deficiencies of the author. The general interest in theology, and the yet more general interest in religious feeling, have enlisted in the service of theology, both in prose and poetry, a larger number of inferior writers than will be found either in philosophy or history or science. It is not every one who believes himself equal to a treatise on the stars, or the history of the English nation; but there are very few who do not think themselves equal to treating the truths which concern us all so deeply as those which are involved whether in the essence or in the circumstantials of religion. Accordingly, whilst the Mediaeval Church produced only one or possibly two great poets, there was no restraint on the number of commonplace minds who thought themselves competent to attempt those monastic doggerel rhymes which fill the larger part of the mediaeval hymnology. So also has it been in the Protestant Churches. Men who had hardly a particle of poetic fire in their souls, have not scrupled to produce any number of hymns or psalms on these permitted themes. Amongst such John Wesley is conspicuous. Of all the characteristics of that wonderful mind, none is more remarkable than his downright, plain-spoken, matter-of-fact mode of facing all the great problems which presented themselves to him. For lucidity of expression he almost rivals Paley; for energy he mounts to the level of Warburton or Horsley. But in the prosaic century with which his life was coextensive he was almost the least qualified to produce a substantial addition to its poetry. In the ten volumes of which we have spoken it is sufficient to take at random some few of the passages in which he has endeavoured to clothe his sentiments in verse, in order to appreciate on how low a step he stood in the school of the Muses. The smoke of the infernal cave, Which half the Christian world o'erspread, That Arab-thief, as Satan bold, Who quite destroy'd Thine Asian fold.' With pious Jones and Royal Charles may I Nevertheless there are two sources of inspiration from which hymn-writers in general and John Wesley in particular have derived a fire which makes it impossible to overlook the clains of the Wesleyan hymnology to be ranked as part of our national literature. First, however prosaic might be the soul of John Wesley himself, he had sufficient appreciation of the grandeur of the gift in others to appropriate it in some degree for his purposes. Such are some beautiful passages adopted or adapted from Gambold the Moravian and from George Herbert. But yet more, Charles Wesley supplied in a large degree the deficiencies of his brother John. He doubtless also was led away by those temptations of hymn-writers to which we have before referred. What John Wesley said of Charles Wesley's Hymns on the Nativity might well have been extended to many dozens, 'Omit one or two of them and I will thank you. They are namby-pambical.' But Charles nevertheless had within him a poetic fervour, perhaps a scholar-like polish, which his brother wanted. These gifts showed themselves in the closer tenacity with which he clung to the Church of his fathers, and also gave to his hymns a literary character which redeems many of them from the pedestrian and argumentative style which disfigures so large a part of his own and his brother's poems. Secondly, there is a redeeming quality in the subjects themselves round which hymns have clustered: although it is true that polemics and over-strained metaphors and sounding words are dangerous pitfalls, yet when a genuine religious soul strikes on one of the greater themes of religion, either touching the simpler emotions of the human heart or the more unquestionable doctrines of Christianity, is struck a spark which not unfrequently rises into true and lasting poetry. Such in the Roman Church were those few hymns to which we have called attention; and such in the Wesleyan hymns are those which we shall select in the following extracts. Of these the two most important are two of Charles Wesley's hymns, the first on Wrestling Jacob, the second on Catholic Love. The hymn on Wrestling Jacob is not only a hymn, but a philosophical poem, disfigured indeed in parts by the anatomical allusions to the shrunk sinew, but filled on the whole with a depth and pathos which might well excite Watts to say that 'it was worth all the verses he himself had written,' and induce Montgomery to compare it to the action of a lyrical drama. Of the Hymn on Catholic Love it is a curious and significant fact that it is not contained in any ordinary hymn-book used either by the Wesleyan community or by the English Church. It is not to be found in Lord Selborne's Book of Praise. It was first published at the end of John Wesley's sermon on the Catholic Spirit, on 2 Kings x. 15, in 1755. Nevertheless it is not contained in the pul lished edition of the three volumes where that sermon is printed with the last corrections of the author' (1849). It is only to be found, as far as we are aware, in the Century of Methodism, p. 175 (1839), and in vol. vi. 71 of The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley. Within the last year it has been republished from the last entry of the journal of Catherine Stanley, widow of Bishop Stanley (Memoirs of Edward and Catherine Stanley). A. P. STANLEY. CHARLES WESLEY. CHRISTMAS HYMN. Hark! how all the welkin rings Join the triumph of the skies; Christ the Lord is born to-day! Christ, by highest Heaven adored; Hail, th' Incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with men to appear, Jesus, our Immanuel here! Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace! Come, Desire of nations, come, These lines are now, with great advantage, always altered to 'Hark, the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born King.' Now display Thy saving power, Now in mystic union join Thine to ours, and ours to Thine! Adam's likeness, Lord, efface; Stamp Thy image in its place; Reinstate us in Thy love! Let us Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the Heavenly Man: O! to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart! EASTER HYMN. Christ the Lord is risen to-day, Love's redeeming work is done, Vain the stone, the watch, the seal; Christ hath burst the gates of hell! Death in vain forbids His rise; Christ hath opened Paradise! Lives again our glorious King: Soar we now where Christ has led, |