The Unspeakable Gift

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 >

Happy the man who [that] finds the grace. C. Wesley. [Happiness in Forgiveness.] Appeared in Hymns for those that seek and those that have Redemption, &c, 1747, No. 18, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and based on Prov. iii. 13, &c. (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. iv. p. 234). In the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, it was given with the omission of stanzas iv., v., viii., as "Happy the man that finds the grace.” Most of the forms of this hymn in use in Great Britain and America are based upon this text of 1780.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)