Charles Wesley had just removed from Westminster School to the university, being elected to the same college as that in which his brother had spent the last six years. John obtained leave of absence from Lincoln College, and spent the summer at Epworth and Wroote with his venerated parents. Here he usually read prayers and preached twice every sabbath; pursued his studies with the greatest diligence; and conversed with his father and mother on many of the chief topics of practical religion, noting in his diary such of their rules and maxims as appeared to him important.[49] While here, he wrote his paraphrase on the 104th Psalm,—a production of genius fully showing that if Wesley had cultivated his poetic talents he might easily have attained to no inferior position among the bards of Britain. The following is an extract:— “Thou, brooding o’er the realms of night, The’ unbottomed infinite abyss, Bad’st the deep her rage surcease, And saidst, _Let there be light!_ Ethereal light Thy call obeyed, Glad she left her native shade, Darkness turned his murmuring head, Resigned the reins, and trembling fled.”[50] “Make poetry your diversion,”[51] said Wesley’s mother, “but not your business;” and because he acted on this advice his poetical pieces are comparatively few. It is well known, however, that some of the noblest hymns in the Wesleyan hymn-book were written by John Wesley’s pen. What can exceed, in poetic grandeur, the three hymns beginning with the line:— “Father of all, whose powerful voice,” etc. Or the two hymns commencing with:— “O God, Thou bottomless abyss,” etc. Or the hymn beginning:— “O God, of good the’ unfathomed sea,” etc. Or again:— “O God the Son, in whom combine,” etc. Or again:— “Jesus, whose glory’s streaming rays,” etc. “Now I have found the ground wherein,” etc. “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,” etc. “Thee will I love, my strength, my tower,” etc. Or again, the two hymns commencing with:— “Commit thou all thy griefs,” etc. Or again:— “Thou hidden love of God, whose height,” etc. Let it be granted that these and others were translations; but still it must be ceded that the words, if not the thoughts, are Wesley’s; and that never, in uninspired language, is God adored and praised in loftier or more sacred strains than in the singing of the hymns above mentioned. Apart from his numerous hymn-books, Wesley, at different times, published five volumes of poetry, and, to the day of his death, read it with the richest relish.