Charles' Missing Hymn

I have a good excuse for taking so long to finish this blog series on “The Kind of Methodist I Want To Be.”

It’s because of an investigation, and I’m the self-appointed lead detective. The predicament is a hymn by Charles Wesley that has gone missing, or perhaps into hiding. I have spent an extra week searching for the text, tracing where it was last seen and following leads as to where the at-least-five stanzas of poetry might have gone. Knowing Mr. Wesley’s pattern, I’m guessing there are far more than only five stanzas to it!

Yes, technically I was simply doing research, but this hymn has special meaning. It stirred in me such a curiosity that it felt more like a quest to find someone I had never met who also strangely felt like someone I already knew. Dr. Frank Billman referenced the hymn early in his book, The Supernatural Thread of Methodism. He said the title for it was, “A Hymn for Pentecost,” and the fifth verse included these lines:

“Now let us speak with other tongues
The new strange language of Thy love.”

— "A Hymn for Pentecost," by Charles Wesley

I was ecstatic—Methodists singing about speaking in tongues! The second chapter of Acts was put to song, and I felt strongly the other verses painted the whole story from Scripture. All Billman wrote about the hymn was that it was not in the current United Methodist hymnal. There was no footnote of where to find the hymn. I thought to myself, “No problem. How hard can it be to find a 200-year-old song with the internet?”

Little did I know this was a cold case that seemed to get colder. I found recordings of other songs Wesley had written for Pentecost but not this one. There was a book published about John and Charles’ hymns for Pentecost, and I have no doubt the missing hymn is in there. But it is out of print with no used copies available for sale. A few copies showed up in libraries around the country, but my amateur detective budget doesn’t account for such travel. I have not given up on finding the lyrics but see a valuable lesson in this current predicament.

“The Wesley brothers affirmed over and over the gifts of the Spirit, including speaking in tongues. Yet we rarely sing about these gifts.

What we sing forms us, and I want to be formed as the kind of Methodist who doesn’t ignore or leave out the gifts of the Spirit.”

When a person writes over 6000 hymns in the course of his lifetime, some of the songs will stick. Enter exhibit A: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Some of us are already practicing it for Christmas Eve next month.

Other songs will make it into a hymnbook, but they get stuck to other pages because we never sing them. Enter exhibit B: “Blow Ye the Trumpet Blow!” Yes, it’s in The United Methodist Hymnal (and has fantastic lyrics). I chose it one time as a congregational hymn and can still see the confusion on faces and muttering on the lips of, “Why didn’t she pick ‘Amazing Grace’ instead?”

Then there are the thousands of hymns written by Charles Wesley that were either briefly or never published, the ones that faded into history. Many of these, like “A Hymn for Pentecost,” likely didn’t have titles and became identified by their first line in old songbooks. The main reason I can’t find this particular hymn is that I don’t know the first line. I only know two lines from the fifth verse. Enter Exhibit C: some of our richest songs with some of the deepest theological truths are what we need to sing, but they have been left out.

Editing is necessary with a library of so many hymns, but I hope we edit our songs of worship in a way that we learn and sing the whole story. The Spirit-filled roots of Methodism have been cut from history books and hymnals for too long.

As we prepare to enter the Advent and Christmas seasons, I have a suggestion for taking a valuable step towards learning and singing the missing hymns. Paul Wesley Chilcote wrote a wonderful devotional years ago titled, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Advent and Christmas with Charles Wesley. It includes well-known as well as lesser-known hymns that do not need to go missing. The one about speaking in tongues may not be in there, but these precious pieces of our history may stir up in you a voice you didn’t know was there.

In conclusion, thank you for journeying with me these past two months into the Spirit-filled roots of Methodism. I hope you have seen the kind of Methodist you want to be and that we all might better see the followers of Jesus we need to be.

all good things to each of you,

dr. darian