Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1740, alt.

Music: St. Fran­ces George A. Löhr, 1861 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of Löhr,

Written during the dis­putes be­tween the Wes­leys and the Mo­ra­vi­ans con­cern­ing An­ti­mo­ni­an­ism and Per­fect­ion­ism. Dr. Jack­son sums up the con­tro­ver­sy in his Memo­irs of C. Wes­ley (abridged ed., 1848, p. 98) thus:—

Molther was the most ac­tive and stren­uous in pro­pa­gat­ing the er­rors by which ma­ny were mis­led. He con­tend­ed that there are no de­grees in faith; so that those who have not the full and un­cloud­ed as­sur­ance of the di­vine fa­vour, what­ev­er they may pos­sess be­sides, have no faith at all.

Another te­net which he avowed and de­fend­ed was, that till men have faith, they are not to use any of the means of grace, such as the read­ing of the Scrip­tures, at­tend­ing the min­is­try of the Gos­pel, and re­ceiv­ing the Ho­ly Com­mun­ion; these or­din­anc­es be­ing ra­ther in­jur­ious than be­ne­fi­cial, till men have a true and vi­tal faith…The fine hymn on Christian or­din­anc­es…was wri­tten by Mr. C. Wes­ley at this pe­ri­od [1739–40], as an an­ti­dote to the mis­chie­vous er­rors which were pre­va­lent.

Julian, p. 684