O Thou Eternal Victim slain. C. Wesley. [Passiontide.] Published in the Hymns on the Lord's Supper, 1745, No. 5, in 3 stanzas of 6 lines (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. iii. p. 219). It is found in its full and unaltered form in the Wesleyan Hymn Book and other collections, both old and new. In the Salisbury Hymn Book, 1857; the Sarum, 1868; the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871, and others, it reads "O Thou before the world began." In addition this hymn has been entirely rewritten in two forms, the first by Dr. Kennedy in his Hymnologia Christiana, 1863, as, "O first in sorrow, first in pain" ; and the second by T. Darling, in his Hymns, 1887, as, "Christ Jesus, ere the world began." Of these Dr. Kennedy's is the finer of the two.
--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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