Songs for the Soul

For this week’s poem from C-Dub (as literally no-one calls Charles Wesley), I’ve picked a prayer to the Holy Spirit to come and work in us which seems a great place to start the week. As ever, there’s a short reflection below but the poem’s awesome in its own right.

Spirit of faith, come down,
Reveal the things of God,
And make to us the Godhead known,
And witness with the blood:
‘Tis thine the blood to apply,
And give us eyes to see,
Who did for every sinner die,
Hath surely died for me.

No man can truly say
That Jesus is the Lord,
Unless thou take the veil away,
And breathe the living word;
Then, only then, we feel
Our interest in his blood,
And cry, with joy unspeakable,
“Thou art my Lord, my God!”

O that the world might know
The all-atoning Lamb!
Spirit of faith, descend, and show
The virtue of his name;
The grace which all may find,
The saving power impart;
And testify to all mankind,
And speak in every heart.

Inspire the living faith,
Which whosoe’er receives,
The witness in himself he hath,
And consciously believes;
The faith that conquers all,
And doth the mountain move,
And saves whoe’er on Jesus call,
And perfects them in love.

As with almost everything C-Dub (a term that, even in the time it has taken you to read this, are growing to appreciate) wrote, this poem is almost impossibly theologically and biblically rich. This man packed more into four verses than most (even most good) preachers can pack into four sermons. Here are the highlights for those wanting to get a quick hit to set them on their way:

• The Holy Spirit can be prayed to – we can have a personal relationship with him. In the words of the Nicene Creed (pretty much the best test of Christian orthodoxy), he is ‘worshipped together with the Father and the Son’.
• He reveals the things of God to us. He takes the Word made flesh, and the Word recorded in Scripture, and makes them live for us  (sorry Karl, time to take an early Barth, C-Dub was there two centuries earlier).
• The flip-side is that we need the Spirit to reveal Christ to us; the Wesleys were under no illusions about humanity’s condition without the awakening work of the Holy Spirit – we need him.
• Yet at the same time Christ died for and loves everyone; to take the words of St John, he is the light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone. The love of Christ and the grace of God are therefore potentially for everyone and so Charles prays for the Spirit to bring everyone to him. Do you feel away from the grace of God this morning? Then ask the Spirit to make it real for you again!
• Finally, the Spirit not only reveals what Jesus has done for us (in prevenient grace) and applies it to us (in justifying grace), he works it in us (in sanctifying grace). Charles shared John’s optimism about the potential for the grace of God to truly transform us and perfect us in love. He can therefore pray for it with absolute sincerity.

This is a lesser known hymn but one that should burn in our hearts the truth and the love and the soul-cleansing, heart-restoring, love-filling, God-glorifying grace of God.

Happy Monday!

Songs for the Soul (2)

Here’s another poem to get you started this week. It’s also by Charles Wesley. As before, a short reflection is at the bottom. Have a good week!

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast,
Let every soul be Jesu’s guest;
Ye need not one be left behind,
For God hath bidden all mankind.

2 Sent by my Lord, on you I call,
The invitation is to all:
Come, all the world; come, sinner, thou!
All things in Christ are ready now.

3 Come, all ye souls by sin opprest,
Ye restless wanderers after rest,
Ye poor, and maimed, and halt, and blind,
In Christ a hearty welcome find.

4 Come, and partake the gospel feast;
Be saved from sin; in Jesus rest;
O taste the goodness of your God,
And eat his flesh, and drink his blood!

5 Ye vagrant souls, on you I call;
(O that my voice could reach you all!)
Ye all may now be justified,
Ye all may live, for Christ hath died.

6 My message as from God receive,
Ye all may come to Christ, and live;
O let his love your hearts constrain,
Nor suffer him to die in vain!

7 His love is mighty to compel;
His conquering love consent to feel,
Yield to his love’s resistless power,
And fight against your God no more.

8 See him set forth before your eyes,
That precious, bleeding sacrifice!
His offered benefits embrace,
And freely now be saved by grace.

9 This is the time; no more delay!
This is the acceptable day,
Come in, this moment, at his call,
And live for him who died for all.

This poem has a different feel to O For a Thousand Tongues. Whereas that hymn focused on declaring all the amazing things Jesus has done for the world and guiding us through how we can be transformed through his grace, here Charles turns preacher, imploring us to respond while still praising God. The setting for the hymn is communion when Christians take ordinary bread and wine, remember Jesus’ death and resurrection, pray for God’s Spirit to make it Jesus to us, and then eat and drink.

For Charles this was a moment when we can encounter the grace and love of God in a particular way and his desperation that we do so comes through in each verse.

He begins in verses one and two by emphasising that the call to encounter the love and grace of God is for everyone; no-one is too far from God to be found by him. This was a big deal for the Wesleys who were trying to emphasise the need to be converted while also proclaiming that all could be converted (against some High-Calvinists who did not believe in preaching the gospel publicly). For Charles, God’s grace is potentially available to all.

Then he dwells on the benefits of receiving salvation. Our souls are oppressed by sin and cares, restless and unable to be what we sense we should be; yet in Christ we find a welcome that bids us rest. We know that we sin; yet in Christ we find forgiveness. We know that we have walked away from God and will inevitably die; yet in Christ we are justified and given life.

Finally, in verses six to nine Charles shows us the responsibility that this call brings. We need to respond and receive God’s grace. The moment is now: ‘Come in, this moment, at his call, And live for him who died for all.’

Happy Monday.

Songs for the Soul

Here’s one of Charles Wesley’s amazing theological poems to get you started today. I’ve included all ten verses from the original 1780 hymn book. If you can, read it slowly and savour the beauty of what Jesus has done for us. There’s a short reflection below.

 O FOR a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of his grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honours of thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to his voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

Look unto him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Ethiop white.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

In its long form this hymn combines two of the best elements of Wesley’s poetry: his exuberant, God-glorifying, praise for the wonders of individual salvation (verses 1-5) and his passion for teaching about how we are saved and spurring us on to an ever greater experience of God (verses 6-10).

Verses 1-5 are a passionate praise for the cosmic glory of Christ – Jesus should be praised and glorified throughout the world for what he has done for sinners. There is a real joy and commitment to the crucified, risen and glorified Son of God. Yet at the same time Wesley connects the cosmic victory of Christ and our experience of him now with Jesus’ life on earth and work throughout the gospels – verses 4 and 5 are drawn from Jesus’ statement about himself in Luke 4 while the pictures of the deaf hearing, blind seeing, and dumb speaking explicitly connect us to Christ’s earthly miracles. We worship today the same God-man who walked through Israel, healed, preached, died, rose and sent his Spirit into the world and our experience of him is just as real as those who saw him face to face.

Less familiar, perhaps, are verses 6-10. Here Wesley teaches how we are saved and all the glories that await us if we pursue Christ throughout our lives. It is an enormous shame that these verses are no longer sung in churches as they are a wonderful summary of the gospel. First, all need saving (‘Look unto him, ye nations’) yet through faith all can be saved because of the grace of God. Second, we see how salvation was brought (‘see all your sins on Jesus laid’). Third, we we are called to respond to that offering by faith and assured that if we do then God will receive us and forgive us completely (‘Awake from guilty’s sleep…Cast all your sins into the deep’). Finally, we are promised that our experience of God’s forgiveness is the first word and not the last in our salvation – we too can know that deliverance from the power of sin which comes from being renewed in the love of God (‘Anticipate your heaven below’).

If that doesn’t get you going on a Monday morning, nothing will!