Charles Wesley was born just before Christmas in 1707. When he was eight years old, he was taken to London to attend Westminster School. At age thirteen, he became a King's Scholar at Westminster. Upon graduating, he enrolled at Oxford. He was nineteen and full of life. He later said, "My first year at college I lost in diversions." At age 31, he wrote, "I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. I saw that by faith I stood." At about the same time he wrote in his journal, "I began a hymn upon my conversion." We aren't certain which hymn he meant, but many historians think it was "And Can It Be," because of the vivid testimony of verse 4:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature's night;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.