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Charles Wesley (1707-1983)
Charles Wesley's life was on December 18th 1707, the third surviving son and the eighteenth child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. He was sent to Westminster school and proved to be an excellent scholar.
In 1726 Charles went to Christ Church College at Oxford University. When he graduated four years later, Charles became deeply exercised about spiritual things. He gathered together some and began the 'Holy Club'. His older brother John Wesley later became the leader of this group. In 1732, George Whitefield joined the club. The members were called 'Methodists' because they sought God by works. They tried to find a method to achieve salvation by their own efforts. They tried everything, good works, prayer, fasting, self denial, etc. I can find very little to suggest that they were studying the Bible at this time! The club failed to get themselves delivered from the sincere but legalistic and lifeless religion. Whitefield was the first to be born again, in May 1735.
Later in 1735 Charles, John and George Whitefield went to America on a disastrous mission. Charles returned within a year but he had been impressed with the Moravians in Georgia and he met their leader, Count Zinzendorf, in London. John soon returned from Georgia and he and Charles were taught by a Moravian member the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was not long before Charles became a born again Christian and his ministry of hymn writing started. The following day John Wesley was saved. It is fascinating that after all of their own attempts to be saved, it took some basic Bible teaching on salvation for them to be saved!
By this time, George Whitefield's ministry was having an astonishing impact and both Charles and John Wesley were enthralled at effect of open-air ministry in front of large crowds and both of them engaged in it. They fell out with George Whitefield, John called him 'A fiend from hell' and Whitefield went to America where he conducted a huge revival. Whitefield was the true preacher out of the three of them and his loss to this country was considerable.
The first of Charles Wesley's hymns was published in 1739, and they were very popular. He wrote a huge number of hymns, many with numerous verses. Most of them captured the very essence of Christianity. The words are practically sermons in their own right and they portray the glorious truths of Jesus Christ. No wonder that this was a time of revival!
Charles married Sarah Gwynne in 1749 and they had two sons, both musical prodigies. Theirs was a happy marriage and Charles ceased his itinerant ministry in 1756. He died in March 1788 aged 81.