‘Shew Us Thy Salvation’: Charles Wesley and the Liturgical Year

Charles Wesley's objection to his brother John's reduction of ‘holy days’ in the latter's abridgement of the Book of Common Prayer entitled The Sunday Service of the Methodists (1784) suggests that Charles valued the Church of England's temporal and sanctoral cycles. To understand this appreciation for the Church's liturgical calendar, Charles's literary output from 1736 to 1756 is examined, a period that corresponds to the time frame of Charles's manuscript journal. The journal itself serves as a source of investigation as do the hymns related to the Christian year that Charles published between 1739 and 1746. Analysis is made of representative hymns to determine Charles's use of, by allusion and/or direct reference, the scripture readings and collects specified by the Prayer Book for Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsunday. The study reveals Charles's admiration for festival days as occasions to demonstrate God's ongoing desire for human salvation.