Speak the Word

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 >

Ever fainting with desire. C. Wesley. [Holiness desired.] Appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1742, p. 219, in 10 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed, "A Prayer for Holiness" (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. ii. p. 274). In 1780 it was included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, No. 344, with the omission of stanzas iii.-vi, and in this form it has been repeated in several hymnbooks. The omitted stanzas contain expressions concerning entire holiness, which gave rise to much controversy, and caused J. Wesley to mark them for omission in later editions of the Hymns & Sacred Poems (Works, vol. x. p. 397; and Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 274).

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)