A Flame of Love : a personal choice of Charles Wesley’s verse by Timothy Dudley-Smith
Triangle (SPCK), 1987 160 pages Available second-hand from Amazon
ISBN 978 0 281 043 002
To remember the bicentenary of the death of Charles Wesley, the greatest of all English hymn writers, as well as the 250th anniversary of the conversion of John and Charles are, taken together, the motivation for this book.
Timothy Dudley-Smith, no mean hymn writer himself, has produced a personal selection of some 138 pieces from Charles Wesley’s output of 8,000 pieces of religious verse, many put to music and sung as hymns in Christian worship over the centuries.
In 8 sections covering experience, the Christian year,, psalms, the life of faith, meditations, daily life and death and heaven, the author reveals the extensive range of Wesley’s compositions.
Like music pouring forth from Mozart’s fertile imagination, poetry poured forth from Charles Wesley’s mind, saturated with Scripture.
Not the least interest in Timothy Dudley-Smith’s work is that he often includes all of the many verses from the original – with a few surprises to boot.
For example, ‘And can it be…’ has an extra verse not found in either Hymns & Psalms or Singing the Faith. Why was the verse axed ?
The well-known Christmas carol ‘Hark ! The herald angels sing’ originally began with a different first line – ‘Hark how all the welkin rings…’. (welkin = sky)
The Easter hymn ‘Christ, the Lord, is risen today’ had 11 verses when written. Would a modern congregation have the vocal stamina to sing more than the 5 verses in our modern book ?
Similarly, ‘My heart is full of Christ and longs
Its glorious matter to declare…’
has 4 verses in Singing the Faith but Timothy Dudley-Smith gives us 21 verses !
Last, but not least, ‘Jesus, the name high over all
In hell or earth or sky…’ (357 in Singing the Faith)
in this book comes as the ninth verse of a hymn with no less that 22 verses !
What do we miss of Wesley’s poetic gift and spiritual insight when we do not see or sing the missing stanzas ?
We are indebted to an Anglican bishop for a gem of a read.