Death Welcome to the Christian

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 >

Shrinking from the cold hand of death. C. Wesley. [Death and Burial.] This cento was given in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, No. 43, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines. Of these st. i., ii., are No. 102, and st. iii. is No. 244, in vol. i. of his Short Hymns on Select Passages of Holy Scripture, 1762 ( Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. ix. pp. 33 and 80). This text is repeated in the revised edition of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1875, and is in a large number of collections in most English-speaking countries. The spiritual uses of this hymn have been great. Several instances are given in G. J. Stevenson's Methodist Hymn Book Notes, 1883, p. 56.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)