Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley (December 18, 1707 - March 29, 1788) and his brother John are commemorated today in the calendar of the modern Episcopal Church. Charles was a priest in the Church of England, ordained in 1735, and always insisted that he remained faithful to that church, though he and his brother are considered the founders of the Methodist denomination.

Since the message of the Wesley brothers was not welcome in their own churches, they traveled widely and preached in many different places (including a year in the American colony of Georgia). Charles began writing hymns as a way to teach their doctrines in a shorter and more easily-remembered way than sermons. It's said that many of his hymns were composed on horseback while riding from place to place. Eventually his health forced him to curtail his traveling ministry and settle in one place, whereupon he devoted more time to hymnwriting. His final output was more than six thousand hymns, most published in many different collections during his lifetime.

Many of Wesley's hymns are still sung today, and by many more people than Methodists. Today's text is not as well-known as some, but many people have believed it to be his finest verse, including Isaac Watts, who wrote that this text was worth all the hymns he himself had written. Its immediate inspiration comes from Genesis 32:22-30, which is the story of Jacob wrestling with an unknown man in the night, and the hymn is often sung to accompany that lesson. But Wesley broadens the meaning to encompass an individual and personal meeting with God, coming to know God's true name and nature through the physical contact of "wrestling."

Come, O thou Traveler unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with thee;
With thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.
With thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell thee who I am,
My misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called me by my name,
Look on thy hands, and read it there;
But who, I ask thee, who art thou?
Tell me thy name, and tell me now.
But who, I ask thee, who art thou?
Tell me thy name, and tell me now.

Yield to me now, for I am weak,
But confident in self-despair;
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
Be conquered by my instant prayer;
Speak, or thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if thy name is Love.
Speak, or thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if thy name is Love.

’Tis Love! ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me!
I hear thy whisper in my heart;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Pure, universal love thou art;
To me, to all, thy mercies move;
Thy nature and thy name is Love.
To me, to all, thy mercies move;
Thy nature and thy name is Love.

Charles Wesley, 1742; alt.
Tune: CANDLER (L.M.D.)
Scottish melody, adapt. 1847

(The sound file is a bit faster than I think it should be sung.)

Wesley's original text was fourteen stanzas long, later shortened to twelve by his brother John. Twelve stanzas was the usual length in hymnbooks through the nineteenth century. The US Methodist Hymnal of 1905 shortened it to seven, and the 1935 edition to these four, which are generally sung today. The latest United Methodist Hymnal (1989), however, does include the entire fourteen-stanza text on the page following the four stanzas with music.

Two weeks after Charles' death, John Wesley was teaching this hymn to a congregation and broke down during the first stanza at the lines My company before is gone / And I am left alone with thee.

Two Years Ago: John and Charles Wesley