Praying for Perfection

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 >

What! never speak one evil word? C. Wesley. [Holiness desired.] This cento is thus composed: stanzas i., ii. are from Wesley's Short Hymns, 1762, vol. ii., No. 753, on James iii. 2; and stanzas iii., iv. from the same, vol. i., No. 854, on Psalms ciii. 3. In this form it appeared in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, No. 353, and has been repeated in several collections. Original texts in Poetical Works, 1868-72, vols. xiii. and ix.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)