Recovery from Sickness

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 live I yet by power divine? C. Wesley. [Recovery from Sickness.] This hymn, in 17 stanzas, on 2 Kings xx. 1-11, was written in 1738 by C. Wesley during his residence at Oxford, and as a thanksgiving after a dangerous sickness. It was published in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739. In 1780, the hymn "God of my life, what just return" was compiled therefrom, and included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book as No. 149. It is also found in many other collections, being held by the Methodist bodies in much esteem. Original text in Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. i. p. 74.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)