Jesus shall I never be

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 >

Jesu, shall I never be? C. Wesley. [The Mind of Christ desired.] Published in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1742, p. 221, in 20 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. ii. p. 276). A hymn therefrom of 13 stanza, beginning with the first, was given in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, No. 345, and has been repeated in several other collections. There are also three additional centos in common use: (1) "Jesus, plant and root in me"; (2) "Jesus, root and fix in me"; and (3) "God of Jesus, hear me now." The last appeared in Martineau's Hymns, 1840.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)