You're right, Burke, though somewhere I believe I have seen one single solitary tune attributed to Chuck. But regardless of the tunes to which they're sung, it's his texts sung, not merely read or even declaimed, that have had the impact.

And while I have great respect for the Wesleys' proto-social-gospel activities, John's influence in that regard was for the most part limited to the England (and colonies) of the time. Charles's hymns, on the other hand, remain a major force today, and have not only gone around the world but across denominational lines as well. So I stand by my assessment, DaveA.

Incidentally, it appears likely that Charles Wesley inherited his hymnopoetic gift from his father, Samuel Wesley. Witness this (from the 1989 The United Methodist Hymnal):

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Behold the Savior of Mankind
Samuel Wesley (1662-1735)

Behold the Savior of mankind
nailed to the shameful tree;
how vast the love that him inclined
to bleed and die for thee!

Hark how he groans! while nature shakes,
and earth's strong pillars bend!
The temple's veil in sunder breaks,
the solid marbles rend.

'Tis done! the precious ransom's paid!
"Receive my soul!" he cries;
see where he bows his sacred head!
He bows his head and dies!

But soon he'll break death's envious chain
and in full glory shine.
O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
was ever love like thine?

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No tune is suggested in the hymnal; I wonder what mudcat hymnnuts would propose. The hymnal says in a footnote: 'Written by Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), this is one of the few relics of his papers found after the fire which destroyed the Epworth rectory during the night of February 9, 1709, when his son, young John Wesley, was rescued as a "brand plucked out of the burning." It was first printed in John Wesley's hymnbook A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charleston, 1737), under the tile "On the Crucifixion."'

I presume the incipit then read "Saviour" and that "Savior" is a later American emendation. How much of the rest has been modernized or otherwise toyed with I can't guess; maybe none, but 1709 strikes me as a bit early for such a text to look so modern.

Haruo