Wesley Corpus

Hymn for John Wesley (1779)1 Baker list, 403 Editorial Introduction: There was always some tension between early Methodist lay preachers and the ordained clergy active in the movement. As the movement grew the lay preachers complained that the ordained clergy were given the most desirable appointments (or privileged on preaching on Sundays), particularly in London and Bristol, because they could provide for the sacraments. One of the most dramatic instances of such tension occurred in Bath and Bristol in late 1779. Edward Smyth, an Irish evangelical clergyman supportive of the Wesley brothers, had moved to Bath so that his ailing wife could seek treatment at the spa. John Wesley asked Smyth to preach every Sunday while in Bath. This stepped on the toes of Alexander M'Nab, a lay preacher for thirteen years, who had been appointed superintendent of the Bristol circuit (which included Bath) at the last Conference. M'Nab challenged Wesley's authority to change an appointment by Conference. Charles Wesley and his family were visiting Bristol (and nearby Bath) much of October 1779. His attitude toward M'Nab and other lay preachers who challenged the authority of ordained clergy is evident in three manuscript hymns he wrote that month, where he charged them with "Luciferian pride"! This served to intensify the debate. In mid-November (after his return to London) Charles received a letter from John Valton (the lay preacher currently assigned to Bristol to whom he was closest), informing him of how heated matters had become. This led both Wesley brothers to set out for Bath and Bristol. John stayed only a few days, while Charles remained longer. In a letter in late November Charles reported to John that M'Nab's anger had reached the point that he proclaimed it his duty to pray for John Wesley's death! (Henry Rack gives some reason to believe that Charles was exaggerating the situation; see Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast, 3rd edn., 467-69). In response Charles decided to remove M'Nab from his appointment to the Bristol circuit, at a Sunday evening gathering on December 5, 1779, in the New Room at Bristol.2 (John Wesley later overturned this action.) In preparation for this meeting Charles wrote the hymn which follows. It invites the singers to stand with Charles in praying for John Wesley's life, rather than with M'Nab in praying for his death. Charles sent the original version of the hymn (only five stanzas long) to his brother John the next morning, indicating that some who sang it the night before where encouraging him to publish it.3 While he sounded reticent in the letter, Charles published the hymn as a broadsheet soon after. Two manuscript versions of the longer published hymn are present in the Methodist Archives at The John Rylands University Library.4 Since the variants between these versions and the printed