"I Now Found Myself at Peace"
Charles Wesley composed more than 6,500 hymns across his 81 years. We share his joy at Christmas in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and at Easter with “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!” We marvel with him as we sing “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” and “Jesus Thine All Victorius Love.” “Arise, My Soul, Arise” and “A Charge to Keep I Have” bring a rousing challenge, too! What a thorough testimony he gave in these lyrics!
Did you know that perhaps Charles Wesley’s most famous hymn was the second one he penned?
By the spring of 1738, Charles Wesley had already been to the American colonies as a missionary and was serving as an ordained priest of the Anglican church. He was absolutely convinced of the Good News of Jesus Christ, but somehow, he had not yet experienced it for himself.
Then one day in May, as he studied Isaiah 40, he read, “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” He wrote in his diary: “I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.”
Very soon after this experience, he wrote this great hymn (including a verse not often printed now):
And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
'Tis mystery all! Th'Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
'Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father's throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race;
'Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th'eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Of course, these few stanzas did not exhaust the hymnwriter’s joy. To celebrate the first anniversary of his conversion experience, Charles Wesley wrote an 18-stanza poem, though we know it best starting with the seventh stanza:
“O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!”
He certainly provided the words for thousands of tongues to sing our great Redeemer’s praise!
Published: 06/20/2025
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