Where shall my wond’ring soul begin

Where shall my wond’ring soul begin? Charles Wesley* (1707-1788). First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), where it opened Part II of the collection under the heading ‘Christ the Friend of Sinners’. The title page states that the book was on sale at ‘MR. BRAY’S, a Brazier in Little Britain’. It was in the house of John Bray, a ‘poor, ignorant mechanic’, that on 21 May 1738 (Whitsunday) Charles Wesley found the passages of scripture that gave him hope and enabled him to put his trust in God: ‘I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.’ Two days later his journal mentions writing a hymn: Tues., May 23d. I waked under the protection of Christ, and...

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