Now I have found the ground wherein

If the image of floodwaters is similar to the briefer language of 779, this hymn is in many ways closer to 778. Like that one, it is John Wesley’s paraphrase ‘From the German’ (ie Moravian) in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740; this time the heading is ‘Redemption Found’. Johann Rothe’s hymn was headed ‘Joy in Believing’: Ich habe nun den Grund gefunden, from Zinzendorf’s 1727 collection, retained in the Herrnhut book of 1735. It was said to have been written to celebrate the Count’s birthday. Wesley’s translation of 6 of the original 10 stzs has been acknowledged as not only the best of many available, but one of his own finest and most powerful. Such diverse men (and author/editors) as Edward Bickersteth and William Booth both valued it highly, while in 1956 S H Moore judged the original to be the best of all the Herrnhut hymns. The only line questioned by the London Moravian P H Molther (when asked for his opinion) was ‘O love, thou bottomless abyss’ (3.1, original); it is a bold use of a word applied by Milton in the opposite sense, to hell itself. 3.5 may reflect a famous line of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus. Other changes made for the present book come at 3.2 (from ‘my sins are swallowed up in thee’); 4.1,4 (‘With faith I plunge me in this sea/ … I look into my Saviour’s breast’); and 5.1 (‘… go o’er my head’). If some phrases carry the distinctive Moravian emphasis, the whole text is also suffused with Scripture, to its climactic use of Jeremiah 31:3 at the end. It is also a masterly example of Wesley’s controlled and purposeful use of repetition, as in 2.3–4, 3.6, 5.1–4, and the use of ‘mercy’ at the conclusion of every stz.

The tune MADRID (to be distinguished from 644 which has also been so named) was set to All things are possible with him in the 1877 edn of Wesley’s Hymns, and to these words in the 1933 Methodist book. It is the one enduring tune attributed to the Midlands businessman William Matthews but not known to be published in his lifetime. Routley describes its ‘broad and spacious melody’ as ‘characteristic of Methodist tunes of the period around 1800–30 … one of the best tunes of its type.’ Its name remains puzzling.

b Lissa, Silesia 1688, d Thommendorf, nr Bunzlau 1758. Univ of Leipzig (Theology); licensed as a Lutheran preacher in Görlitz. His first work after graduation was as a private tutor at Leube, but on hearing him preach in 1722, Count Zinzendorf (qv) invited him to be a pastor at Berthelsdorf, alongside the Herrnhut community. But some 15 years later the two men split after a difference; Rothe moved to Hermsdorf near Görlitz, and in 1739 he became pastor at Thommendorf. Most of the 40 or so hymns which he wrote were included in the hymnals edited by Zinzendorf; John Wesley’s translation has brought one of them into wide use in English collections. Mearns (in Julian) describes him as ‘a man of considerable gifts and of unbending integrity, a good theologian, and an earnest, fearless and impressive preacher’, whose hymns are marked by ‘the glow…and depth of Christian experience’. No.781.

b Epworth, Lincs 1703, d City Rd, Old St, Middx (C London) 1791. As a boy he was dramatically rescued from a fire at his father’s rectory at Epworth; after study at Charterhouse Sch, Surrey, and Christ Church Oxford, he was ordained and elected a Fellow of Lincoln Coll. He became the leader of Oxford’s ‘Holy Club’ which his younger brother Charles (qv) had quite informally begun and which first attracted the nickname ‘Methodist’, in which he later gloried. Its members were active in disciplined religious observances and unusual social commitments such as prison visiting. In 1735 he sailed with Charles and others to Georgia, technically as a missionary, in effect a chaplain, but in either role a self-confessed failure. After some naïve actions complicated by a near-disastrous romantic entanglement, he left in embarrassed humiliation, not before courting a rather different trouble by unauthorised tampering with the texts of familiar hymns. Back in London he built on the Moravian contacts he had made on the outward voyage, notably in friendship with Peter Böhler. After intense struggles to find a personal faith, the decisive moment of conversion came at a meeting in Aldersgate St in May 1738— recorded in detail in his published Journal, now commemorated by Methodists worldwide but strangely seldom mentioned in his later writings. ‘Conversion’ or not, the event had ‘pivotal significance’ (A Skevington Wood) for Wesley and Methodism.

It marked, however, a turning point in his life which from then on became an extraordinary career of sustained energy as a travelling evangelist (usually on horseback), church planter, teacher, author, controversialist, and in effect the founder of a denomination. Technically he remained an Anglican, but he put in place all the structures which led to the inevitable split soon after his death. He followed George Whitefield and brother Charles in ‘field-preaching’, which then became his normal method; they and their colleagues suffered cruel and sometimes near-fatal attacks. While at first keen not to duplicate or rival services provided by each local parish church (from which he was increasingly barred for his evangelical preaching), he established meeting-places, schools, teams of lay preachers, class-meetings, medical clinics, and in 1784 an annual Conference which remains the decision-making centre of Methodism. Not the least cause of division in that year was his ‘ordination’, bishop-style, of Thomas Coke and others to serve in N America, at first under his authority. Sadder, perhaps, were divisions within evangelical ranks; Wesley opposed Whitefield’s preaching of the Reformed ‘doctrines of grace’, upheld free-will and taught the possibility of ‘perfect love’ which he was constantly driven to explain or qualify. Some colleagues became disillusioned with his autocratic style; after Charles intervened to prevent an impending marriage, John married suddenly, unwisely and unhappily. While his relations with women were often problematic, he also attracted deep loyalty from followers of either sex, notably that of the remarkable Elizabeth Ritchie who attended his death-bed. In old age, continuing to travel and preach so long as it was physically possible, he mellowed so far as to become almost an establishment figure, respected by Blake, Johnson and others including royalty. But in social attitudes he remained radical, a fierce opponent of slavery who wrote his Thoughts Upon Slavery in 1774 (long before abolition), a critic of many but not all wars, with a simple lifestyle and a fascinated horror of wealth, grand houses and nobility. He never quite overcame his need to control those around him or take the credit for joint enterprises. Unlike virtually all his contemporary preachers he did not wear a wig. He compiled a popular dictionary, a practical medical handbook, and much more. His work as a hymnwriter, translator, abridger and editor has largely been overshadowed by his other achievements, but in hymnody alone his place in history is assured. Many collections of work by one or both of the brothers named them pointedly as ‘Presbyters of the Church of England’. The authorship of some texts is still disputed, as between John and Charles; Erik Routley is among those who believe that all the original texts are Charles’s, John providing only translations. A great compiler of lists and maker of rules, he naturally provided his Methodists (in 1761) with some pointed ‘Directions for Singing’, which are still commonly and deservedly quoted.

As well as Charles, John’s father and elder brother (both Samuel), his mother Susanna and sister Hetty all had outstanding gifts. There are memorials to him at City Rd, London (his house, chapel and tomb) and in Bristol’s historic ‘New Room’. Among recent biographies, those by S Ayling, R Hattersley and (notably) H Rack are all valuable. JW’s own fascinating Journals, abridged or in full, are indispensable but (like his definitive published sermons) need to be read with discernment; in all his writing, as George Lawton kindly put it, he ‘sat lightly to quotation marks’—and sometimes to facts. Biographers of the 18th-c evangelical leaders tend to take sides; Wesley left behind much more accessible printed material, including ammunition, than those who distanced themselves from his claims, policies and ‘free-will’ doctrines. Some Methodists find it especially hard to see him in proportion or take his critics seriously. See also the notes to Cennick, Perronet, Toplady and C Wesley. Nos.240, 778, 781, 844, 878*.