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Charles Wesley was the author of six thousand hymns as well as a traveling
preacher. He got around mostly on horseback. While using this mode of
transportation, he would think of things to write about and jot them down
on bits of paper in shorthand. When he would get to an inn he would request
paper, pen and ink from the manager, and compose the hymn.
Often, while riding, his horse would throw him off. Charles would write in
his journal, "My leg was bruised, my hand sprained, and my head stunned,
which spoiled my making of hymns till the next day."
As he had been a classical scholar at Oxford, some of his hymns make
reference to the classics. This one follows the meter of John Dryden's King
Arthur. As he rode from village to village, his thoughts were on Jesus, the
divine love and joy of heaven.
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