Author of faith, to Thee I cry. C. Wesley. [Lent.] This hymn was first printed as the first of six hymns at the end of a tract entitled A short View of the Differences between the Moravian Brethren in England, and J. & C. Wesley, 1745. In 1749 it was reprinted in Hymns & Sacred Poems, vol. i. No. 10, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines in the Wesleyan Hymn Book 1780, No. 114 (ed. 1875), and in the Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. iv. p. 324. It has also passed from the Wesleyan Hymn Book into various collections both in Great Britain and America, sometimes reading “Author of faith, to Thee we cry.” A cento from this hymn, beginning, "Christ bids us knock and enter in," is given in the American Church Pastorals, Boston, 1864. It is composed of stanzas iv. and ii. slightly altered.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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 >
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