Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

What the au­thor of this hymn has wri­tten con­cern­ing it is so full of in­ter­est, we can­not re­frain from quot­ing it. Af­ter the spir­it­ual guida­nce which the broth­ers Wes­ley had re­ceived from Pe­ter Boh­ler, they were se­pa­rat­ed, and Charles We­sley went to re­side with a poor bra­zier named Tho­mas Bray, in Lit­tle Bri­tain, who knew noth­ing but Christ, who had to sup­ply Boh­ler’s place in ex­plain­ing the way of sal­va­tion by faith.

On 21st May, 1738, Charles Wes­ley was en­abled to say, I be­lieve, I be­lieve! What fol­lows is from his Jour­nal, un­der the date of 23rd May.

At nine I be­gan a hymn on my con­ver­sion, but was per­suad­ed to break off for fear of pride. Mr. Bray com­ing, en­cour­aged me to pro­ceed in spite of Sa­tan. I prayed Christ to stand by me and fin­ished the hymn. Up­on my af­ter­wards show­ing it to Mr. Bray, the de­vil threw in a fiery dart, sug­gest­ing that it was wrong, and I had di­spleased God. My heart sank with­in me; when, cast­ing my eyes up­on a Pray­er-book, I met an an­swer for him: Why boast­est thou thy­self, thou ty­rant, that thou must do mis­chief?

Up­on this I clear­ly dis­cerned that it was a de­vice of the ene­my to keep back glo­ry from God. And it is not unu­su­al with him to preach hu­mi­li­ty, when speak­ing will en­dan­ger his king­dom, or do hon­our to Christ. Least of all would he have us tell what things God has done for our souls; so ten­der­ly does he guard us from pride. But God has showed me He can de­fend me from it while speak­ing for Him.

There is, says the Rev. John Kirk, a re­mark­able co­in­ci­dence be­tween the spir­it and lang­uage of the Jour­nal and that of the hymn. As soon as he be­gins to ex­press his joy he is tempt­ed to stay his pen. He re­solves to per­form his vows un­to the Lord, of not hid­ing His right­eous­ness with­in his heart. This har­mo­nis­es ex­act­ly with the third and fourth vers­es, prob­ab­ly com­posed af­ter the temp­ta­tion to de­sist. He asks, And shall I slight my Fa­ther’s love? &c.

Two days af­ter­wards, John Wes­ley al­so was able to be­lieve to the sal­va­tion of his soul. Hap­py in the par­don­ing love of God, John was ac­com­pan­ied by a num­ber of his friends, short­ly be­fore ten at night, to Mr. Bray’s house in Lit­tle Bri­tain, where Charles was con­fined by ill­ness. The two broth­ers and their com­pan­ions were ov­er­joyed, and Charles re­cords, We sang the hymn with great joy, and part­ed with pray­er.

Stevenson, pp. 40–41