THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 1 07
Hymn 100. Thou great Redeemer, dying Lamb. JOHN CENNICK.
Sacred Hymns for the Children of God in the Days of their Pilgrimage, 1743, headed The Priesthood of Christ.
John Cennick was born at Reading in 1718. There, in March, 1739, Wesley spent the evening with him and a few of his serious friends, and it pleased God much to strengthen and comfort them. Cennick became teacher in Wesley s school at Kingswood, and one of his lay preachers ; but he adopted Calvinistic views, and joined Whitefield in 1740. Five years later he became a Moravian. Whitefield writes to him from New York, July 5, 1747, My dear John, it has been thy meat and drink to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Mayest thou continue in this plan ! I wish thee much success, and shall always pray that the work of the Lord may prosper in thy hands. Whether thou hast changed thy principles with thy situation, I know not. I would only caution thee against taking anything for gospel upon the mere authority of man. Go where thou wilt, though thou shouldest be in the purest society under heaven, thou wilt find that the best of men are but men at best, and wilt meet with stumbling-blocks enough to teach thee the necessity of a continual dependence on the Lord Jesus, who alone is infallible, and will not give that glory to another.
Cennick had a church in Dublin, and in one strange burst of rhetoric said, I curse and blaspheme all the gods in heaven but the Babe that lay in the manger, the Babe that lay in Mary s lap, the Babe that lay in swaddling clouts. A Popish priest gave the nickname Swaddlers to the Methodists, and even the clergy of Dublin were honoured by this title. Wesley says he probably did not know the expression was in the Bible, a book he was not much acquainted with. (Journal, May 25, 1750.)
Much of Cennick s later life was spent in Germany, where his preaching proved very attractive. He died in London in 1755. His earlier work was revised by Charles Wesley. Some of his hymns were first published by his son-in-law, John Swertner, in the Moravian Collection, 1789.
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