Looking Unto Jesus

Author: Charles Wesley

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 >

Are there not in the labourer's day? C. Wesley. [Duty.] First published in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1749, vol. i. 124, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines, and entitled, “The way of duty the way of safety." In 1780 it was embodied in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, and from thence has passed into most of the hymnals of the Methodist bodies in Great Britain and America. It was introduced into the collections of the Church of England by Toplady, through his Psalms & Hymns, 1776. Original text in Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. v. p. 17.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)