How Small a Spark Has Lit a Living Fire!, 1988 (hymn)

 Shirley Erena Murray  (31 March 1931 – 25 January 2020) was a New Zealand hymn lyrics writer. Her hymns have been translated into numerous languages and are represented in more than 140 hymn collections.

 “How small a spark has lit a living fire” was Shirley Erena Murray’s contribution to the Wesley 250th Anniversary in 1988. She comments that “Colin Gibson [who composed the original tune, “Aldersgate”] and I put some heart into this, since we were both born Methodists.”

The hymn alludes to a number of aspects of the life of John and Charles Wesley and to Methodist tradition in general:

Verse 1: “to dare and bring the faith out in the open air!”

John Wesley, rather reluctantly at first, began preaching out of doors because his evangelical message and embrace of working class people was not welcome, by and large, in the Anglican parish churches of the time.

Verse 2: “the Good News travels on, it rides the road”.

Both Wesley brothers, but John in particular, rode thousands of miles on horseback across the length and breadth of Britain, preaching and establishing new meetings of Methodists.

 

Verse 3: “born in song”.

A famous description of the Methodist movement, used in the preface to the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book.

 

Verse 4: “our hearts be warmed again”.

A reference to John Wesley’s description of his conversion:

“I felt my heart strangely warmed…I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” 

Aldersgate Flame (1981)

Aldersgate Day, or Wesley Day, is a commemorative day celebrated by Methodist Christians on 24^th May or the nearest Sunday ( called Aldersgate Sunday ). It recalls the day in 1738 when Church of England priest John Wesley attended a group meeting in Aldersgate, London, where he received an experience of assurance of his New Birth. This was the pivotal event in Wesley's life that ultimately led to the development of the Methodist movement in Britain and America. 

According to his journal, Wesley found that his enthusiastic gospel message had been rejected by his Anglican brothers. Heavy-hearted, he reluctantly attended a group meeting that evening in a Moravian chapel on Aldersgate Street in London. It was there, while someone was reading from Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, that he felt that his heart was "strangely warmed". He describes it as:

 “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Daniel L. Burnett called this event Wesley's "Evangelical Conversion", even though he was already a priest of the Church of England.  In 1739 Wesley founded a new society, which would become the Methodist movement. 

Shirley Murray's hymn "How small a spark has lit a living fire!" celebrates Welsey's Aldersgate Experience and was written in 1988 for the 250th anniversary of the event.
 

 

John Wesley’s Conversion Place Memorial – The Aldersgate Flame, 1981

Coordinate : 51.51763, -0.09671

Location : EC1, Bastion High Walk, Museum of London entrance

 

At the approximate location of John Wesley's conversion, which located directly outside the entrance of the Museum of London, a modern bronze sculpture erected in 1981 commemorates the event.
 
On the face of the Memorial are enlarged facsimile extracts in cast bronze of John Wesley’s account of the events of Wednesday May 24^th 1738, the Conversion Day of John Wesley, as described in his original printed text of the first edition of John Wesley’s Journal.
 
On the back of the Memorial are the names of the three local tradesmen concerned with Wesley in the production and marketing of the Journal, i.e. James Hutton, bookseller; WM Strahan, printer; and W. Caslon, letter-founder.
 
The sculpture was placed by the Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes on 24^th May 1981.

 

Tablet @ Aldersgate Street, 1926

Coordinate : 51.51806, -0.09683

Location : on the wall along east Aldersgate Street

 
The tablet is located on the north side of Aldersgate Street just to the north of the Museum of London. The wall, into which it is set, is part of the Barbican complex of buildings,
 
The tablet was placed by the Drew Theological Seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church , USA.
 

 

 

Tablet @ Postman’s Park, 1926

Coordinate : 51.516885, -0.096913

Location : on the outer railings of Postman’s Park

 
Postman's Park is a public garden in central London.  Opened in 1880 on the site of the former churchyard and burial ground of St. Botolph’s Aldersgate Church.
 
In 1900, the park became the location for George Frederic Watts's Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, a memorial to ordinary people who died while saving the lives of others and who might otherwise be forgotten, in the form of a loggia and long wall housing ceramic memorial tablets.
 
A table commemorating John and Charles Wesley’s conversion was placed on the east gate of Postman’s Park, along south side of Aldersgate Street, by the side of London City Presbyterian Church.
 
The tablet was placed erected by the International Methodist Historical Union in 1926.