Savior, to Thee we humbly cry

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 >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Savior, to Thee we humbly cry
Author:	Charles Wesley
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Saviour, to Thee we humbly cry. C. Wesley. [Intercession.] First published with five others in 1745, at the end of a tract, entitled, A Short View of the Differences between the Moravian Brethren lately in England, and the Rev. Mr. John and Charles Wesley, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines and again in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1749, vol. ii., No. 72. In 1780 it was included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book., No. 449, and retained in later editions. It is also found in other collections. It is on record that the special members of the Moravians against whom Wesley wrote, taught that if a person professed faith in Christ, there was no necessity that he should manifest any sorrow on account of sins past or present, but for him there was simply the acknowledgment that he was a "happy sinner," a doctrine which could have but one logical outcome. Hence the satire of st. iii.:—

”In vain, till Thou the power bestow,
The double power of quickening grace,
And make the happy sinners know
The tempter with his angel face,
Who leads them captive at his will,
Captive-—but happy sinners still."

Original text, Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. v. pp. 244-5.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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