Come, Holy Ghost, all-quickening fire

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, the son of Samuel Wesley, was born at Epworth, Dec. 18, 1707. He was educated at Westminster School and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. In 1735, he took Orders and immediately proceeded with his brother John to Georgia, both being employed as missionaries of the S.P.G. He returned to England in 1736. For many years he engaged with his brother in preaching the Gospel. He died March 29, 1788. To Charles Wesley has been justly assigned the appellation of the "Bard of Methodism." His prominence in hymn writing may be judged from the fact that in the "Wesleyan Hymn Book," 623 of the 770 hymns were written by him; and he published more than thirty poetical works, written either by himself alone,… Go to person page >

Come, Holy Ghost, all quickening fire; Come, and my hallowed, &c. C. Wesley. [Whitsuntide.] A "Hymn to God the Sanctifier," first published in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1740, p. 45, in 8 stanzas of 6 lines, and again in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, No. 341 (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. i. p. 240). In the American Methodist Episcopal Hymns, 1849, stanzas iv., v., vii., viii. are given as "Humble and teachable, and mild."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)