Note 4 — Chapter XVI · THE WESLEYS AND THEIR ERA

“The Wesley hymnbooks constitute an extraordinary interesting human document, palpitating with real life. Every event of those wonderful years, every experience, public or private, through which the singers passed, is mirrored in some sweet song. But there is more in them than that. They are Pilgrim’s Progress in verse. They trace the religious life of every man as he travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. They unfold the spiritual drama of man, his hopes and fears, his aspirations and affections, his failures and victories; each chequered experience trembles into songs, and scarcely a note is missing. Springing from the heart of the eighteenth century, their music seems to drown its licentiousness and frivolity in paeans of praise.” (Frederick J. Gillman, in The Evolution of the English Hymn.)