[2]“John Wesley was a good writer and preacher, and possessed extensive learning. He was a man of unfailing perseverance, great self-denial, large liberality, singular devotedness to his Master’s service, and eminent piety. But perhaps his most remarkable gift was the power he possessed of making men willing to fall in with his purposes and of organizing systematic action for the benefit of his followers.” (Josiah Miller, in _Singers and Songs of the Church_.) [3]“Wesley, like Watts, wrote very freely and spontaneously, as the thousands of lyrics he wrote bear witness. Not all of them were good; much of the verse reminds one of a painter’s tentative sketches. But had he not freely written so many, he might not have written the smaller number so consummately well.” (J. Balcom Reeves, in _The Hymn in History and Literature_.) [4]“The Wesley hymnbooks constitute an extraordinary interesting human document, palpitating with real life. Every event of those wonderful years, every experience, public or private, through which the singers passed, is mirrored in some sweet song. But there is more in them than that. They are _Pilgrim’s Progress_ in verse. They trace the religious life of every man as he travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. They unfold the spiritual drama of man, his hopes and fears, his aspirations and affections, his failures and victories; each chequered experience trembles into songs, and scarcely a note is missing. Springing from the heart of the eighteenth century, their music seems to drown its licentiousness and frivolity in paeans of praise.” (Frederick J. Gillman, in _The Evolution of the English Hymn_.) [5]Charles Wesley’s best hymns—and who would dare estimate his genius on any other basis?—meet John Drinkwater’s two tests of vital poetry: (1) It must spring from vital and intense personal experience. (2) It must transfer to the reader by “pregnant and living words” the ecstasy that swelled the heart of the poet. [6]“The style of Watts is austere, objective, formal; the style of Wesley is warm, subjective, intimate.” (J. Balcom Reeves, in _The Hymn in History and Literature_.) [7]Dr. Benson in his exhaustive treatise on _The English Hymn_ remarks: “The Wesleys inaugurated a great spiritual revival; and their hymns did as much as any human agency to kindle and replenish its fervor.... John Wesley led an ecclesiastical revolt and, failing to conquer his own church, established a new one of phenomenal proportions: the hymns prefigured the constitution of the new church and formed the manual of its spiritual discipline.” [8]He frankly expressed his inhospitable attitude: “Were we to encourage little poets, we should soon be overrun.” CHAPTER XVII