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 >
Translator: Samuel P. Craver
Born: April 26, 1847, Franklinville, New Jersey.
Died: October 31, 1919, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Buried: Cementerio Británico, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Samuel’s parents were James Abbott Craver and Hannah Porch Craver. He and his wife Laura Ellen Gassner and had six children.
Craver was educated at Iowa College (AB, BD, DD, 1871); Boston Theological College (1875); and Iowa Wesleyan College (1887).
In 1875, Craver became a Methodist Episcopal missionary in Mexico, serving there for 20 years. He was a charter member of the Methodist Mexico Conference, and founder of the Methodist Church at Guanajuato. He also worked in Paraguay.
In 1895,… Go to person page >
This tune is adapted from Barthélemon's piece Durandarte and Belerma: A Pathetic Scotch Ballad (1797). Some editors describe AUTUMN as "adapted from Psalm xlii in the Genevan Psalter, 1551", referring to the similarity between this tune and FREU DICH SEHR.
Henry T. Smart (PHH 233) composed REX GLORIAE for this text; the hymn was published in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern. Stanley L. Osborne (PHH 395) suggests that Smart initially intended REX GLORIAE as a tune for children. Derived from the topic of Wordsworth's text, the tune's name m…