Long have I seemed to serve Thee, Lord. C. Wesley. [Formal Religion.] Written during the disputes between the Wesleys and the Moravians concerning Antinomianism and Perfectionism. Dr. Jackson sums up the controversy in his Memoirs of C. Wesley (abridged edition, 1848, p. 98) thus:—
"Molther was the most active and strenuous in propagating the errors by which many were misled. He contended that there are no degrees in faith; so that those who have not the full and unclouded assurance of the divine favour, whatever they may possess besides, have no faith at all. Another tenet which he avowed and defended was, that till men have faith, they are not to use any of the means of grace, such as the reading of the Scriptures, attending the ministry of the Gospel, and receiving the Holy Communion; these ordinances being rather injurious than beneficial, till men have a true and vital faith. . . . The fine hymn on Christian Ordinances, and beginning,
‘Still for thy lovingkindness, Lord,
I in Thy temple wait,'
was written by Mr. C. Wesley at this period [1739-40], as an antidote to the mischievous errors which were prevalent."
The hymn was included in the Wesley Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1740, in 23 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "The Means of Grace" (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. i. p. 233). In 1780 J. Wesley compiled two hymns therefrom, and gave them in the Wesleyan Hymn Book as:—
1. Long have I seemed to serve Thee, Lord, No. 88.
2. Still for Thy lovingkindness, Lord, No. 89.
These hymns have been repeated in numerous hymnbooks in Great Britain and America. In the American Unitarian Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, the first of these is reduced to 4 stanzas.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files