THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 199
Foulest, in the second verse, which here begins the hymn, is changed into vilest.
Dr. Osborn once said that the first line of ver. 4, O let me commend my Saviour to you, was the best expression of the spirit and genius of Methodism. The personal knowledge of Christ involved in the phrase My Saviour was the true basis of our religious experience, and the loving entreaty, O let me commend, was the true spirit of religious service.
��Hymn 274. Sinners, turn; why will ye die?
CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns on God s Everlasting Love, London, 1741 ; Works, iii. 84. Why will ye die, O house of Israel? Ezek. xviii. 31. Sixteen verses. The first three and the tenth verse are here retained.
Hymn 275. Sinners, obey the gospel word.
CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749; IVorks, v. 63. Come, for all things are now ready. Luke xiv. 17. Ten verses.
Handel set this hymn to music (see 213). The tune was called Fitzwilliam.
Hymn 270. O conie, ye sinners, to your Lord.
CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749 ; IVorks, v. 64. The second part of 275.
Come, then, is the original ; and in ver. 3 Charles Wesley wrote 1 soul. Ver. 3 owes much to Pope s line
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven.
(Etoisa to Abelard, 1. 214.)
William M. Bunting once told a friend, There is one thing I shall miss in heaven, the mystic joys of penitence. A great lover of John Fletcher says (Wesley s Life of Mr. Fletcher) he was first favoured with his heavenly conversation, in com pany with Mr. Walsh and a few other friends, most of whom
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