218. A Charge to Keep I Have

The Story Behind the Hymn

Charles Wesley was born in 1707, the eighteenth child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and alongside his older brother John became one of the two central figures of the eighteenth-century evangelical revival that grew into the Methodist movement. While at Oxford, Charles helped form a small group of students devoted to disciplined study, prayer, and charitable work, meeting on a strict schedule that earned them the mocking nickname “Methodists” from fellow students — a name the movement eventually adopted for itself.

Charles Wesley went on to become one of the most prolific hymn writers in the history of the Christian church, traditionally credited with somewhere around six thousand hymn texts over his lifetime, including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.” Many of his hymns were written not simply as devotional poetry but as teaching tools, meant to instill and reinforce Methodism's core convictions in congregations who might otherwise never read a theological treatise.

“A Charge to Keep I Have,” written in 1762, is a direct paraphrase of Leviticus 8:35, where Aaron and his sons are commanded to “keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not” as they begin their priestly service. Wesley took that charge, originally given to a specific priestly family under the old covenant, and reframed it as a charge belonging to every believer: each Christian, he suggests, carries the same weighty responsibility to watch over their own soul that Aaron once carried over Israel's worship.

The hymn quickly became closely associated with the practical, disciplined spirituality that had defined the Wesleys' movement from its Oxford beginnings — the conviction that faith was not only a matter of belief but of watchful, daily obedience. It traveled with Methodism across the Atlantic and became a favorite among the circuit-riding preachers who carried the movement across the American frontier in the decades after Wesley's death, sung at camp meetings and in small rural chapels alike.

More than two and a half centuries after it was written, the hymn remains widely sung across Methodist, Wesleyan, and holiness traditions, its plain, direct language about duty and accountability giving it a lasting place in congregations that still trace their spiritual heritage back to that small band of Oxford students and the brothers who led them.