Once thou didst on earth appear

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 >

Once Thou didst on earth appear. C. Wesley. [God manifest in the Flesh.] This is a cento thus composed: stanza i. from Short Hymns, 1762, vol. ii., No. 790; stanzas ii., iii., Short Hymns , vol. ii., No. 649; and stanza iv., Hymns for Families, 1747, No. 28. In this form it was given in the Wesleyan Hymn Book 1780, No. 401, and from thence has passed into several collections in Great Britain and America. In the 1875 edition of the Wesleyan Hymn Book, stanza iv. is omitted.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)