Excerpt from The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Vol. 4
The first of those eight publications which are wholly, or in part, reprinted in this Volume, appeared in 1744, the last in 1749. Readers of the journals of the two authors, who have marked the course and extent of their labours in travelling and preaching through those years, may well wonder that they found time to attend upon Muses; and will see in these productions new evidence of that conscientious devotion, and diligent employment of all their time, and all their talents, which marked these wonderful brothers.
The three first tracts relate chiefly to the Rebellion of 1745, and exhibit the patriotism and loyalty of the Wesleys, unshaken by persecution, and sustained as it was by a sense of duty to god, and by an unfaltering hatred of Rome. The "Hymns on the Nativity," form the first of that admirable series of "Festival Hymns" which the preachers were instructed to "take care to have in readiness," that the annual solemnities might be duly improved, not only by the sermons on the subject, which they were advised to preach, but by appropriate hymns. The small volume in which they were contained was superseded by the publication of the "Supplement" in 1831. But though no longer needed for public worship, these hymns have a permanent value.
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