 The last hymn that he wrote (and he wrote around 7,200) said;

The glories of the heavenly Lamb!”