CHARLES WESLEY BICENTENARY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3202, 31 May 1909, Page 7

CHARLES WESLEY BICENTENARY.

SERIVCES IN THE METHODIST CHURCH. Special services were held in the Methodist Church, yesterday morning, on the bi-centenary of Charles Wesley. ' The Rev. 2. E. Porter conducted the service, preaching a very suitable sermon for the occasion. Special hymns, all of which were the compositions of Charles Wesley, were sung by the choirfand congregation. In the course of his sermon, the Rev, Porter g?.id that the Rev. Charles Wesley, (he "sweet singer of Israel," was , born at Epworth in 1709, five years after his brother John. He was one of a family of 19. After hig home training he went to Westminster School, under the care** of Samuel, his elder brother, and thence to the Oxford Uni- j versity. Charles was a ripe scholar, thoroughly acquainted with the Bible, and familiar with the ancient j classics. He was small in stature, I near-sighted and abrupt in manners. He was eccentric, both in youth and manhood, but it was the eccentricity of genius. His characteristics were liveliness of disposition, peculiar frankness, sterling integrity, love of simplicity, sparkling with wit and humour. With his wit he silenced infidels, quelled mobs, confounded magistrates, priests and bishops. Naturally timid, religion made him as bold as ijuther and Knox. He could face mobs without fear and sing sweetly in the midst of storms. Denounced as a vagabond, arrested for treason, shut out of churches, pelted with stones, beaten with clubs, with a spirit of unbending heroism, he excla med< "None of these things move me." Charles was the first who bore the name of "Methodist," and as a reformer he fought side by side with his brother John, Whitfield and others, the early J battles of Methodism. As a preacher re was superior to John. He expressed the greatest truth with simplicity, and energy. As a Christian poet, he has no rival. His poetry is 1 distinguished for originality, variety ! and strengt. His hymns, of which he wrote 6,500 in all, are sung every | Sunday in different parts of the j world. Charles was fortunate in his I marriage. In Miss Sarah Gywnne, he found a helpmeet indeed. They were blessed with eight children, some of whom possessed rare musical talent. After a life of uncommon labour and suffering, the great and good man died on March 29tb, 1778, in his 80th year.