And am I born to die?

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

And am I only born to die? C. Wesley. [Death and Eternity.] This hymn, similar in character to the above, appeared in the same work— Hymns for Children, 1763, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. In 1780 it was included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book. and from thence it has passed into all the collections of the Methodist bodies, and several others, in Great Britain and America. Stevenson gives some interesting details of circumstances attending the singing of this hymn, in his Methodist Hymn Book Notes, 1883, p. 54. Original text in Poetical Works of J. & C. Wesley, 1868-72, vol. vi. p. 432.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)