Everything I Need to Know about Heaven I Learned from Charles Wesley
Detail “Adoration of the Magi” by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Everything I need to know about heaven, I learned from Charles Wesley. In the poetry and hymnody of the man nicknamed “the Asaph of Methodism,” there is abundant material about eternity. His words capture themes of Christian perfection, eternal bliss, and heavenly worship, and taken together, they evoke the optimism of grace famous among Wesleyans. And when incorporated regularly into worship and devotion, they become an enduring source of hope and strength.
Take, for example, the seventh verse of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” (notably the first hymn in The United Methodist Hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise, and most Wesleyan hymnals over the past two centuries). With the words “anticipate your heav’n below, and own that love is heav’n,” Wesley projects comfort and the foretaste of eternity that we enjoy in our present salvation. Or consider another verse, which says,
Glory to God, and praise and love
be ever, ever giv’n,
by saints below and saints above,
the church in earth and heav’n.
After anticipating our heavenly home, Charles Wesley reminds us that our eternal destiny as “saints above” will be to continue giving God glory, praise, and love. Despite anxiety or conjecture in the world over what awaits us in eternity, Wesleyans already know. We will continue to offer the worship that we have given on earth, surrounded by those who have gone before and will come after us.
So much of the material in popular circulation today about the afterlife is speculative, or else is reduced to platitudes. Wesley’s material, on the other hand, is certain in its conviction and firm in its hope. The lyrics are substantial and informative because they are deeply scriptural.
The Book of Revelation is a common source for Wesley’s musical eschatology. The final verse of “And Can It Be that I Should Gain” includes the line, “bold I approach th’eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own” (see Rev. 2). In the closing verse of my personal favorite Charles Wesley hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” he begins, “Finish, then, thy new creation; pure and spotless, let us be” (see Rev. 21). He ends the verse with, “‘til we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise” (see Rev. 4).
In singing those lyrics, Charles transports us to the heavenly throne room pictured in St. John’s Revelation. Whatever strife and tribulation we suffer on earth, like the faithful of Smyrna, we will receive the crown of life. And like the elders who cast their own crowns before the Lord seated atop the throne, so shall we give to God all honor and praise. Wesley’s lyrics, however, take us even a step further still. To St. John’s scene of heavenly worship, Wesley adds that we will be “lost” in that worship. While we may indeed ‘lose’ ourselves, it will only be because we have ‘found’ our true identity arrayed before our Lord’s throne.
Wesley also uses other scenes in Scripture and the life of the Church as an opportunity to communicate something about eternity. Consider the following holy days or occasions into which Charles injects a glimpse of heaven:
The Transfiguration, in “Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies” (“more and more thyself display, shining to the perfect day”)
Easter morning, in “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” (“Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia! … Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!”)
The Jubilee of Leviticus 25, in “Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow” (“The year of jubilee is come! Return to your eternal home.”)
Holy Conferencing, in “And Are We Yet Alive” (“Let us take up the cross ‘til we the crown obtain”)
Whatever the occasion, Wesley’s words on heaven are never too far from Scripture.
Christian perfection, the chief reason John Wesley believed that God raised up the Methodists, arises frequently in his brother’s lyrics. The missing portion of “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” above is the lyric, “Let us see thy great salvation, perfectly restored in thee; changed from glory into glory, ‘til in heaven we take our place.”
In alluding to 2 Corinthians 3:18, Wesley’s insistence that we will experience degrees of glory goes to the heart of the process of sanctification. The salvation that we experience on earth, a “present thing” as John termed it, is not only a foretaste of our eternal sanctification. Due to the responsive grace of the Wesleys’ theological vision, it is also a phase of a journey. As we grow in sanctification, we are restored, little by little, to God’s original design for us. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” captures the reality of that process of Christian perfection.
Going further, Charles even appended a poem, titled “The Promise of Sanctification,” to John’s sermon “Christian Perfection.” The poem is a 28-verse masterpiece on the doctrine of Christian perfection, and it ends with a nod to our eternal destiny:
Now let me gain perfection’s height!
Now let me into nothing fall!
Be less than nothing in thy sight,
And feel that Christ is all in all!
Wesley’s words here succinctly express the inaugurated eschatology of Christian perfection. It is both-and; it is already and not yet. Wesley’s poetry and hymnody, representative of Wesleyan theology, reminds us that Christian perfection is at once both our eternal destiny and a present gift. As opposed to other eschatological hymns, such as “I’ll Fly Away,” perhaps, Wesley’s writings reassure us that “now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Instead of waiting for “some glad morning” or counting down “just a few more weary days,” as Albert Brumley wrote in “I’ll Fly Away,” Wesley’s optimism of grace insists that we can enjoy full salvation now.
But what about our friends and family who have gone before us? As a pastor, one of the most common questions I get at funerals and graveside services is, “Will I see them again?” Wesley was no stranger to grief himself, and so several hymns speak to this. In the final verse of “All Praise to Our Redeeming Lord,” he writes,
And if our fellowship below
in Jesus be so sweet,
what height of rapture shall we know
when round his throne we meet!
Further, it is in his poem “If Death My Friend and Me Divide” that Wesley gets personal and convicting. In the second verse, he pens this testament to our hope as Christians:
I feel a strong immortal hope,
which bears my mournful spirit up
beneath its mountain load;
redeemed from death, and grief, and pain,
I soon shall find my friend again
within the arms of God.
It has been remarked that Methodists “die well” ever since a physician told Charles Wesley that “Most people die for fear of dying; but, I never met with such people as yours.” And his lyrics shed some light on this fact. In the verses already quoted, we see peace and comfort, glory and perfection, and reunion and fellowship. All these things await us once we “land safe on that happy shore” of heaven, as John Wesley put it. And so, with that fact in mind, Methodists can indeed die well.
For Charles’s own part, he practiced what he preached. When his own earthly pilgrimage was ending, and he was too feeble to hold a pen, he dictated his final poem to his wife, Sally. The poem ends,
Jesus, my only hope Thou art,
Strength of my failing flesh and heart;
O could I catch a smile from Thee,
And drop into eternity!
What does all this mean for us? In Wesley’s lyrics, we find a rich source for hope and calm when discussing eternity. And because of their lyrical format, they burrow deep within our souls before we realize it. As a sixth-generation Methodist, I have been singing Charles Wesley’s hymns since before I could read music. Before I entered seminary and learned words like ‘eschatology’ and concepts like ‘Christian perfection,’ I already knew them. I had been singing them for years.
There is a catechetical value in hymnody that, alongside Word and Sacrament, instructs and builds up the Church and the disciples within it. “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” teaches us about our eternal destiny, whether it is sung with a full choir and a thousand-pipe organ or with a praise band using the David Crowder Band’s rendition with its modern chorus. Whether spoken as liturgy or sung in its Beecher setting, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” teaches us that the perfected new creation is the home that awaits us.
To be sure, Wesley’s hymns instruct us in more truths than those about heaven. There is hardly an aspect of faith that his hymns or poems do not touch on in some way. This discussion of eternity in Wesley’s hymnody, though, serves as an encouragement to lean into it. We should, frequently and with great enthusiasm, include his material in our worship and other gatherings. When people ask what Methodists believe about heaven, we ought to be reaching for our hymnals.
And beyond that, we should turn to Wesley before anyone asks. With steady and lyrical instruction in hymns such as those discussed above, our people will have answers before questions even arise. So, when the storms of life assail, our people will find, almost preveniently, that they have a Wesley hymn on their lips.
Finally, it is fitting here at the conclusion to note that in most of the hymns discussed, the language on eternity occurs in the closing verse. The best songs have plots, and the final verse of hymns, it seems, is the perfect place to remind worshipers of God’s ultimate and eternal promise. That way, when the music fades and the congregation departs, they do so knowing that everything they needed to know about heaven, they learned from Charles Wesley.
Michael Carpenter is an Elder in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is the pastor of Wahoo First United Methodist Church in Wahoo, NE.