And Can It Be?

Question: Andy asks regarding the story behind the hymn “And Can It Be?”

Answer: Charles was a good man. His older brother John was, too. They’d been raised right, and it showed. Then, the day came when Charles went away to university–Oxford University, in England. And he knew what happened to some young people at university. Away from home for the first time, it was an opportunity to kick up your heels and throw off the shackles of parental rules. But he wanted none of that.

With some others he helped to form what they called “The Holy Club.” Club members read books about how to lead a good life, then shared their findings at the meetings. Each determined he was going to lead the most perfect life possible. Never satisfied, they were always trying to do better. They had rules for everything. They fasted, they prayed, they visited the needy. It was quite a contrast to the wild ways of many other students at the university.

Then came graduation–with the usual question, what now? And about that time, the brothers heard of a need for missionaries to work among the First Nations people, over in America. Filled with great enthusiasm, they enlisted. It seemed a great opportunity to teach the heathen the right way to live, to pass on the many rules for good conduct they had developed in the Holy Club.

The voyage to America was a particularly stormy one. The ship was battered and beaten, and it rolled sickeningly, as each thundering wave threatened to send it to the bottom. The brothers were utterly terrified. But there was a group of passengers on board who hardly seemed to be affected at all by the prospect of being sent to a watery grave. They were Christian missionaries. They remained calm, and even cheerful in the tempest, often sitting together praying, or singing hymns of praise. Eventually the storm abated, and they reached the harbour safely. But Charles was greatly impressed with what he had seen and wondered what the missionaries’ secret was. “How can it be?” he thought.

Soon the two brothers launched themselves into what they believed to be their “mission.” They set about the task of making the Indian people obey all those rules they had followed so soberly in their university days. But the Indians did not see the value of it all, and their work was a failure. After one year, Charles took sick and the brothers were forced to return to England. They went back greatly discouraged.

Then Charles made contact with a group of Christians who held to similar beliefs to the missionaries he had met on the trip. And through their teaching he finally understood that the way to peace is not a “do” but a “done.” Not that good conduct was unimportant. But there was something needed first. Something deeper, and life-changing. It was not what he could do for God that would bring rest to his soul, but what Christ had already done for him on the cross. He learned that “Christ died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3). He learned that when a person puts his faith in Christ, God credits the righteousness of Christ to his account, as a free gift of His grace (Rom. 3:20-21; II Cor. 5:21).

Three days later, his brother John made the same discovery. The two brothers–John (1703-1791) and Charles (1707-1788) Wesley– then launched an evangelistic ministry that would be the greatest the English-speaking world has ever seen. And Charles wrote a hymn expressing his wonder at the love of God. We call it, “And Can It Be?”–an expression of utter amazement. It begins, “And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood? / Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? / Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”