Holding History In My Hands

I’m holding in my hands a piece of worship history. A songbook that transformed the worship life of Britain. Here’s why…I’ve been turning into a serious geek these past months. I’ve been dividing my time up between home, travelling, church and studying. Last summer I was accepted to train to be a vicar in the Church of England, which is a crazy and exciting.

Anyway, as part of the deal I have to study for three years part time, so I find myself sitting in the British Library, home to every book every written. It’s kind of a massive book museum. You can arrange to see any of the books in their collection, including some really rare books. I tried to see if I could get my hands on an original Wesley hymnbook, and after waiting for about an hour, a guy from the rare books section arrived holding a tiny packet wrapped up with string.

It’s a precious first edition of Wesley’s famous hymnbook that reshaped the church landscape and triggered a worship revolution that still inspired millions today. I’m fascinated to know what made them tick, as I open the dusty pages… Most people think of John as the famous preacher and Charles as the famous worship leader. In reality, John co-wrote lots of the hymns, but didn’t want to be credited, and Charles was in fact the better loved preacher. The most popular resource they produced in their lifetime was a pamphlet of one of Charles’s sermons, “Awake Thou that Sleepest”.

It’s hard to explain just how important their hymns were to the church today. Before these guys, hymn singing was pretty much frowned upon in church, and restricted to plainsong, a very bland system for singing the Psalms. The Wesley’s used hymns to draw people in worship, often writing them spontaneously during the sermon then teaching them acapella to crowds of tens of thousands at their open air meetings. Imagine Soul Survivor, Hillsong, Passion and everything else you can think of thrown together and you get a feel for what these meetings were like in their day.

Wesley’s hymns are to the worship leader what Shakespeare’s plays are to the actor or Michelangelo’s painting to the artist: a body of work that can change us if we immerse ourselves in them. The level of creative anointing they operated under is astonishing too. Their output was three times that of Wordsworth, the prolific English poet. John and Charles Wesley wrote 8,990 hymns between them, 400 of which are still used today. They’ve been described as "a work of supreme devotional art by a religious genius."

Their secret was relatively simple. Charles Wesley would use hymns as a way of journalling his daily walk with Jesus. He would not worry about the tune, instead writing the verses as poetry so that they could be adapted later and set to music. As they plodded around on horseback, they would read the bible and write songs. Songs for pretty much every circumstance from the cradle to the grave. They collected the best ones into their hymn books, which became the Survivor Songbook (or whatever) of their day, and spread like wildfire through the church, providing "the soundtrack for the eighteenth-century transatlantic revival".

So as I sit here thumbing my way through these hymns, here are some encouragements:

[1] Write little // Perhaps just a lyric, perhaps just a couple of lines that you feel spring from your walk with Jesus, or from the talk you heard this week. Most of Wesley’s hymns are very short.

[2] Write often // Think of your songwriting as journalling, allow yours songs to flow from your everyday experiences. Email yourself ideas. Wesley wrote about three songs a week for most of his active life as a worship leader.

[3] Write words // I often find I’m getting held back by not having the prefect tune to fit the words. The lesson of Wesley was write words, words, words, and fit the best of them to tunes later.

[4] Write widely // Of the 8,990 hymns they wrote, many of them are pretty bad. What seems to have been going on is that they simply churned the stuff out, and like a good episode of X-Factor, eventually something good turns up.

[5] Write with the bible // Lots of Wesley’s hymns are bible notes in poetry. They wrote out of the Scripture, drawing themes out, expanding, applying, memorizing. It’s a challenge to remain full of the word of God.

There’s a great story of Charles arriving on horseback at a friends house after a long journey. The friends saw him coming and to their asonishment, rather than arrive and greet them, he jumped off his horse, left the poor animal in their front garden and sprinted into the house screaming ‘Pen and ink! Pen and ink!’ They brought him pen and paper, and he sat in their kitchen without even looking at them scribbling furiously for a long time. Eventually, he got up, like a man emerging from a trance, and said hello.

But the work does it justice. You’ll find their lyrics pop up all through contemporary worship all around the world. We even sung them tonight in ‘Holding Nothing Back’: Amazing love, how can it be! My chains fell off, my heart was free! Here is the original in all it’s glory:

And can it be that I should gain
 An interest in the Savior's blood!


Died he for me, who caused his pain! 
For me? who him to death pursued? 


Amazing love! How can it be
 That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?


Amazing love! How can it be
 That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

'Tis mystery all: th' Immortal dies!
 Who can explore his strange design?


In vain the firstborn seraph tries 
To sound the depths of love divine.


'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; 
Let angel minds inquire no more.


'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; 
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left his Father's throne above
 So free, so infinite his grace!


Emptied himself of all but love,
 And bled for Adam's helpless race.


'Tis mercy all, immense and free, 
For O my God, it found out me!


'Tis mercy all, immense and free, 
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
 Fast bound in sin and nature's night;


Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
 I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;


My chains fell off, my heart was free,
 I rose, went forth, and followed thee.


My chains fell off, my heart was free,
 I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

No condemnation now I dread; 
Jesus, and all in him, is mine;


Alive in him, my living Head,
 And clothed in righteousness divine,


Bold I approach th' eternal throne, 
And claim the crown, through Christ my own 


Bold I approach th' eternal throne, 
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.