Among all these writers, the palm undoubtedly belongs to Charles Wesley.
In the first volume of hymns published by the two brothers are several
good translations from the German, believed to be by John Wesley, who,
although he translated and adapted, is not supposed to have written any
original hymns; and the influence of German hymnody, particularly of the
works of Paul Gerhardt, Scheffler, Tersteegen and Zinzendorf, may be
traced in a large proportion of Charles Wesley's works. He is more
subjective and meditative than Watts and his school; there is a didactic
turn, even in his most objective pieces, as, for example, in his
Christmas and Easter hymns; most of his works are supplicatory, and his
faults are connected with the same habit of mind. He is apt to repeat
the same thoughts, and to lose force by redundancy--he runs sometimes
even to a tedious length; his hymns are not always symmetrically
constructed, or well balanced and finished off. But he has great truth,
depth and variety of feeling; his diction is manly and always to the
point; never florid, though sometimes passionate and not free from
exaggeration; often vivid and picturesque. Of his spirited style there
are few better examples than "O for a thousand tongues to sing," "Blow
ye the trumpet, blow," "Rejoice, the Lord is King" and "Come, let us
join our friends above"; of his more tender vein, "Happy soul, thy days
are ended"; and of his fervid contemplative style (without going beyond
hymns fit for general use), "O Thou who earnest from above," "Forth in
Thy name, O Lord, I go" and "Eternal beam of light divine." With those
whose taste is for hymns in which warm religious feelings are warmly and
demonstratively expressed, "Jesus, lover of my soul," is as popular as
any of these.
Olivers.
Of the other Wesleyan hymn-writers, Olivers, originally a Welsh
shoemaker and afterwards a preacher, is the most remarkable. He is the
author of only two works, both odes, in a stately metre, and from their
length unfit for congregational singing, but one of them, "The God of
Abraham praise," an ode of singular power and beauty.
Cennick, Hammond, Byrom.
The Moravian Methodists produced few hymns now available for general
use. The best are Cennick's "Children of the heavenly King" and
Hammond's "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb," the former of
which (abridged), and the latter as varied by Madan, are found in many
hymn-books, and are deservedly esteemed. John Byrom, whose name we have
thought it convenient to connect with these, though he did not belong to
the Moravian community, was the author of a Christmas hymn ("Christians
awake, salute the happy morn") which enjoys great popularity; and also
of a short subjective hymn, very fine both in feeling and in expression,
"My spirit longeth for Thee within my troubled breast."
Toplady.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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