"Lo, He Comes"

Charles Wesley

If you asked me what was the second most unusual thing about Charles Wesley, the author of our Hymn of the Week, I’d say it was that he was the youngest in a family of 18 children. Great big families, I guess, are still to be found here and there. But who on earth now has written 6,500 hymns?

“Well,” you may answer, “quantity is one thing, and quality another.” Agreed! And here is the thing about the young Wesley. His hymns range from perfectly good to sublime. “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” — that’s his. “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” — that’s his. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” — that’s his. And so is this, the mightiest of Advent hymns, “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending.”

Now, you don’t get a Charles Wesley by mere chance, or by saying to yourself, “I’m going to write me some hymns today!” The soil has to be prepared, and the weather has to be right. Had there been no tradition of rollicking popular drama in England, going back two hundred years, we’d have had no Shakespeare. To …