.:t •• BIEWn KVT* < « ., * i * ii ,^v. ;«-s, ': : V'\; '".• 5. u ««»3 V id'' *& WS-i- .A 1*; .-¦:civH.^' .v-.^-;.; :-s?^ •3- >l«\* '4 *s- ' I'V*. ¦*)!"> *f , ¦VJi 'V f 'f9»ff^"" """if? V>^-«J!¥"^ ¦^^^!^¦*Ar*'¦•¦- D Il , "I give ^^i Soik ^J'ff^h pmdin^ of If. ColUpi- 6n Mg Ca&ty'\ Gift of Mrs. Edward T. McLaughlin 19 THE 4. OR HYMNS THAT HAVE A HISTORY. AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF HYMNS OF PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. Entbrbd, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. -I Erit^ako Tecoy>io o^i cdto dl £:o^.^s*'>> J Preface page 7 /. TONES IN THE CHURCH. "All hail the Power of Jesus' Name." Perronet 13 " A Mighty Fortress is our God." Luther - 15 " Praise God, from whom all Blessings flow." Ken 17 " Glory to Thee, my God, this night." Ken 22 "Rock of Ages, cleft for me." Toplady 24 " A Debtor to Mercy alone." Toplady- - 29 "Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah." Williams 30 "Lord of the Sabbath, hear our Vows." Doddridge 34 " Come, ye Sinners, poor and needy." Hart - — 35 " Blest be the Tie that binds." Fawcett 37 " From Greenland's Icy Mountains." Heber 40 " Mighty God, while Angels bless Thee." Robinson 42 "Far from the World, O Lord, I flee." Cowper -'• 44 " God moves in a Mysterious Way." Cowper 47 "I love to steal a while away." ^ROWN - - 48 " When All thy Mercies, O my God." Addison S° " O thou, my Soul, forget no more." Krishnu-Pal --- 52 " Jesus, my All, to Heaven is gone." Cennick 54 "Father, whate'er of Earthly Bliss." Steele 58 "Jesus, and shall it ever be?" Grigg-- 60 "Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame." Pope 62 4 CONTENTS, II HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, King Robert's Hymn 67 St. Fulbert of Chartres' Hymn 6g Hymn of Gustavus Adolphus — 70 St. Francis Xavier's Hymn 71 Thomas k Kempis' Hymn — ---- — 73 Sir Walter Raleigh's Hymn 78 Gerhardt's Hymn of Trust 80 Klopstock's Hymn 86 Samuel Rutherford 92 "Addison's Traveller's Hymn 98 Count Zinzendorf's Hymn 99 Lady Huntingdon's Hymn — -- loi John Wesley's Hymn in the Itinerancy 104 Charles Wesley's Watch-night Hymns - - 107 " " Hymn in Time of Trouble - no Langhorn's "It is told me I must die" 114 I ///. SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE, "Lord, dismiss us with thy Blessing." Shirley — 123 "Peace, troubled Soul." Shirley - - 126 " Sweet the moments rich in blessing." Shirley 127 " Watchman, tell us of the Night." Bowring-- - — 128 "While Thee I seek, protecting Power." Miss Williams -- 129 " Hark, the Voice of Love and Mercy." Evans — 131 " When, marshalled on the nightly Plain." White - 132 " While with ceaseless Course the Sun." Newton 134 " On the Mountain-top appearing." Kelly — 135 "If I must die, oh, let me die.'' Beddome - 138 "Awake, my Soul, in joyful Lays." Medley 139 IV, ORIGIN OF FAVORITE SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. "Shepherd offender Youth." Anon. - ,- 145 " There is a Happy Land." Young-- 146 "I think when I read that Sweet Story of Old." Mrs. Luke 146 CONTENTS, 5 ''We speak of the Realms of the Blest." Mrs. Mills 148 "Now I lay me down to sleep." 148 "Golden Head so lowly bending." Putnam's Magazine 148 " ' Now I lay,' — ^repeat it, darling." Lutheran Monthly- 149 " I want to be an Angel." Mrs, Gill 150 " 'T is Religion that can give.'' Mary Masters - 152 "Stand up for Jesus." Duffield 152 "Daily, daily sing the Praises.'' Gould 154 "Just as I am." Elliott 155 " By cool Siloam's shady Rill." Heber 155 " O Mother dear, Jerusalem." Baker - 156 "Jerusalem, my happy Home" 158 " Heaven is my Home." Taylor - 159 "God calling yet." Tersteegen 162 " Little Travellers Zionward." Edmeston 165 "Land ahead, its Fruits are waving" 166 " He leadeth me ! oh, blessed Thought" Gilmore 167 " I am so glad that our Father in Heaven." Buss 169 " I gave my Life for thee." Miss F. R. Havergal 169 * V, SEAMEN'S HYMNS, "Fierce was the wild Billow." Anatolius 173 "Jesus, Lover of my Soul." Charles Wesley --- 174 "When through the torn Sail." Heber 175 "'Listed in the Cause of Sin." Charles Wesley 176 "I hear the Tempest's awful Sound." John Newton 177 VI, INDIAN HYMNS. " In de dark wood, no Indian nigh." Apes - 181 "Whenshall we three meet again" 182 " t'arted many a toil-spent year " t 183 » VIL RECENT HYMN-WRITERS AND THEIR HYMNS. Frederick William Faber - 187 Rev. John Keble '90 1* 6 CONTENTS. Horatius Bonar, D. D. - 194 Charlotte Elliott - 197 Sarah Flower Adams 201 Phoebe Cary — 20; Ray Palmer, D.D. - - - 20g Rev. Henry Francis Lyte 2ii Rev. John Henry Newman - .-, — 215 • VIIL AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL HYMNS. Dr. Watt's Personal Hymns - 2ig Charles Wesley's Hymns for Special Occasions 225 James Montgomery's Hymns of Personal Experience 227 Thomas Olivers' "The God of Abram praise " 234 The Hymns of Madame Guyon 237 IX. FAMILIAR HYMNS, AUTHORS, DATES, ETC, 245 X. HYMN WRITERS, AND THEIR HYMNS 267 PREFACE. In preparing the " Story of the Hymns" the writer does Hot aim, like Miller, in his " Singers and Songs of the Church," to give a complete or nearly complete history, of the origin of all hymns in common use, but only of such as are the result of some peculiar circumstance or special religious experience. The hymns that tlie church best Icves, and most carefully preserves, are, for the most part, the fruit of eventful lives, luminous religious experiences, severe discipline, or unusual sorrow. It is the writer's object to associate such hymns with the peculiar circumstances that inspired them, and to explain the personal and local allusions that enter largely into their composition. The volume might properly have been called "The Origin of Hymns of Religious Experience." Confidence adds largely to the enjoyment of what we read, and nothing more tends to increase our confidence in any literary composition than to know that the author wrote as he felt, and teaches what he himself has experienced. Nearly all works, written merely for effect, are ephemeral. The tinsel of fancy and mere sentiment fades, while words coined from the heart's pure gold live with the ages. The sacred writers were careful to preserve the history of 8 PREFACE. nearly every psalm, from that of Miriam, when Pharaoh and his host were destroyed, to those of Mary in the presence of Elizabeth and Simeon in the Temple. We better understand the awful and shadowy grandeur of the ninetieth psalm, when it is explained to us that it is the "prayer which Moses the man of God prayed" after the people had sinned in the wilder ness. We can enter into the spirit of the eighth psalm, which describes the sublimity of the celestial scenery at night, with a clearer insight when we are told that it was written by the shepherd of Bethlehem, after he had proved himself victorious over the melancholy of Saul at home, and over the champion of the Philistines in the field. It interests us to know that the first psalm was written for the jubilant assembly of King Asa, that the forty-fifth connects itself with the splendors of the reign of Jehoshaphat, that the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth celebrate the removal of the ark after the conquest of Jerusa lem, and that the thirtieth was written for the dedication of the House of David. So also in regard to the psalms that belong to the reign of Hezekiah, and refer to the destruction of the Assyrians \ and the great Hebrew choral, or one hundred and seventh psalm, sung at the Feast of the Tabernacles. Poets are the song-birds of human nature, the interpreters ot human feeling ; and they only are worthy of the name, in whose interpretations we find our own unexpressed thoughts and feelings and experiences. The sacred poet, like the Levite of old, is still a minister in the temple; he still kindles the altar fires of holy feeling, and from his own spiritual indwell- i i^, insight, and inner communings, he puts into language for PREFACE, 9 us those emotions, dispositions, desires, that our hearts recog nize and yet our lips fail of uttering. He takes us to moun tain tops of feeling, into valleys of shadow, and leads by streams of refreshing, and into soUtudes of restfulness and calm. But to understand him best, we must know the wa)rs b; which he himself has been led, and have the assurance that it is a trusty guide with whom we enter into holy companion ship. The essential marks of a good hymn, remarks Earl Nelson, are, "i. It must be full of Scripture. 2. Full of individual life and reality. 3. It must have the acceptance of the use of the church. 4. It must be pure in its English, in its rhyme and its rhythm." He adds: "A hymn coming from a deep communing with God, and from the special experience of the human heart, at once fulfils, and only can fulfil, the tests I have ventured to lay down." The number of hymns in the language is very large. Sir Roundell Palmer estimates that the hymns of Watts, Browne, Doddridge, Charles Wesley, Newton, Beddome, Kelly, and Montgomery, number 6,500; and Mr. Sedgwick, an English writer on hymns, published in 1861 a catalogue of 618 authors who are represented in various English hymn-books. Of these hymns, only the fittest survive, and the most help ful stand the test of time. It usually happens that the most painstaking and elaborate productions of the Christian lyrist are the first to perish, while some minor expression of sincere religious feeling is the surest to live, and take its place among the recognized lyrics of the church. 10 PREFACE. The larger portion of the hymns whose history is given in this volume is familiar to all who have had the training of the Christian church. The religious experiences out of which these hymns grew are not as familiar to those who have not made a special study of the subject. That the book may lead some to better know the guides of their spiritual journey, whose experiences almost daily mingle with their own in the sweet sympathies of song, is the devout wish of the author. I. TONES IN THE CHURCH. I. ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS'" NAME, 2. A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, 3. PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW. 4. KEN'S MORNING HYMN. S. KEN'S EVENING HYMN. 6. ROCK OF AGES, CLEFT FOR MEI 7. FULL ASSURANCE. 8. GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH, 9. LORD OF THE SABBATH, HEAR OUR VOWS. 10. COME, YE SINNERS, POOR AND NEEDY, II. BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS. 12. FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS, 13. MIGHTY GOD, WHILE ANGELS BLESS THEE. 14. FAR FROM THE WORLD. 15. GOD MOVES IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY. 16. I LOVE TO STEAL A WHILE AWAY, 17. WHEN ALL THY MERCIES, 0 MY GOD. 18. O THOU, MY SOUL, FORGET NO MORE. 19. JESUS, MY ALL, TO HEAVEN IS GONE. 20. FATHER, WHATEER OF EARTHLY BLISS. 21. JESUS, AND SHALL IT EVER BE I 22. VITAL SPARK OF HE A VENLY FLAME. TONES IN THE CHURCH. ''ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS' NAME:" Edward Perronet, the author of the most inspiring and triumphant hymn in the English language, is a bene factor whose history is but little known. He was a man of great humility of character, but was sustained amid many vicissitudes of life by an all-victorious faith. He was the son of Rev. Vincent Perronet, an excel lent English clergyman of the old school, who was vicar of Shoreham for fifty years. He left the established church in early life, and became a Methodist. He was a bosom friend of Rev. Charles Wesley, in whose diary mention of him may be found, beginning about the year 1750. He was one of the preachers appointed under the patronage of the Countess of Huntingdon, and, adding an ardent zeal to a humble and sympathetic nature, his labors in the ministry were for a time attended with marked success. But Perronet was at heart an oppo nent of the union of church and state, and at last pro duced an anonymous poem entitled the " Mitre," a keen satire on the national establishment. This hostility 2 14 THE STOR/ OF THE HYMNS. brought him under the displeasure of the countess. He severed his connection with her society, and became the pastor of a small congregation of Dissenters, to whom he preached till his death, which took place in January, 1792. His death was triumphant, and is an evidence of the sincerity of the piety which inspired his rapturous hymn. His majestic faith seemed to lift his soul above the world, and to antedate that coronation day when the cherubic hosts and the redeemed shall " Bring forth the royal diadem. And crown Him Lord of all !" His dying testimony was : " Glory -to God in the height of his divinity ! Glory to God in the depth of his humanity ! Glory to God in his all-sufficiency ! Unto his hands I commend my spirit." The following is the original version of Perronet's jubilant hymn, which has become one of the grandest as well as the most familiar tones of the church : All hail the power of Jesus' name ! Let angels prostrate fall ; Bring forth the royal diadem. To crown him Lord of all. Crown him, ye martyrs of your God, Who from his altar call ; Extol the Stem of Jesse's rod. And crown him Lord of all. Hail him, ye heirs of David's line, Whom David "Lord" did call; The God incarnate ! Man divine ! And crown him Lord of all ! THE STOR Y OF THE HYMNS. 15 Ye seed of Israel's chosen race, Ye ransomed of the fall. Hail him who saves you by his grace, And crown him Lord of all. Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget The wormwood and the gall. Go, spread your trophies at his feet, And crown him Lord of all. Let every tribe and every tongue That bound creation's call. Now shout the universal song. The crown€d Lord of all. "^ MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD." S. T. Coleridge says that Martin Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns, as by his translation of the Bible, The hymns of Luther were indeed the battle-cry and trumpet-call of the Reformation: "The children learned them in the cottage, and martyrs sung them on the scaffold." The hymn beginning " Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," is the grandest of Luther's hymns, and is in harmony with sublime historical periods, from its very nature, boldness, and sublimity. It was written, according to Welles, in the memorable year when the evangelical princes delivered their protest at the Diet of Spires, from which the word and the meaning of the word "Protestant" is derived. "Luther used often to sing it in 1530, while the Diet of Augsburg was sitting. It soon i6 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, became the favorite psalm with the people. It was one of the watchwords of the Reformation, cheering armies to conflict, and sustaining believers in the hours of fiery trial. " After Luther's death, when his affectionate coadju tor Melancthon was at Weimar with his banished friends Jonas and Creuziger, he heard a little maid singing this psalm in the street, and said, ' Sing on, my little girl, you little know whom you comfort.' The first line of this hymn is inscribed on Luther's tomb at Wittenburg." A MIGHTY fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing ; Our helper he, amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe ; His craft and power are great, And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide. Our striving would be losing — Were not the right man on our side, The man of God's own choosing. Dost ask, who that may be ? Christ Jesus, it is he ; His name Lord Sabaoth, Our God and Saviour both. He shall our souls deliver. And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us. We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. '&^^::^ L^TBi: I i.mmut ia ollermsc '::..:: Velj i THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 17 The Prince of Darkness grim — We tremble not for him : His rage we can endure, For lo ! his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. That word above all earthly powers — No thanks to them — abideth ; The Spirit and the gifts are ours. Through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also ; The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is for ever. "PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW." The grand doxology, beginning, " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," is suited to all religious occasions, to all Christian de nominations, to all times, places, and conditions of men, and has been translated into all civilized tongues, and adopted by the church universal. Written more than two hundred years ago, it has become the grandest tone in the anthem of earth's voices continually rising to heaven. As England's drum-call follows the sun, so the tongues that take up this grateful ascription of praise are never silent, but incessantly encircle the earth with their melody. Thomas Ken, (Kenn,) the writer of the hymns that first contained this magnificent stanza, in the form that 2* i8 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. it is now used, was born at Berkhamstead, England, in 1637, and was educated at Oxford. He early in life con secrated himself to God, and became a prelate. He was a lover of holy music. The organists and choristers be ing silenced by the rigid rule of Cromwell, musical socie ties were formed, in one of which Ken played the lute with admirable skill. This society was accustomed to meet in the college chambers. The Morning and the Evening Hymn, which end with this doxology, were originally written for the use of the students in Winchester College, and were append ed to a devotional work which he himself prepared, en titled " The Manual of Prayers." In this latter work he thus counsels the young men of the college : " Be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymns in your cham ber, devoutly remembering that the Psalmist upon happy experience assures you that it is a good thing to tell of the loving kindness of the Lord early in the morning and of his truth in the night season." These hymns were probably at first printed on broad sheets of paper and sent to each student's room. They were added to the Manual for Prayer in 1697. The work was now entitled, " A Manual of Prayers for the Use of Scholars in Win chester College and all other devout Christians ; to which are added Three Hymns, Morning, Evening, and Midnight, not in former editions, by the same author," In 1679, Ken was appointed chaplain to Mary, Princess of Orange, and in 1680 chaplain to Charles II, In the latter capacity he fearlessly did his duty, as one accountable to God alone, and not to any man. He THE STOR Y OF THE HYMNS, 19 reproved the " merry monarch" for his vices, in the plainest and most direct manner. " I must go and hear Ken tell me my faults," the king used to say good-hu- moredly. In 1684, Charles raised him to the see of Bath and Wells. " Before he became a bishop," says Macaulay, " he had maintained the honor of his gown by refusing, when the court was at Winchester, to let Nell Gwynn, the king's mistress, lodge at the house which he occupied as prebendary. The king had sense enough to respect so manly a spirit. Of all the prelates he liked Ken best." Charles once spoke of him as the " good little man that refused his lodgings to poor little Nell." He was the faithful spiritual adviser of Charles II. on his death-bed, and attended the Duke of Monmouth at his execution. He resisted the reestablishment of popery under James, and was one of the famous " seven bishops" who were tried for treason and acquitted. Having sworn allegiance to James, he was too conscientious to break his oath on the ascension of William III., Prince of Orange, and was deprived of his bishopric as a non-juror at the coronation. He was now reduced to poverty, a condition not un acceptable to him, for he was not allured by the false glitter of the courts of kings. Like Fenelon, in reti ring from places of splendor and power, he loved to be alone with his God, and let the world play its drama without being an actor. He was invited by Lord Vis count Weymouth to spend the remainder of his days in his mansion at Longleat, near Frome, in Somerset- 20 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. shire. There, enjoying the hospitality of a small suite of rooms, he lived in happy retirement for twenty years, universally respected and beloved. Queen Anne offered to restore him to the see of Bath and Wells, but he de clined the position, "with grateful thanks for her majes ty's gracious remembrance of him, having long since determined to remain in privacy." He died in March, 1710, and was buried in the church yard of Frome. He had requested that six of the poor est men of the parish might carry him to his grave, and that he might be interred without pomp or ceremony. This accordingly was the manner of his burial. "The moral character of Ken," says Lord Macaulay, " when impartially reviewed, sustains a comparison with any in ecclesiastical history, and seems to approach, as near as any human infirmity permits, to the ideal of Christian perfection." * KEN'S MORNING HYMN. ORIGINAL TEXT OF 1697. Awake, my soul, and with the sun Thy daily stage of duty run ; Shake off dull sloth, and early rise To pay thy morning sacrifice. Redeem thy misspent time that 's past. And live this day as if thy last ; Improve thy talent with due care, 'Gainst the great day thyself prepare. Let all thy converse be sincere. Thy conscience as the noonday clear; Think how all-seeing GoD thy ways And all thy secret thoughts surveys. THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 21 Influenced of the Light divine Let thine own light in good works shine ; Reflect all heaven's propitious rays In ardent love and cheerful praise. Wake and lift up thyself, my heart. And with the angels bear thy part, Who all night long unwearied sing Glory to the Eternal King. I wake, I wake, ye heavenly choir. May your devotion me inspire, That I like you my age may spend. Like you may on my God attend. May I like you in God delight. Have all day long my God in sight. Perform like you my Maker's will. Oh may I never more do ill. Had I your wings to heaven I 'd fly ; But God shall that defect supply. And my soul, winged with warm desire, Shall aU day long to heaven aspire. Glory to thee who safe hast kept, And hast refreshed me while I slept ; Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake, I may of endless light partake. I would not wake, nor rise again, E'en heaven itself I would disdain, Wert not thou there to be enjoyed, And I in h)mins to be employed. Heaven is, dear Lord, where'er thou art ; Oh never then from me depart ; For to my soul 't is hell to be. But for a moment without thee. 22 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Lord, I my vows to thee renew ; Scatter my sins as morning dew ; Guard my first springs of thought and will, And with thyself my spirit fill. Direct, control, suggest this day, AH I design, or do, or say ; That all my powers, with all their might In thy sole glory may unite. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ; Praise Him, all creatures here below ; Praise Him above, ye angelic host, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost KEN'S EVENING HYMN, ORIGINAL TEXT OF 1697. Glory to Thee, my God, this night For all the blessings of the light ; Keep me, oh keep me. King of kings, Under thine own Almighty wings. Forgive me. Lord, for thy. dear Son, The ills that I this day have done. That with the world, myself, and thee, I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. Teach me to live, that I may dread The grave as little as my bed ; Teach me to die, that so I may Triumphing rise at the last day. Oh may my soul on thee repose. And may sweet sleep mine eyelids close, Sleep that shall me more vigorous make To serve my God when I awake. THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 23 When in the night I sleepless lie. My soul with heavenly thoughts supply ; Let no iU dreams disturb my rest. No powers of darkness me molest. Dull sleep, of sense me to deprive ! I am but half my days alive ; Thy faithful lovers. Lord, are grieved To lie so long of thee bereaved. But though sleep o'er my frailty reigns, Let it not hold me long in chains. And now and then let loose my heart. Till it a hallelujah dart. The faster sleep the sense does bind. The more unfettered is the mind. Oh may my soul, from matter free. Thy unveiled goodness waking see. Oh when shall I, in endless day. For ever chase dark sleep away. And endless praise with the heavenly choir Incessant sing, and never tire ? You, my blest guardian, whilst I sleep. Close to my bed your vigils keep. Divine love into me instil. Stop all the avenues of ill. Thought to thought with my soul converse. Celestial joys to me rehearse. And in my stead all the night long. Sing to my God a grateful song. Praise God from whom all blessings flow : Praise Him all creatures here below : Praise Him above, ye angelic host : Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 24 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. ''ROCK OF AGES," The hymn beginning, " Rock of Ages, cleft for me," may well be esteemed one of the brightest gems of Christian psalmody. It holds a place in the affections of the church, second, perhaps, only to Charles Wesley's deep spiritual petition, " Jesus, lover of my soul." It is a grand tone that nerves and strengthens faith, that associates the sublime imagery of the Hebrew Scriptures with the all-protecting love of Christ, and that has con soled thousands of Christians in the dying hour. The late Prince Consort repeated the first stanza on his bed of death, and found in it the perfect interpretation of the sentiment of his hopeful Christian experience. Augustus Montague Toplady, the author, was born at Farnham, Surrey, England in 1740. His father fell at the battle of Carthagena, and he was brought up in charge of an exemplary and pious mother. He was educated at Westminster school. At the age of sixteen, Toplady chanced to go into a barn at an obscure place, called Codymain, Ireland, to hear an illiterate layman preach. The sermon made up on him an unexpected impression and led to his imme diate conversion. He thus speaks of this interesting experience in his diary : " That sweet text, ' Ye who some time were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ,' was particularly delightful and refreshing to my soul. It was from that passage that Mr. Morris preached on the TONES IN THE CHURCH. 25 memorable evening of my effectual call by the grace of God, under the ministry of that dear messenger, under that sermon, I was, I trust, brought nigh by the blood of Christ, in August, 1756. " Strange that I, who had so long been under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh to God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God's people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could scarcely spell his name. The excel lency of such power must be of God and cannot be of men." He became a minister of the church of England, maintained the Calvinistic doctrines in opposition to the Wesleys, and preached and wrote with self-consuming zeal. The only, blemish of his high character was heated language and intolerance in controversy. In the year 1775 his health began to fail. It was evident that the sword was too sharp for the scabbard. His physical energies were being destroyed by the fiery ardor of soul that over-taxed them. His physician com manded him to go to London. Here a new field opened before him, and he became pastor of the French Calvinist Reformed Church. On the year of his settlement in London, he published in the Gospel Magazine (March, 1776) an article, entitled " Questions and Answers Relative to the National Debt," in which he adverts to the debt of sin, and shows how multitudinous are the sins of mankind. By numerical calculations, he exhibits the enormity of the debt of the redeemed soul, which Christ has cancelled, and impresses StOT; of Hymnii. 8 26 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. the reader with the transcendent love and value of Christ's atonement. With these thoughts glowing like a vision in his mind, he then added : Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee ; Let the water and the blood. From thy riven side which flowed. Be of sin the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt and power. Not the labor of my hands Can fulfil thy law's demands ; Could my zeal no respite know. Could my tears for ever flow. All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling ; Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace : Foul, I to the fountain fly ; Wash me. Saviour, or I die. Whilst I draw this fleeting breath, When my eyestrings break in death ; When I soar through tracts unknown, See thee on thy judgment throne. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. The above is the original version, from which it will be seen that the hymn in common use has been greatly transposed and altered. It was composed in Toplady's last years, when he already felt that he was beginning to lose his hold on TONES IN THE CHURCH. 27 lite, and that his feet were already standing on celestial altitudes. Some two years afterwards, when he was yet but thirty-eight years of age, the full time of his depart ure came, and he found the prayer in the last stanza of his hymn fully and sweetly answered in the revelation of Divine love to his soul. He seemed to walk in Beulahi to breathe immortal airs and to hear the tuning of un seen harps, and by faith to discover what the Protomar tyr saw and the Revelator described. " Your pulse," said the doctor, " is becoming weaker." " That is a good sign," said Toplady, " that my death is fast approaching, and I can add that my heart beats every day stronger and stronger for glory." As his end drew immediately near, tears of joy filled his eyes, before which already seemed to pass visions of Paradise, and he exclaimed : " It will not be long before God takes me, for no mortal can live after the glories God has manifested to my soul," The following hymn, which furnishes a picture of his religious consolations, confidence and hope, was written during one of these periods of illness, that gradually wasted his strength, and brought him constantly in face with death and the eternal world : When languor and disease invade This trembling house of clay, 'T is sweet to look beyond my pains. And long to fly away ; Sweet to look inward, and attend The whispers of his love ; Sweet to look upward, to the place Where Jesus pleads above : 28 THE STOR Y OF THE HYMNS. Sweet to look back, and see my name In life's fair book set down ; Sweet to look forward, and behold Eternal joys my own ; Sweet to reflect how grace divine My sins on Jesus laid ; Sweet to remember that his blood My debt of suffering paid ; Sweet to rejoice in lively hope. That, when my change shall come, Angels shall hover round my bed. And waft my spirit home. If such the sweetness of the stream. What must the fountain be. Where saints and angels draw their bliss Directly, Lord, from thee. The following Latin version of Rock of Ages, is by Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone : Jesus, pro me perforatus, Condar intra tuum latus ; Tu per lympham profluentem, Tu per sanguinem tepentem. In peccata mi redunda, ToUe culpam, sordes munda ! Coram Te nee Justus forem Quamvis tota vi laborem. Nee si fide nunquam cesso, Fletu stillans indefesso ; Tibi soli tantum munus — Salva me, Salvator Unus ! TONES IN THE CHURCH. Nil in manu mecum fero, Sed me versus crucem gero: Vestimenta nudus oro, Opem debilis imploro, Fontem Christi quasro immundus, Nisi laves, moribundus. Dum hos artus vita regit, Quando nox sepulcro tegit; Mortuos quum stare jubes, Sedens Judex inter nubes ; — Jesus, pro me perforatus, Condar intra tuum latus ! 29 The following hymn, by Toplady, is not found in many of the standard hymn-books : FULL ASSURANCE, A DEBTOR to mercy alone. Of covenant mercy I sing. Nor fear, with thy righteousness on, My person and offering to bring. The terrors of law and of God With me can have nothing to do. My Saviour's obedience and blood Hide all my transgressions from view. The work which his goodness began. The arm of his strength will complete ; His promise is yea and amen. And never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things that are now. Nor all things below nor above, Can make him his purpose forego, Or sever my soul from his love. 3* 30 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. My name from the palms of his hands Eternity cannot erase. Impressed on his heart it remains. In marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure. As sure as the earnest is given ; More happy, but not more secure. The glorified spirits in heaven. "GUIDE ME, O THOU GREAT JEHOVAH." The much-used hymn, beginning, " Guide me, O thou great Jehovah !" is attributed to Olivers in nearly all American collections of hymns. We find it so credited in some of the more careful compilations, among them, " Hymns for the Church Militant." It was written by William Williams, a Welsh preacher in the Welsh Calvinist-Methodist con nection, in the times of Whitefield and Lady Hunting don. Olivers, who was a musician as well as a poet, and himself a Welshman, supplied the music, and so his name became accidentally associated with the authorship of the hymn. William Williams, or Williams of Pantycelyn, who has been called the Watts of Wales, was born in 1717, in the parish of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn, in Carmarthenshire. His conversion forms an interesting part of his stu dent-history. He was awakened to the importance of personal religion while listening to the words of the once famous preacher, Howel Harris, in Talgarth churchyard. TONES IN THE CHURCH. 31 His experience was a clear one, and the duty of becom ing a preacher was made plain to him. He received deacon's orders at the age of twenty-three. At the age of thirty-two he left the Established Church and became an itinerant Methodist preacher. He possessed the warm heart and glowing imagina tion of a true Welshman, and his sermons abounded with vivid picturing, and, always radiant with the pres ence of his Divine Master, they produced an extraordi nary effect on susceptible Welshmen. Working in connection with such zealous ministers as Harris and Rowlands, he became a very popular preacher, and his local fame greatly increased when to Welsh eloquence he added the choicest gifts of song, and began to publish his highly experimental hymns. The inspiring words of " O'er the gloomy hills of darkness," were written long before the beginning of foreign mis sionary enterprises, while Williams, its popular author, was yet traversing the lonely mountains of Wales, and look ing for the dawn of a brighter religious day. Welshmen sung the hymn as a prophecy, and felt their hearts glad dened with hope, years and years before the church begun her aggressive march into pagan and heathen lands. His first Welsh hymn-book was entitled the "Alle luia," and was printed in Bristol in six parts in 1745-47. His second book was called " The Sea of Glass," and the third, "Visible Farewell; Welcome to Invisible Things." 32 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. In 1 77 1 he wrote an elegy on Whitefield, which he dedi cated to the Countess of Huntingdon. He died in 1791. It is probable that the famous hymn, beginning, " Guide me, O thou great Jehovah," was sung in Ameri ca before it obtained a European reputation. Its history is as follows : Lady Huntingdon having read one of Will iams' books with much spiritual satisfaction, persuaded him to prepare a collection of hymns, to be called the " Gloria in Excelsis," for especial use in Mr. Whitefield's Orphans' House in America, In this collection appear ed the original stanzas of " Guide me, O thou great Je hovah," In 1774, two years after its publication in the " Gloria in Excelsis," it was republished in England in Mr. Whitefield's collections of hymns. Its rendering from the Welsh into English is attributed to W. Evans, who gives a rendering similar to that found in the pres ent collections of hymns. The hymn was taken up by the Calvinist-Methodists, embodying as it did a metrical prayer for God's overcoming strength and victorious de liverance in life's hours of discipline and trial, expressed in truly majestic language, in harmony with a firm reli gious reliance and trust, and a lofty experimental faith. It immediately became populrr among all denominations of Christians, holding a place in the affections of the church with Robinson's " Come, thou Fount of every blessing." It is now usually sung to " Greenville," the music of which is nearly identical with Rousseau's " Dream," and which was composed by Rousseau. Its original music, as we have said, was written by Thomas Olivers. TONES IN THE CHURCH. 33 The original hymn had four stanzas, and was some what stronger in the choice of words than the present popular verses. It was as follows : Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land : I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me by thy powerful hand ; Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain. Whence the healing streams do flow ; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar Guide me all my journey through ; Strong Deliverer, Be thou still my strength and shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside ; Death of death, and hell's destruction, Land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises I wUl ever give to thee. Musing on my habitation, Musing on my heavenly home. Fills my heart with holy longing ; Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come. Vanity is all I see. Lord, I long to be with thee. Most versions read in the second line of the second stanza, "Whence the crystal waters flow," which pre sents to the mind a picture inferior to the original. In the third stanza the third line usually reads, " Bear me through the swelling current," which is also an inferior 34 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, picture for the singer, whatever it may be to the rhetori cian. The last stanza is fervent, confident, and strong, lifting the soul on the wings of aspiration and faith, and it seems rather remarkable that it should be so com monly omitted. • "LORD OF THE SABBATH, HEAR OUR VOWS," When Dr. Doddridge, during his useful ministry, had finished the preparation of a pulpit discourse that strong ly impressed him, he was accustomed, while his heart was yet glowing with the sentiment that had inspired him, to put the principal thoughts into metre, and use the hymn thus written at the conclusion of the preach ing of the sermon. At the close of a discourse preached in Jan. 2, 1736, from the text, ."There remaineth there fore a rest to the people of God," he read the beautiful hymn, containing the following almost unequalled stan zas: Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love, But there's a nobler rest above ; To that our laboring souls aspire. With ardent hope and strong desire. No more fatigue, no more distress, Nor sin nor hell shall reach the place ; No sighs shall mingle with the songs Which warble from immortal tongues. No rude alarms of raging foes ; No cares to break the long repose ; No midnight shade, no clouded sun, But sacred, high, eternal noon. w Eag^ "bj F aalp^- IPHIHMIP ID)(0)IDIE)IEK3®©3JS,in)oin) = JMh1J;s7isd ly Si&-A?n£rLcaniI^'a^tySojL:Cf. TONES IN THE CHURCH, 35 O long-expected day, begin ; Dawn on these realms of woe and sin : Fain wotld we leave this weary road. And sleep in death, to rest with God. Dr. Doddridge, in his last years, seemed to have a spiritual foretaste of the heavenly joy and rest. Em barking for Lisbon, in the hope of benefit from warmer air, he was able to say to his wife in his cabin, when con scious that his life was almost ended, these cheerful and triumphant words : " I cannot express to you what a morning I have had. Such delightful and transporting views of the heavenly world as my Father is now indul ging me with, no words can express." He died at Lisbon of consumption, in his fiftieth year. He anticipated to the last the glorious rest he sings in his hymn. "COME, YE SINNERS, POOR AND NEEDY," Few hymns for the last hundred years have been- more frequently sung, at times of special spiritual re freshing, than that beginning, " Come, ye sinners, poor and needy." It was written under the inspiration of a somewhat remarkable religious experience. Joseph Hart, its au thor, was bom in London in 171 2. He was liberally educated, and commenced life as a teacher. At times, in early manhood, he was deeply interested in the sub ject of religion, and led a restrained and prayerful life. But he fell a victim to temptation, engaged in many evil practices, and gained an unenviable notoriety for his dis- 36 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, regard of decency and religious truth. " I was," he said, " in an abominable state, a loose ^ backslider, and an audacious apostate." He published heathen translations of a pernicious tendency, and a skeptical work, entitled, " The Unreasonableness of Religion." His conscious errors and lapses were followed by terrible compunctions of conscience, and these inward tortures, which gave him no peace, led at last to his ref ormation. He now began in earnest to seek the Saviour. After a period of great mental distress, he met with a change of heart, and experienced an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God. This happy change was wrought by his receiving a profound impression of the sufferings of Christ. He says, "The week before Easter, 1757, I had such an amazing view of the agony of Christ in the garden as I know not how well to describe. I was lost in wonder and adoration, and the impression was too deep, I believe, ever to be obliterated. I believe that no one can know anything of the sufferings of Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost." Under the influence of this experience he composed the first part of the hymn beginning, " Come, all ye chosen saints of God." This experience he has very vividly impressed upon his well-known hymn, " Come, ye sinners, poor and needy." ORIGINAL. Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched. Weak and wounded, sick and sore ; Jesus ready stands to Save you, Full of pity joined with power ; He is able. He is willing ; doubt no more. TONES IN THE CHURCH. 37 Come, ye needy, come and welcome, God's free bounty glorify : True belief and true repentance. Every grace that brings you nigh. Without money. Come to Jesus Christ and buy. Come, ye weary, heavy-laden. Bruised and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you 're better. You will never come at all : Not the righteous. Sinners Jesus came to call. View him grov'ling in the garden ; Lo, your Maker prostrate lies ; On the bloody tree behold him ! Hear him cry, before he dies, « It is finished !" Sinners, will not this suflSce ? Lo ! the incarnate God, ascended. Pleads the merit of his blood ; Venture on him — venture wholly. Let no other trust intrude ; None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good. "BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS," Perhaps the best poetical expression of the senti ment of Christian brotherhood in the English language is found in the hymn beginning, " Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love." John Fawcett, D. D,, the author of this hymn, a name that finds frequent place in Baptist collections of 4 38 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. church psalmody, was born near Bradford, Yorkshire, January 6, 1739. At the age of sixteen, while an appren tice, he heard Mr. Whitefield preach. The sermon was instrumental in his conversion, and he joined the Meth odist Society, In 1758 he became a member of the newly-formed Baptist church in Bradford, Here his activity and usefulness were so great, that his brethren advised him "to go beyond private exhortation," and "to stand forth and preach the gospel." After much pray ing and many inward conflicts, he decided to follow their advice. In the summer of 1765, he was ordained minis ter of the Baptist Society at Wainsgate, His work here was hard ; but his zeal and far-reaching sympathies won the hearts of his people, and opened the way of pastoral success. In 1772, after a pastorate of seven years, in which he had steadily grown in the attachment of a prosperous society, he went to London to preach for Dr. Gill, who was about resigning his ministerial office on account of his age and infirmities. Dr. Gill's people were so much pleased with his deportment and discour ses, that they gave him a call to become their pastor. His church in Wainsgate was scattered and poor ; that in London was large, with ample resources, and presented a most promising field for a man with grow ing capacities. His goods were loaded for removal to London, and his parishioners assembled to bid him a final adieu. An affecting scene followed, the poor peo ple he had so long instructed and befriended entreating him with tears to remain. The voice of love prevailed ; he was convinced that it was his duty to remain here. TONES IN THE CHURCH, 39 and that this was the field Providence had allotted him. " I will stay," he said, " You may unpack my goods, and we will live for the Lord lovingly together," The affectionate expression of regard on the part of his parishioners made a deep impression upon his mind, and inspired him to pen in return, under an impulse of true poetic feeling, his well-known hymn : Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love : The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above. Before our Father's throne We pour our ardent prayers : Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one — Our comforts and our cares. We share our mutual woes ; Our mutual burdens bear And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear. When we asunder part. It gives us inward pain ; But we shall still be joined in heart. And hope to meet again. This glorious hope revives Our courage by the way: While each in expectation lives. And longs to see the day. From sorrow, toil, and pain, And sin we shall be free ; And perfect love and friendship reign Through all eternity. 40 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Dr. Fawcett was a great sufferer towards the close of his life ; but he seemed to dwell, as it were, on the con fines of a better world, with the celestial country full in view. His last words were, "Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly." "FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS," The origin of this hymn is given in Bishop Heber's memoirs, and retold in the annotations to the Hymnal. We find in an American religious magazine a somewhat elegant version of the incident, which is as follows : " It does not necessarily take a lifetime to accom plish immortality. A brave act done in a moment, a courageous word spoken at the fitting time, a few lines which can be written on a sheet of note-paper, may give one a deathless name. Such was the case with Reginald Heber, known far and wide, wherever the Christian reli gion has penetrated, by his unequalled missionary hymn, 'From Greenland's icy mountains.' These lines, so dear to every heart, so certain to live, while a benighted man remains to whom Christ's story has not yet been wafted, were written in a parlor, with conversation going on around its author, and in a few minutes' time. " Reginald Heber, then thirty-five years old, was vis iting his father-in-law. Dr. Shipley, in Wrexham, having left his own charge at Hodnet a short time in order to deliver some lectures in Dr. Shipley's church. Half a dozen friends were gathered in the little rectory parlor one Saturday afternoon, when Dr. Shipley turned to Heber, knowing the ease with which he composed, and SupTFrvea. ijyJC Brrttre /„llii/f BlSyUJ-' O.F l'ALC'L/Tj'A. TONES IN THE CHURCH, 41 asked him if he could not write some missionary lines for his church to sing the next morning, as he was going to preach upon the subject of Missions. This was not very long notice to give to a man to achieve the distin guishing work of his life, and in the few moments which followed, Heber builded better than he knew. Retiring to a corner of the room, he wrote three verses of his hymn, and returning read them to his companions, only altering the one word, savage, to heathen in the second verse. "'There, there,' said Dr. Shipley, 'that will do very well.' But Heber, replying that the sense was not quite complete, retired for a few moments, and then returned with the glorious bugle-blast of the fourth verse : " ' Waft, waft, ye winds. His story. And you, ye waters, roll. Till like a sea of glory It spreads from pole to pole ; Till o'er our ransomed nature The Lamb, for sinners slain. Redeemer, King, Creator, In bliss returns to reign. Amen.' "It was printed that evening, and sung the next morning by the people of Wrexham church." From Greenland's icy mountains, From India's coral strand. Where Afric's sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand, From many an ancient river, From many a palmy plain. They call us to deliver Their land from error's chain. 4* 42 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Java's isle, Though every prospect pleases. And only man is vile ; In vain, with lavish kindness. The gifts of God are strewn ; The heathen, in his blindness. Bows down to wood and stone. Can we, whose souls are lighted By wisdom from on high, Can we to man benighted The lamp of life deny ? Salvation ! O salvation ! The joyful sound proclaim. Till earth's remotest nation Has learned Messiah's name. Waft, waft, ye winds. His story, And you, ye waters, roll. Till, like a sea of glory. It spreads from pole to pole ; Till o'er our ransomed nature The Lamb, for sinners slain. Redeemer, King, Creator, In bliss returns to reign. "MIGHTY GOD, WHILE ANGELS BLESS THEE." Robert Robinson, the author of the well-known hymn beginning, " Come, thou Fount of every blessing," was a man of genius and impressible feelings, but was easily influenced by the force of association or circum stance, an instability which he deeply regretted in his TONES IN THE CHURCH. 43 declining years. He was by turns a Methodist, an Inde pendent, a Baptist, and a Socinian. He once said to a lady whom he chanced to hear singing '' Come, thou Fount of every blessing," in a stage-coach, after his relapse into the gloomy specu lations of Socinianism, " Madam, I am the poor, unhappy man who composed that hymn, many years ago; and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then." The early Methodists produced a number of hymns, which, like the German lyrics written during the thirty years' war, illustrate the majesty of faith. Among these are John Wesley's itinerant productions, Charles Wes ley's famous hymn written on the Land's End, Cornwall. and Oliver's "The God of Abraham praise." The well-known hymn beginning, " Mighty God, while angels bless thee," belongs to the same class. It was written under pecu liar circumstances, and such as would seem to be little likely to inspire so noble a theme. " It was composed," says Dr. Belcher, " for the use of Benjamin Williams, deacon of the Baptist church at Reading. Benjamin was a favorite of Robinson when a boy. One day the poet took the boy into his lap, and under the influence of that affectionate feeling which a child's love inspires, he wrote : " Mighty God, while angels bless thee, May an infant praise thy name ? Lord of men as well as angels. Thou art every creature's theme." 44 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. So far the poet's mind seems to have been influenced by the child he was holding. But a warm glow of religious feeling was awakened within him, and the second stanza was one of remarkable fervor and power : " Lord of every land and nation. Ancient of eternal days. Sounded through the whole creation Be thy just and lawful praise. Hallelujah! Amen." After completing the whole hymn, he read it to the child, and put it playfully into his hand. " Well do we remember," says Dr. Belcher, " the deep feeling with which Deacon Williams described to us the scene, as we sat with him by his own fireside." Such was the happy hour of domestic peace and affection that produced one of the most majestic strains in the language, which has been sung in all Christian lands. It is one among many instances on record in which the affectionate confidence of childhood has awa kened the sweetest inspiration in the poet's heart, and the most harmonious chords of his lyre. The hymn as altered reads — " Mighty God ! while angels bless thee. May a sinner praise thy name ?" "FAR FROM THE WORLD," Few hymns are associated with sweeter and more elevated religious enjoyment than that by Cowper, begin ning. TONES IN THE CHURCH, 45 Far from the world, O Lord, I flee. From strife and tumult far, From scenes where Satan wages still His most successful war. " The calm retreat, the silent shade. With prayer and praise agree. And seem by thy sweet bounty made For those who follow thee," The occasion of the writing of this hymn is deeply interesting. Cowper had just recovered from a pro longed attack of melancholy, in which his sufferings had been so extreme that he had attempted to take his own life. The storm that had fallen upon him had broken his friendships and divorced his heart from the pleasures of the world. Recovery brought with it a strong desire for the hopes and consolations of a religious life. During the latter part of his despondency, he had been a patient of good Dr. Cotton, a poet-philanthropist, some of whose best literary productions are yet to be found in choice collections of English literature. Under the judicious advice of this most excellent man, Cowper became a Christian, and began to lead a very devout life. The soothing and controlling influences of religion has tened his recovery, so that he no longer needed the restraints of the Retreat, and Dr, Cotton advised him to leave St, Albans, the scene of his sorrows, and take lodg ings in some quiet country town, for retirement. Cowper went to Huntingdon, a place associated with his best hymns and his most interesting religious expe riences. His brother accompanied him thither, and here left him among strangers. 46 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. As soon as his brother had departed, the poet felt the solitude of his situation, and his despondency began to return. He wandered forth into the fields ; it was a lovely country, and his spirits began to revive under the influence of the charming rural scenes. His heart was drawn out towards God. ' Like the disciples on their way to Emmaus, he felt the sweetness of heavenly compan ionship ; his heart burned within him, and he longed to find a secret place for prayer. He at last came upon a secluded place, overhung by a green bank and shrub bery, and here he knelt down and poured out his soul to God. He felt a renewed sense of his Saviour's presence, and had the sweet assurance that, however his lot might be cast, Providence would direct him aright. The next day was the Sabbath, and he went to church for the first time since his recovery. The sanctuary seemed new to him, and its services had a spiritual mean ing that he had never felt before. The presence of God was on this occasion most gloriously revealed to him. Not only was his heart changed towards God, but towards the worshippers. Observing a person near him devoutly engaged in worship, he was led to regard him with the deepest affection. He says, " While he [the stranger] was singing psalms I looked at him, and ob serving him intent on this holy employment, I could not help saying in my heart with much emotion, ' The Lord bless you for praising him whom my soul loveth.' " After church he immediately went to the solitary place under the mossy bank where he had found so much comfort in praying on the day before, and here again he TONES IN THE CHURCH. 47 enjoyed very remarkable spiritual refreshment in prayer. " How," he says, in referring to this occasion, " how shall I express what the Lord did for me, except by saying that he made all his goodness to pass before me ? I seemed to speak to him face to face, as a man conver- seth with his friend. I could say indeed with Jacob, not how dreadful, but how lovely is this place." "GOD MOVES IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY." GoD moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform ; He plants his footstep in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill. He treasures up his bright designs. And works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take ; The clouds ye so much dread Are big witlf mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace ; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour : The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err. And scan his work in vain : God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain. 48 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. This was the last hymn which Cowper contributed to the "Olney Collection," and perhaps the finest and most impressive that he ever wrote. It was composed just before his second attack of insanity ; the shadow of the coming eclipse had already touched his mind. It is said that on one occasion Cowper had determined to go to a particular part of the river Ouse and drown himself ; that the driver of the post-chaise missed his way, and that the hymn was the result of the mental reaction that fol lowed this evidence of providential protection. Montgomery says of the hymn, that it is "rendered awfully interesting by the circumstances under which it was written — in the twilight of departing reason." Though this was the last of Cowper's Olney Hymns, it was not the last hymn that he ever wrote. After the publication of the Olney Hymns, he composed the hymn beginning, " To Jesus, the crown of my hope." This is supposed to have been his last, written as it was amid the departing gleams of religious comfort, before despondency and a sense of spiritual orphanage hope lessly settled upon his mind, "I LOVE TO STEAL A WHILE A WA ]'," We read that holy men of old communed with God in deserts and in solitary places, and that the Saviour himself sought the quiet retreats of nature for prayer. Many poets, among them Madame Guyon and Cowper, have sung the beauty of worshipping God in places of TONES IN THE CHURCH, 49 rural retirement, where the rocks are altars and the birds are choirs. Madame Guyon herself loved to pray in sol itary places, and Cowper but gives his own experience at St. Albans, when he writes the hymn, beginning, " Far from the world, O Lord, I flee." A devotional hymn, found only in old hymn-books, called " The Bower of Prayer," and written by one accus tomed to commune with God in the forest, amid the " ivy, the balsam, the wild eglantine," begins, " To leave my dear friends and with neighbors to part, And go froin my own home afflicts not my heart. Like the thought of absenting myself for a day From that blessed retreat where I 've chosen to pray. " The early shrill notes of the loved nightingale That sung in the bower I observed as my bell. To call me to duty, while birds in the air Sung anthems of praise as I went forth to prayer." The favorite hymn beginning, " I love to steal awhile away," was written under the promptings of a love of devotion amid rural scenes, and the inflow of a happy Christian experience. Its author was Mrs. Phoebe H. Brown, who was born in Canaan, N. Y., in 1783. It appeared in Nettleton's " Village Hymns," in 1825. The authoress, a devout Christian mother in humble circumstances in life, was accustomed to resort to a solitary place in a wood or grove, toward nightfall, for secret prayer. For this she was severely criticised by a wealthy neighbor, and her feelings in consequence were deeply wounded. Sturyof Hyilins. K 50 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, It was a relief to Mrs. Brown to express any strong emo tional feeling in poetry, and she made this trial the occa sion of writing the hymn so often sung to the music of "Woodstock." The second line as originally written was, " From children and from care."' I LOVE to steal awhile away From every cumbering care. And spend the hours of setting day In humble, grateful prayer. I love in solitude to shed The penitential tear. And all his promises to plead, Where none but God can hear. I love to think on mercies past. And future good implore, And all my cares and sorrows cast On him whom I adore. I love, by faith, to take a view Of brighter scenes in heaven ; The prospect doth my strength renew. While here by tempests driven. Thus, when life's toilsome day is o'er. May its departing ray Be calm as this impressive hour, And lead to endless day. « WHEN ALL THY MERCIES, O MY GOD. When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys. Transported with the view, I 'm lost In wonder, love and praise. TONES IN THE CHURCH. 5^ Oh, how can words with equal warmth The gtatitude declare That glows within my ravished heart ? But thou canst read it there. To all my weak complaints and cries Thy mercy lent an ear. Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learned To form themselves in prayer. When in the slippery paths of youth With heedless steps I ran. Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe. And led me up to man. Through hidden dangers, toils, and deaths, . It gently cleared my way ; And through the pleasing snares of vice, More to be feared than they. Through every period of my life Thy goodness I '11 pursue ; And after death, in distant worlds, The pleasing theme renew. Through all eternity to thee A grateful song I '11 raise ; But oh ! eternity 's too short To utter all thy praise. The original poem consists of thirteen stanzas, but the part quoted constitutes all of the hymn in common use. The hymn is almost universally familiar. Addison was made to see clearly God's providential care in his own life and experience. This hymn was inspired by devotional gratitude for his providential escape from shipwreck during a storm off the coast of Genoa. appleton's encyclopedia. 52 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. " O THOU, MY SOUL, FORGET NO MORE," Most of our readers are doubtless familiar with Krishnu-Pal's hymn. It is the hymn beginning, " O thou, my soul, forget no more The Friend who all thy sorrows bore.'' But many of them may not know the author as the first Hindoo convert to Christianity. A writer in a Baptist missionary paper thus relates the story of its origin : Dr. Carey had spent six years of toil in India, and had seen no results from his labors. He had prayed, and studied, and waited with a heavy but not with a despondent heart. At length the Master granted a first token of his favor and blessing. Krishnu, while engaged in his work as a carpenter, fell and broke his arm. Mr. Thomas, Carey's companion and fellow- laborer in the mission, was called to set the broken limb, and after his work as a surgeon was done, he most fer vently preached the gospel to the assembled crowd. The unfortunate carpenter was affected even to tears, and readily accepted an invitation to call on the mission aries for further instruction. The truth took deep hold on his heart. He told the story he had heard to his wife and daughter ; and they, too, were so much moved that all three offered themselves as candidates for baptism. While the question of their reception was under dis cussion, on the 22d of December, 1800, Krishnu and Goluk, his brother, openly renounced their caste and sat down at the table with the missionaries to eat with them. This excited great surprise among the natives. The evening of the same day, Krishnu, his wife and daugh- TONES IN THE CHURCH, 53 ter, went before the church, told the process by which they had been led to embrace Christianity, and were received for baptism. The occasion was one of joyful interest. It was, indeed, too full of delicious excitement for Mr. Thomas to bear ; for he had been laboring for some seven years as a missionary, and now looked upon his first convert. When it was reported that Krishnu had thrown up his caste and become a Christian, the wildest excitement prevailed, A mob of two thousand persons gathered around his house. They dragged him and his brother before the magistrate, but could bring no definite charge against them. They were released, and a native soldier placed as a guard at Krishnu's house. When they saw what a wild storm their profession of Christianity had created, the two women faltered and wished to postpone their baptism. Goluk did the same ; and Krishnu was left to encounter the odium and withstand the storm alone. He was baptized in the Ganges. The Governor of India, a number of Portuguese, and great crowds of Hindoos and Mohammedans were present to witness the rite. Dr. Carey walked down into the water with his eldest son on one side of him and Krishnu on the other. Amid the profoundest silence he explained that it was not the water of the sacred river that could wash away sin, but the blood of atonement ; and then he administer ed the sacred rite of baptism ; breaking down the wall of separation between the Englishman and the Hindoo, and making them brothers in Christ Jesus. All hearts were impressed; the governor wept; and that evening, De- 5* 54 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. cember 28, for the first time the Lord's Supper was c^elebrated in Bengalee. Krishnu was the first of a long line. When he was baptized he was about thirty-six years old ; and he lived for more than twenty years a faithful and honored disci ple of the Lord. He became an ardent student, and wrote and compiled tracts that were eagerly read by his countrymen. He also wrote a number of hymns. The one we often sing on communion occasions was transla ted by Dr. Marshman. He died with cholera in 1822, universally lamented. O THOU, my soul, forget no more The Friend who all thy sorrows bore ; Let every idol be forgot ; But, O my soul, forget him not. Renounce thy works and ways, with grie^ And fly to this divine relief ; Nor him forget, who left his throne, And for thy life gave up his own. Eternal truth and mercy shine In him, and he himself is thine : And canst thou then, with sin beset. Such charms, such matchless charms forget? Oh, no ; till life itself depart. His name shall cheer and warm my heart ; And lisping this, from earth I '11 rise, And join the chorus of the skies. "JESUS, MYALL, TO HEAVEN HAS GONE." About the year 1730 there lived in Reading, Eng land, a lad by the name of John Cennick. He had a lively fancy and a warm social nature ; he made friends TONES IN THE CHURCH. 55 easily, and did not always choose them well, and he allowed himself to be too much influenced by idlers who courted his affection. The age of fifteen did not find him a promising youth; he was fond of cards, novels, and stage-plays, and, but for his warm, susceptible feel ings, he might have been classed among the profitless boys of the town. But he was not happy. His conscience was ever ill at ease, and, as he grew older, he found himself led hither and thither by the mere force of evil associations and habits, while his desultory life lost its charms for him. Solitude constantly presented to his mind the gloomy reflection that the days of youth were swiftly passing, that manhood, too, must soon be gone, and he must die. One day, while walking the streets of London en gaged in serious thought, one of those mental reactions that suddenly arrest a gay life, took away all his relish for worldly pleasures. To use his own language, " While walking hastily in Cheapside, the hand of the Lord touched me, and I at once felt an uncommon fear and dejection." He had often retired to rest with a tortured conscience, but he had never before known a depression of spirit like that. He saw that he was a sinner, that his course was leading to ruin, and that one day he would suffer the penalties of his disregard, of the require ments of God. He looked upon the past with regret and the future opened to him no cheering prospect. This anxious concern continued two years. He daily longed for the peace that religion imparts, and sought 5!5 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. for it by reforming his conduct, and by practising self- denial and austerities, but he did not seek it in the love and compassion of Christ. He often fasted till his strength was reduced ; he prayed unceasingly, regarding prayer in the light of penance, as an act that would pur chase pardon, but the unrest still remained. He had no peace, the great conflict went on in his soul. One day, while thus sorely tried, and brought almost to the verge of despair, he met with the words, " I am THY SALVATION." The text was like a revelation to him. It lifted the veil that, had long darkened his mind, and he saw the way of peace and safety by casting himself wholly on the mercy of Christ. His mind was filled with unspeakable joy on believing that Jesus would "take him to Him" as he was, with all his imperfec tions, and pardon all his sin. He now found peace to his soul. The presence of the Saviour seemed continu ally with him, and he could say, as he afterwards express ed his feelings in verse, in view of the happy change : " Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb, I love to hear of thee ; No sound so charming as thy name. Nor half so sweet can be." He now earnestly entreated his young associates to turn from the pursuit of worldly folly to religion, and the constant theme of his conversation was " peace and pardon through the blood of Christ." Cennick became a Gospel minister, and was associ ated with the Wesleys and Whitefield in their labors. He was a fervent-spirited poet, and he thus told in TONES IN THE CHURCH. 57 verse the experience we have been relating ; a hymn that all our readers will recognize, though comparatively few may have known the circumstances under which it was written : "Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone, He whom I fix my hopes upon. His path I see, and I '11 pursue The narrow way till Him I view. " The more I strove against his power, I felt the weight and guilt the more. Till late I heard my Saviour say. Come hither, soul, I am the way. " Lo, glad I come, and thou, blest Lamb, Shalt take me to thee as I am. Nothing but sin I thee can give. Nothing but love shall I receive. " Now will I tell to sinners round What a dear Saviour I have found. I '11 point to thy redeeming blood. And say. Behold the way to god." He thus speaks of the same religious experience in one of his poems : " Dangers were always in my path. And fears of death and endless wrath. Though every day I wail my fall Three years of grief exceeded all : No rest I knew ! a slave of sin, With scarce a spark of hope within." He became a teacher in the school for colliers' chil dren, which Wesley established at Kingswood, In 174s, he severed his connection with the Methodists, and joined the Moravian Brethren. He died at an early S8 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. age in 1755. His end was peace. After his decease, a poem was found in his pocket, written in anticipation of the final summons, entitled " Nunc Dimittis." The fol lowing stanza will show the spirit of resignation in which he viewed the change : " O Lamb, I languish Till the day I see When thou shalt say, ' Come up and be with Me !' Twice seven years Have I thy servant been, Now let me end My service and my sin." "FATHER, WHATE'ER OF EARTHLY BLISS." The most unfortunate people are sometimes the most useful. Socrates purblind, Seneca withered, Milton blind, Collins and Cowper distressed with the fear of insanity, Dr. Johnson carrying with him physical and mental in firmity from youth to age, were among the world's bene factors notwithstanding these obstacles to success. From a blighted youth and life-long misfortune have often sprung works of benevolence and sympathy, such as only could result from the discipline of trial. " There is a secret in the ways of God With his own children, which none others know. That sweetens aU he does." In nearly every collection of hymns, and especially in collections used in Baptist churches, the name of "Mrs. Steele" is more frequently found than any other TONES IN THE CHURCH. 59 female writer. The address "Mrs." is usually placed before her name, though the lady was never married. This usage is common, in England, with maiden ladies entitled to especial respect, and it has been retained by American compilers of devotional poetry and hymns. She was the daughter of Rev. William Steele, an English Baptist minister in Hampshire. She united with the church under her father's care, and was greatly be loved for her humility, piety, and Christian activities. She was a great sufferer, and from a life of severe disci pline grew those sweet Christian graces which find ex pression in her hymns, " Father, whate'er of earthly bliss Thy sovereign will denies. Accepted at thy throne of grace, Let this petition rise : " Give me a calm and thankful heart. From every murmur free. The blessings of thy love impart. And help me live to Thee." She met with an accident in childhood which made her an invalid for life. She was also engaged to be married to a gentleman whom she dearly loved, and the preparations were fully made for the wedding. At the very moment when she was expecting the bridegroom's ¦ arrival, the guests being already in part assembled, a messenger came with the news that he had just been drowned. Her life, now doubly blighted, sought only consolation in the exercises of piety, charity, and the inspirations of her pen. Her father's death deepened 6o THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. her sorrows in her helpless situation, and weaned her heart from the vanishing things of the world. But she bore her lot in her" most shadowed hours with resignation, "looking unto Jesus." Her exit was serene and happy. Wrinkled with sorrow and worn with age, she at last realized a full answer to the burden of her life-long prayer : " Let the sweet hope that thou art mine My life and death attend ; Thy presence through my journey shine. And crown my journey's end." Shortly before her departure, she said : " I know that my Redeemer liveth." Her life was told in that hymn, " Earthly bliss" was denied her, but she had a " calm and thankful heart," God's "presence" shone through her "journey," and crowned the "journey's end." "JESUS, AND SHALL IT EVER BE J" This hymn was written by a pious youth, named Joseph Grigg, when only ten years old. Little is known of his personal history. His early life was passed in humble circumstances. Dr. Joseph Belcher mentions that he continued to exercise his poetical gifts, so early developed. He says: "About half a century ago, we saw a small pamphlet containing nineteen hymns, writ ten by a young man named Grigg, when he was a labor ing mechanic." His early piety seems to have had a steady growth and ripe development. He became a Pres byterian minister, and preached for a time in the Presby- TONES IN THE CHURCH. 61 terian Chapel, Silver street, London. He died in 1768. The following lines composed on his death by Thomas Green, a local poet, show that his memory was one of those that " smell sweet and blossom in the dust :" " Death has, in silence, sealed th' instructive tongue That used to captivate the listening throng ; No more he stands to plead a Saviour's name. And these cold hearts of ours with love inflame ; No more he shows the path where duty lies. That path of pleasure leading to the skies." Grigg's hymn beginning, " Jesus, and shall it ever be," discovers remarkable maturity of thought for a youth of ten years. It not unfavorably compares with Milton's Psalm, " Let us with a gladsome mind," written at the age of fifteen. The hymn was originally published in five four-line stanzas in the Gospel Magazine for April, 1774, under the title, "SHAME OF JESUS CONQUERED BY LOVE, BY A YOUTH OF TEN YEARS." It was sent to the magazine by Rev. Benjamin Fran cis, who interested himself in the young Author. Jesus, and shall it ever be ! A mortal man ashamed of thee ! Scorned be the thought by rich and poor: O may I scorn it more and more ! Ashamed of Jesus ! sooner far Let evening blush to own a star. Ashamed of Jesus ! just as soon Let midnight be ashamed of noon. 6 62 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 'T is evening with my soul tUl He, That Morning Star bids darkness flee : He sheds the beams of noon Divine O'er all this'midnight soul of mme. Ashamed of Jesus ! shall yon field Blush when it thinks who bid it yield ? Yet blush I must, whUe I adore, I blush to think I yield no more. Ashamed of Jesus ! of that Friend On whom for heaven my hopes depend ? It must not be ! be this my shame, That I no more revere his Name. Ashamed of Jesus ! yes I may ; When I 've no crimes to wash away ; No tear to wipe, no joy to crave, No fears to quell, no soul to save. Till then, (nor is the boasting vain,) TiU then, I boast a Saviour slain ; And oh, may this my portion be. That Saviour not ashamed of me. « VITAL SPARK OF HE A VENLY FLAME." The construction of this funeral anthem and chant is very, peculiar, and illustrates how thought may be im proved in its expression, (i.) The heathen emperor Adrian, a philosopher as well as a ruler, addressed his soul on his death-bed, in the Latin lines, beginning, "Animula, blandula, vagula, Hospes comesque corporis," etc. •which are familiar to scholars as " Adrian's Address to his Soul when Dying," and which many poets have trans- TONES IN THE CHURCH. 63 lated into English verse. (2.) An old hymn writer by the name of Flatman wrote a Pindaric, somewhat similar to " Adrian's Address," as follows : " When on my sick-bed I languish. Full of sorrow, full of anguish, Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying. Panting, groaning, speechless, dying ; Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say, ' Be not fearful, come away.' " (3.) The poet Pope combined these two poems with the words of Divine inspiration, " O death, where is thy sting 1 O grave, where is thy victory 1" thus making of the whole a triumphant Christian anthem. Vital spark of heavenly flame. Quit, oh quit this mortal frame. Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying. Oh the pain, the bUss of dying ! Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life. Hark ! they whisper : angels say, " Sister spirit, come away !" What is this absorbs me quite. Steals my senses, shuts my sight. Drowns my spirit, draws my breath, TeU me, my soul, can this be death ? The world recedes : it disappears : Heaven opens on my eyes ; my ears With sounds seraphic ring. Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ! •O grave, where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting ? II. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. I. KING ROBERT'S HYMN. 2, GUSTA VUS ADOLPHUS' HYMN. 3. ST, FRANCIS XA VIER'S HYMN. 4. THOMAS A KEMPIS' HYMN. S. SIR WALTER RALEIGH S HYMN. 6. GERHARDT'S HYMN OF TRUST. 7. KLOPSTOCK'S HYMN, 8. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. 9. ADDISON'S TRA VELLER'S HYMN, 10. COUNT ZINZENDORF'S HYMN, II. LADY HUNTINGDON'S HYMN. 12. JOHN WESLEY'S ITINERANT HYMN, 13. CHARLES WESLEY^' S WATCH NIGHT HYMNS. 14. CHARLES WESLEY'S HYMN IN TIME OF TROUBLE. 15. LANGHORN'S "IT IS TOLD ME I MUST DIE," 6* HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL KING ROBERT SECOND'S HYMN, Come, thou Holy Spirit, come, And from thine eternal home Shed the ray of light divine ; Come, thou Father of the poor. Come, thou source of all our store, Come, within our bosoms shine. Thou of Comforters the best. Thou the soul's most welcome Guest, Sweet Refreshment here below ! In our labor Rest most sweet. Grateful Shadow from the heat. Solace in the midst of woe ! Oh, most blessed Light Divine, Shine within these hearts of thine. And our inmost being fill ; If thou take thy grace away. Nothing pure in man will stay, All our good is turned to iU. Heal our wounds ; our strength renew , On our dryness pour thy dew; Wash the stains of guilt away : Bend the stubborn heart and wiU, Melt the frozen, warm the chill. Guide the steps that go astray. 68 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. On the faithful, who adore And confess thee, evermore In thy sevenfold gifts descend; Give them virtue's sure reward. Give them thy salvation. Lord, (jive them joys that never end. Amen, Robert II, succeeded Hugh Capet his father, upon the throne of France, about the year 997. He has been called the gentlest monarch that ever sat upon a throne, and his amiability of character poorly prepared him to cope with his dangerous and wily adversaries. His last years were embittered by the opposition of his own sons, and the political agitations of the times. He died at Melun in 103 1, and was buried at St. Denis. Robert possessed a reflective mind, and was fond of learning and musical art. He was both a poet and a musician. He was deeply religious, and, from unselfish motives, was much devoted to the church. He was inti mate with Fulbert of Chartres, a man of great learning and religious zeal, of whom Canute and other princes sought advice. The king and Chartres both produced hymns, which are still used in the English church. Robert's hymn, "Veni, Sancte Spiritus," is given above. He himself was a chorister; and there was no kingly service that he seemed to love so well. We are told that it was his custom to go to the church of St, Dennis, and in his royal robes, with his crown upon his head, to direct the choir at matins and vespers, and join in the singing. Few kings have left a better legacy to the Christian HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 69 church than his own hymn, which, after nearly a thou sand years, is still a tone and an influence in the world. " St. Fulbert of Chartres' Hymn," which is found in the Church of England's collection, is as follows • Ye choirs of New Jerusalem, Your sweetest notes employ. The Paschal victory to hymn In strains of holy joy. For Judah's Lion bursts his chains. Crushing the serpent's head ; And cries aloud, through death's domains To wake the imprisoned dead. Devouring depths of heU their prey At his command restore ; His ransomed hosts pursue their way Where Jesus goes before. Triumphant in his glory now, To him all power is given ; To him in one communion bow] All saints in earth and heaven. While we, his soldiers, praise our King His mercy we implore. Within his palace bright to bring And keep us evermore. AU glory to the Father be ; AU glory to the Son ; All glory, Holy Ghost, to thee, While endless ages run. 70 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. HYMN OF GUSTA VUS ADOLPHUS. Many noble hymns were produced in Germany during the Thirty Years' War, but that composed by Altenburg, and known as " Gustavus' Battle Song," is by far the most majestic strain of the period. "As we read the stirring lines, 'a vision rises before us of two mighty hosts encamped over against each other, stilled by the awe that falls on brave hearts when momentous events are about to be decided. The thick fogs of an autumn morning hide the foes from each other ; only the shrill note of the clarion is heard piercing through the mist. Then suddenly in the Swedish camp there is silence. With a solemn mien Gustavus advances to a front rank of his troops, and kneels down in the presence of all of his followers. In a moment the whole army bends with him in prayer. Then there bursts forth the sound of trumpets, and ten thousand voices join in song :" Fear not, O little flock, the foe Who madly seeks your overthrow. Dread not his rage and power : What though your courage sometimes faints, His seeming triumph o'er God's saints Lasts but a little hour. Be of good cheer, your cause belongs To Him who can avenge your wrongs ; Leave it to him, our Lord : Though hidden yet from all our eyes, He sees the Gideon who shall rise To save us and his word. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 7i As true as God's own word is true, Nor earth nor hell with all their crew. Against us shall prevail : A jest and by-word they are grown ; God is with us, we are his own, Our victory cannot fail. Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer ! Great Captain, now thine arm make bare. Fight for us once again : So shaU thy saints and martyrs raise A mighty chorus to thy praise. World without end. Amen. The army of Gustavus moved forward to victory — an army so inspired with confidence in God could not but be victorious ; but at the moment of triumph a riderless horse came flying back to the camp — it was that of the martyred king. ST, FRANCIS XA VIER'S HYMN, St. Francis Xavier's hymn has been pronounced, even by Protestant writers, one of the " most profoundly and loftily spiritual" of Christian lyrics, because, as one expresses the leading thought of the composition, " it is the essence of disinterestedness." The following is the original : O Deus, ego amo Te. Nee amo Te, ut salves me, Aut quia non amantes Te ./Eterno punis igne. Tu, Tu, mi Jesu, totum me Amplexus es in cruce ; Tulisti clavos, lanceam, Multamque ignominiam. 72 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Innumeros dolores, Sudores, et angores, Ac mortem ; et hasc propter me, Ac pro me peccatore. Cur igitur non amem Te, O Jesu amantissime ! Non, ut in coelo salves me, Aut in aeternum damnes me. Nee prsemii uUius spe, Sed sicut Tu amasti me ; Sic amo et amabo Te, Solum, quia Rex meus es. The hymn purports to be a revelation of the writer's own experience. Francis Xavier was born of a noble family in Spain, in 1506. At the age of sixteen he en tered the University of Paris, where he was brought under the influence of Loyola, the celebrated founder of the Order of Jesus. He renounced all worldly ambitions and aims, became a missionary to China, India, and other foreign lands, toiling with a self -forgetful ardor and a self- consuming zeal. He died in the work, in China, in 1552. My God, I love thee — not because I hope for heaven thereby ; Nor yet because who love thee not Must burn eternally. Thou, O «iy Jesus, thou didst me Upon the^cross embrace ; For me didst bear the nails and spear. And manifold disgrace, And griefs and torments numberless, And sweat of agony. E'en death itself : and all for me Who was thiae enemy. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 73 Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, Should I not love thee well .-' Not for the sake of winning heaven. Nor of escaping hell ; Not with the hope of gaining aught, Nor seeking a reward. But as thyself hast loved me. Oh, ever-loving Lord ! E'en so I love thee, and wiU love, And in thy praise will sing ; Solely because thou art my God, And my eternal King. THOMAS A KEMPIS HYMN, The life of Thomas a Kempis was a long solitude, and the known facts of his history are so few that they are easily told. He was born in 1380, in a village near Cologne. His surname was Hammerlein, or little Ham mer, translated by the word Malleolus in Latin. Called of God to be a teacher of the experiences of a regenerate inner life, he was of as humble birth as the disciples of Galilee. " He was brought up," says one of his biogra phers, " in poverty and hardship ; his father earned his bread by the sweat of his brow ; his mother assiduously watched over the education of her children ; she was always attentive to the concerns of the family, abste mious, silent, and extremely modest." At the age of six he was placed in one of the houses belonging to the " Society of the Brothers and Sisters of Common Life," founded by Gerard de Groote. This was story of Hjmns. 7 74 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. a practical religious order, the members of which devoted themselves to the instruction of youth, and to the culti vation of the mechanic arts. The whole Society had their property in common, but the members made no vow, and were at liberty to resign their places at their own discretion. It was in one of the schools of this So ciety that Erasmus received his early education. The particular school in which Thomas d Kempis entered, was in the town of Daventer, in West Friesland, where he was under the instruction of Florentius, the immediate successor of Gerard de Groote. Florentius re ceived him with warm affection into his own family, and gave him many valuable books, the perusal of which was the chief delight of his boyhood. " Much was I pleased,' says a Kempis, " with the devout conversation, the irre proachable manners, and the humility of my brethren. I had never seen such piety and charity. They remained constantly at home, employed in prayer and study, or in copying useful books, and sanctifying this occupation by frequent ejaculations of devotion." A. beautiful anecdote is associated with his student history, which illlustrates his elevated piety. His pre ceptor asked a class of which he was a member, " What passage of Scripture conveys the sweetest description of heaven ?" One answered, " There shall be no more sorrow." Another, "There shall be no more death." Another, "They shall see his face." But Thomas k Kempis, who was the youngest of all, said, " And his servants shall serve Him." The monks and the religious orders at this period HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 75 were the book-makers, and it is through their patient toil that the best literary treasures of the past come down to us. The youth of Thomas a Kempis was spent in copy ing useful books. "To transcribe works which Jesus Christ loves, by which the knowledge of him is diffused, is a most worthy employment. If he shall not lose his reward, who gives a cup of cold water to a thirsty neigh bor, what will not be the reward of those, who, by put ting good works into the hands of their neighbors, open to them the fountains of eternal life? Blessed are the hands of the transcribers !" Such was his view of the sacredness of his early calling. Not only the classical literature of Greece and Rome, but the precious pages of Holy Writ were transmitted from generation to genera tion by these useful pens. At the age of nineteen, Thomas a Kempis, encour aged to pursue the course by his preceptor Florentius, resolved to enter into the Order of the Monks of St. Augustin. "You must not suppose," said Florentius, " that a monastic life can be one of idleness. The good man's prayers must be incessant ; his fasts frequent ; his sleep short, and the whole of his spare time must be given to manual labor." Upon such a life Thomas d Kempis entered with the freshness of youth yet bloom ing on his cheek. The story of his first appearance at the monastery is a pleasing one. It was at the town of Zwoll, on the banks of the Vecht. His brother John a Kempis, whom he had not seen for a long period, was the prior. At the door of the monastery he was met by this brother, who 76 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. was deeply affected on learning his purpose to become a monk. After the salutation, the two brothers lifted up their voices in devout gratitude, saying : " Behold how good And how pleasant a thing it is For brethren to dwell together in unity. " It is like precious ointment upon the head That ran down upon the beard, Aaron's beard. That went down to the skirts of his garments. " As the dew of Hermon, As the dew that descended upon the mountains of Ziou, For there the Lord commanded his blessing. Even life evermore." From the time of his vow to his decease, a period of sixty-six years, Thomas a Kempis lived in the monastery of Zwoll. His spiritual enjoyments were at first very great, but they were followed by deep inward conflicts which are described in his " Imitation of Christ." " By degrees," he said, " I was weaned from everything earth ly and adhered to God alone. Then I experienced how sweet, how full of mercy God is to those who truly love him." Here he wrote numerous works, among them the lives of his preceptors. He acquired a reputation for uncommon sanctity, and it is said that when he sung in his divine office in the choir, his countenance had a " holy radiance which filled the spectators with awe." But he was very humble, and always refused to entertain those who would do him honor, unless he could give them HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, -]-] spiritual help. " I must leave you," he would say to vis itors ; " there is some one waiting for me in my cell." Age at last put an end to his activities, and in the long calm twilight of life, he awaited the coming of his Lord. " I have sought for peace everywhere," he said in old age, " but I have found it nowhere except in a corner with a little book." He died on the 25th of July, 1471, in the 92d year of his age. The following poem, written in ripe experience, ex presses his anticipation of heaven : HEAVEN'S JOYS. High the angel choirs are raising Heart and voice in harmony ; The Creator King still praising Whom in beauty there they see. Sweetest strains from soft harps stealing, Trumpets' notes of triumph pealing. Radiant wings and white stoles gleaming Up the steps of glory streaming ; Where the heavenly bells are ringing ; "Holy! holy! holy!" singing To the mighty Trinity ! "Holy! holy! holy!" crying! For aU earthly care and sighing In that city cease to be ! Every voice is there harmonious, Praising God in hymns symphonious ; Love each heart with light unfolding. As they stand in peace beholding There the Triune Deity ! 7* 7S THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Whom adore the seraphim Aye with love eternal burning ; Venerate the cherubim To their font of honor turning. While angelic thrones adoring Gaze upon his majesty. Oh how beautiful that region ! Oh how fair that heavenly legion ! Human souls and angels blend. Glorious will that city be. Full of deep tranquillity, Light and peace from end to end ! See the happy dwellers there Shine in robes of purity. Keep the laws of charity. Bound in firmest unity ; Labor finds them not, nor care. Ignorance can ne'er perplex. Nothing tempt them, nothing vex ; Joy and health their fadeless blessing' Always aU good things possessing. SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S HYMN, Few of the hymns of the Elizabethan era survive, though the Ambrosian Midnight Hymn, " Hark, 't is the Midnight Cry," and the hymns of St. Bernard, and Ber nard of Cluny, are still tones in the church, and the reli gious poetry of Sir Walter Raleigh comes down to us associated with the history of his brilliant, though sadly eclipsed career. The following poem has some fine lines in the quaint English style of the period, and was com- HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 79 posed by Sir Walter Raleigh during his first imprison ment : MY PILGRIMAGE, Give me my scallop-shell of quiet. My staff of faith to walk upon. My scrip of joy — ^immortal diet — My bottle of salvation. My gown of glory, hope's true gage — And thus I take my pilgrimage. No cause deferred, no vain-spent joumey. For there Christ is the King's attorney. Who pleade for all without degrees. And he hath angels, but no fees. And when the great twelve million jury Of our sins with direful fury 'Gainst our souls black verdicts give, Christ pleads his death and then we live. Be thou my speaker, taintless Pleader, Unblotted lawyer, true Proceeder : Thou giv'st salvation even for alms. Not with a bribed lawyer's palms ; And this is my eternal plea. To him who made heaven, earth and sea. Blood must be my body's balmer. While my soul, like faithful palmer, Travelleth toward the land of heaven ; Other balm will not be given. Over the silver mountains Where spring the nectar fountains, There wiU I kiss the bowl of bliss. And drink my everlasting fill, Upon every milken hiU ; My soul wiU be a-dry before, But after that wUl thirst no more 8o THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Fifteen years after the composition of this hymn, the brilliant courtier found himself again betrayed by ambi^ tion, and again within the prison walls. On the night before his death he wrote the following lines in his Bible, which he left in the little room over the gatehouse, and which were much prized in their day : " Even such is time, that takes on trust Our youth, our joy, and all we have, And pays us but with earth and dust ; Who, in the dark and silent grave. When we have wandered all our ways. Shuts up the story of our days : But from this earth, this grave, this dust. My God shall raise me up, I trust." GERHARDT'S HYMN OF TRUST, Among the sweet strains of poetry which Schiller learned at his mother's knee, were the hymns of that much enduring Lutheran preacher, Paul Gerhardt. The young poet loved them ; they filled his mind with spirit ual images, and lent an harmonious religious influence to his unformed genius. The influence was never lost : it lingered like rays of distant splendor amid the speculative mysteries that darkened his declining years, and haunted his dreams, when he saw the sun going down on Weimar, beautiful Weimar, for the last time. Gerhardt was a great sufferer in the cause of reformed faith, but his sufferings were in a measure compensated by the supports of human love. He was born in Saxony HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 81 He became a Christian pastor at the close of the Thirty Years' War, first at a small village called Mittenwalde, and subsequently at Berlin. In 1666, he was deposed from his spiritual office in Berlin on account of his firm adherence to the Lutheran doctrines. He received the reverse submissively, and said with characteristic lofti ness of spirit, " I am willing to seal with my blood the evangelical truth, and offer my neck to the sword." Gerhardt had a lovely and amiable wife, whom he loved with more than ordinary devotion and tenderness. He himself was willing to endure evil speaking, hard ship and trial, but it caused him severe pain to think that the burdens of his lot must fall upon her. A story is told of these altered days, which, although some recent writers have sought to prove it untrustwor thy, pious Germans still love to repeat. He had been ordered to quit the country on account of the difference between his religious sentiments and those of the king. He went in reduced circumstances, with his wife travelling on foot. One night they came to a village inn. His wife, weary with the journey, and disheartened at her friend less situation, sat down and began to weep. Behind her were the happy scenes' of her youth ; before her was a land of strangers. The poet tried to comfort her, but the tears would flow. He reminded her of the verse in the Bible : " Com mit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass." " God will provide," he said. " Com mit all of your sorrows into his hands." 82 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, There was a garden near at hand, and in the garden an arbor. The poet left his weeping wife and went to the arbor for prayer. It was a lovely night in the rosy time of the year. The air was temperate, the sky serene ; the moon shimmered on the groves and was glassed on the waters. The poet's mind was in harmony with nature ; he felt a holy calm within, a perfect reliance on God. He be gan to express his thoughts in verse : Commit thou all thy griefs And ways into His hands ; To his sure trust and tender care Who earth and heaven commands ; Who points the clouds their course. Whom wind and seas obey ; He shall direct thy wandering feet. He shall prepare thy way. Thou on the Lord rely. So, safe, shalt thou go on ; Fix on his work thy steadfast eye, So shall thy work be done. No profit canst thou gain By self-consuming care ; To him commend thy cause — his ear Attends thy softest prayer. Give to the winds thy fears ; Hope, and be undismayed ; God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears. He shaU lift up thy head. Through waves and clouds and storriis He gently clears thy way ; Wait thou his time, so shaU this night Soon end in joyous day. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 83 He paused for a moment, and thought of his helpless ness in a worldly point of view, and of his weeping wife. He then continued : Still heavy is thy heart ? Still sink thy spirits down ? Cast off the weight — let fear depart. And every care be gone. What though thou rulest not. Yet heaven, and earth, and hell. Proclaim — God sitteth on the throne, And ruleth aU things well. Leave to his sovereign sway To choose and to command ; So shalt thou, wondering, own his way How wise, how strong his hand ! Far, far above thy thought His counsel shall appear. When fully he the work hath wrought That caused thy needless fear. That night two gentlemen came riding to the inn, and inquired for Paul Gerhardt, the Lutheran preacher and poet. "I am Paul Gerhardt," said the poet firmly, not knowing what new calamity might follow the confession. " We have come from Duke Christian," said the men, " who wishes us to express to you his sympathy in your persecutions and afflictions, and to invite you to come to Merseburg, and make that city your home." " God be praised," said the poet, looking upon the men more in the light of celestial messengers than de spatch-bearers from an earthly court. " It is his will." 8^ THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. " He shall direct thy wandering feet, He shall prepare thy way." Gerhardt thanked the messengers with a heart full of emotion, tears filling his eyes. He went to his room with a beaming countenance, where his poor wife was trying with Christian confidence to restrain her feelings. He told her the news, and handed her the hymn he had written in the garden. " See," he said, " how God pro vides. Did I not bid you trust in God, and all would be well r His wife opened the paper, and her eyes fell upon the poet's words written in the darkest hour of his life, when even her fortitude was giving way to despondency. " Commit thou all thy griefs And ways into His hands." Gerhardt died at the age of seventy. His last days were serene, and witnessed to the end the consolations of an all-victorious faith. He was spending the hour in holy exercises, and was in the act of repeating the lines, " Death has no power to kill, But from many a dreaded iU Bears the spirit safe away ;" when the heavenly summons came. We have said that Schiller loved the hymns of Ger hardt, that he learned them in his boyhood; and that their influence lingered, tinging with a certain spiritual brightness the last poetic dreams of his life, But Schil ler's faith was not clear. He, too, died repeating poetry, but not, like Gerhardt, with a triumphant expression of HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 85 Christian confidence, but, like his own religious life, now gloomed, now shining, a poem of hope mingled with doubt and uncertainty : " From out this dim and gloomy hollow. Where hang the cold clouds heavily. Could I but gain the clew to follow. How blessed would that journey be. " Aloft I see a fair dominion. Through time and change all vernal stiU, But what the power, and where the pinion. To gain that ever-blooming hill ? " For lo ! between us rolls a river. O'er which a wrathful tempest raves ; I feel the spirit shrink and shiver To gaze upon its gloomy waves !" The heavenly way, which, to Gerhardt, was one of excessive brightness, had a shadow for Schiller, even in life's sunset, but he still aspired for the religious faith of the great master of German sacred song. Another hymn by Gerhardt has many translations : Quietly rest the woods and dales, Silence around the earth prevails. The world is all asleep : Then, my soul, in thought arise. Seek thy Father in the skies. And holy vigils keep. Now my body seeks for rest. From its vestments all undressed. Types of itoraortality : Christ shall give me soon to wear Garments beautiful and fair. White robes of majesty. 8 36 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Weary limbs now rest ye here, Safe from danger and from fear. Seek slumber on this bed — Deeper rest ere long to share : Other hands shall soon prepare My couch among the dead. While my eyes I gently close. Stealing o'er me soft repose. Who shall now my guardian be ? Soul and body now I leave. And thou wilt the trust receive, Israel's Watchman, unto thee. This is the favorite evening hymn in Germany. The same thoughts are expressed in Elder John Leland's evening hymn, beginning, " The day has passed and gone. The evening shades appear; Oh, may we all remember well The night of death draws near. " We lay our garments by. Upon our beds to rest ; So death will soon disrobe us aU Of what we here possess." KLOPSTOCK'S HYMN, In an old churchyard in Ottensen, near the venera ble city of Hamburgh, stood a memorial stone, around which groups of thoughtful people used to gather in the soft twilights of the golden summer days. It marked the grave of a lady, famous both as the wife of an admired HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 87 Christian poet, and as a model of intellectual loveliness and of simple, trustful religious faith. At the top of the antique memorial were carved two sheaves of wheat, one leaning on the other, and beneath the touching emblem was inscribed : " Seed sown by God, To ripen in the day of harvest. MARGARETTA KLOPSTOCK Waits where death is not, for her friend, her lover, her husband, whom she so much loves, and by whom she is so much beloved. But we shall rise from this grave, thou, my Klopstock, and I, and our son, for whom I died, to worship Him, who died, and was buried, and is risen." Margaretta MoUer was born March 19, 1728. She was the daughter of a Hamburgh rnerchant, and she re ceived a liberal education. She possessed great beauty of mind and of character even in girlhood. Her aesthet ic tastes predominated ; her thoughts were tinged with poetic fancy, and her heart was a pure fountain ever brimming with love. She was a pious maiden, and her dispositions were attuned in perfect harmony by the sweet influences of prayer. When verging on womanhood, she became enamored of the poetry of Klopstock. The Messiah, as far as it was written, was passing through rapid editions, and the German Milton was in the zenith of his sudden and re splendent fame. He was a stranger to Margaretta Mol- ler : she had never met with him, nor seen him, but she begun to take a mysterious interest in his history, and to find loving companionship in the creations of his muse. No music was so sweet to her as his mellifluous hexame- 88 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. ters. As she dwelt on his sublime flights of seraph-like song, and caught new light from his luminous spirit, her affections began to be engaged in one whom she never saw, nor ever expected to see. She wrote in a letter to a friend : " In one happy night I read my husband's poem the Messiah, I was extremely touched with it. The next day I asked one of his friends who was the author of this poem ; and this was the first time I heard Klopstock's name." In 1751, Klopstock, having received an invitation from Frederick V. to visit the Danish court, set out for Copenhagen, and on his journey stopped at Hamburgh. He was informed of the interest that Miss Moller took in his poetry, and learning something of her elegant taste and excellence of character, he made her a visit. Lava- ter, who was an enthusiastic admirer of the Messiah, calls Klopstock " that confidant of the angels." He was in deed a most humble and exemplary man, and there were times of poetic inspiration, when his pure spirit seemed to gleam with seraphic fire. He united a masculine genius to a womanly tenderness of thought and feeling, and in disposition and tastes, he was a perfect counter part of Margaretta Moller. The meeting of these con genial spirits could hardly fail to enkindle a flame of pure, trustful love. Klopstock went to the splendors of the Danish court, enamored of Meta, and Miss Moller de clared after his departure that her thoughts were all of Klopstock. A correspondence followed, and in a year he again visited Hamburgh, when the happy lovers were betrothed. Two years afterwards they were married. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 89 The married life of Klopstock presents a scene of connubial felicity that seems more like a dream of ro mance than sober reality. Accounts of it have been published in many tongues, and have added much to the high esteem in which he ever has been held as a Chris tian and a man. She speaks of the union in her girlish way, in a letter, written not long before her decease ; " We married, and I am the happiest wife in the world." The last cantos of the Messiah owe much of their peculiar beauty to the inspiration that Meta afforded the charming poet. In a letter dated Hamburgh, May 6, 1758, she thus pictures the halcyon days of their literary life : " It will be a delightful occupation for me, to make you more acquainted with my husband's poem. Nobody can do it better than I, being the person that knows the most of that which is not yet published ; being always present at the birth of the young verses, which begin always by fragments here and there, of a subject of which his soul is just then filled. He has many great fragments of the whole work ready. You may think that persons who love as we do have no need of two apartments ; we are always in the same. I with my little work, still — still — only regarding sometimes my husband's sweet face, which is so venerable at that time ! with tears of devo tion, and all the sublimity of the subject, my husband reading me his young verses and suffering my criticisms. Ten books are published, which I think probably the middle of the whole." In the autumn of 1758, she was about to become a 8* go THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, mother. Her joy in prospect of the event is expressed in many delightful and exquisitely delicate passages in her correspondence. The union of the wedded pair never had been so spiritual and sympathetic as in these serene autumn days. Each lived for the happiness of the other, and both dwelt in the perpetual sunlight of God. But the light of Paradise was glimmering amid the sunbeams of these happy days. Meta Klopstock was treading the borders of the unseen world. After the birth of her child, her health sunk rapidly, and it became evident that her life was drawing to a close. Her death scene is one of the most beautiful in biog raphy, and, perhaps, no one has touched upon it more tenderly than the great poet himself. He thus describes one of their last affecting interviews : " I came in just as she had been bled. A light having been brought near, I saw her face clearly for the first time after many hours. Ah, my Cramer, the hue of death was on it. But that God who was so mightily with her supported me too at the sight. I said, ' I will fulfil my promise, my Meta, and tell you that your life, from extreme weakness, is in dan ger.' I pronounced over her the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 'Now the will of Him who inexpressibly supports thee, his will be done 1' ' Let him do according to his will,' said she ; ' He will do well.' She said this is a most sweet, expressive tone of joy and confidence. ' You have endured like an angel ; God has been with you ; he will be with you. His mighty name be praised. The Most Merciful will support you.' ' Be my guardian angel, if our God permit.' ' Who would not be HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 91 so .'' said she. At parting she said to me very sweetly, ' Thou wilt follow me.' " Shortly after her release, I wished to see what I had just before called my Meta. They prevented me. I said to one of our friends, ' Then I will forbear. She will rise again.' " The great poet yielded to no weak repinings in these altered days. Heaven to him brightened with new at tractions, and his soul was filled with ineffable delight in his religious contemplations and devotions. Of one of these seasons of spiritual elevation he writes : " The second night came the blessing of her death. Till then I had looked upon it only as a trial. The blessing of such a death in its full power came on me. I passed above an hour in silent rapture. The highest degree of peace with which I am acquainted was in my soul. " It is impossible to describe all the blessings of that hour. I was never before with such certainty convinced of my salvation." Happy soul I Of himself he could Say in the hour of his desolation, " I know that my Redeemer liveth," and of Meta, " She will rise again." THOU SHALT RISE. FROM THE GERMAN OF KLOPSTOCK. Thou shalt rise ! my dust, thou shalt arise ! Not always closed thine eyes : Thy life's first Giver Will give thee life for ever, Ah ! praise his name ! 92 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Sown in darlaiess, but to bloom again. When, after winter's reign, Jesus is reaping The seed now quietly sleeping. Ah ! praise his name ! Day of praise ! for thee thou wondrous day, In my quiet grave I stay ; And when I number My days and nights of slumber. Thou wakest me ! Then, as they who dream, we shaU arise With Jesus to the skies. And find that morrow. The weary pilgrim's sorrow All past and gone ! Then, with the Holiest I tread. By my Redeemer led. Through heaven soaring. His holy name adoring Eternally ! SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. , The expression " But glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's land," has been often quoted, and the hymn to which these lines are the refrain has come into general use. The hymn as printed in the hymn-books is but a fragment of a long poem. It has a beautiful origin and an inter esting history. Samuel Rutherford was a Scotch divine at Anworth, HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 93 and because of his fidelity to the doctrines of the reformed faith, was immured in the dungeons of St Andrew. " For Anworth was not heaven. And preaching was not Christ." He remained true to his convictions of duty to the last, and died in triumph. His last words were : " Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land!" This expression forms the refrain of the following very tender religious ballad, which we reproduce entire : The sands of time are sinking. The dawn of heaven breaks. The summer morn I 've sighed for — The fair, sweet morn — awakes. Dark, dark hath been the midnight. But dayspring is at hand ; And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's land. Oh ! well it is for ever — Oh ! well for evermore : My nest hung in no forest Of aU this death-doomed shore ; Yea, let this vain world vanish, As from the ship the strand. While glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's land. There the red Rose of Sharon Unfolds its heartsome bloom. And fills the air of heaven With ravishing perfume ; Oh ! to behold it blossom. While by its fragrance fanned. Where glory, glory dweUeth, In Immanuel's land ! 94 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. The King there, in his beauty. Without a veil is seen ; " It were a well-spent journey. Though seven deaths lay between," The Lamb with his fair army Doth on Mount Zion stand. And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's land. O Christ — He is the fountain. The deep, sweet well of love ! The streams on earth I 've tasted. More deep I '11 drink above : There to an ocean fulness His mercy doth expand. And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel's land. Oft in yon sea-beat prison My Lord and I held tryst ; For Anworth was not heaven. And preaching was not Christ. And aye my murkiest storm-cloud Was by a rainbow spanned. Caught from the glory dwelling In Immanuel's land. But that he built a heaven Of his surpassing love — A little New Jerusalem Like to the one above — " Lord, take me o'er the water,'' Had been my loud demand ; " Take me to love's own country Unto Immanuel's land !" HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 95 But flowers need night's cool darkness, The moonlight, and the dew ; So Christ, from one who loved it. His shining oft withdrew. And then for cause of absence My troubled soul I scanned ; But glory shadeless shineth In Immanuel's land. The little birds of Anworth— I used to count them blest ; Now beside happier altars I go to build my nest ; O'er these there broods no sUence, No graves around them stand : For glory deathless dweUeth In Immanuel's land. Fair Anworth by the Solway, To me thou stUl art dear ; E'en from the verge of heaven I drop for thee a tear. Oh, if one soul from Anworth Meet me at God's right hand, ]\Iy heaven will be two heavens. In Immanuel's land. I 've wrestled on toward heaven, 'Gainst storm, and wind, and tide ; Now, like a weary traveUer That leaneth on his guide. Amid the shades of evening, WhUe sinks life's lingering sand, I hail the glory dawning From Immanuel's land. 96 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Deep waters crossed life's pathway. The hedge of thorns was sharp ; Now these lie all behind me. Oh, for a well tuned harp ! Oh, to join Hallelujah With yon triumphant band. Who sing where glory dwelleth, In Immanuel's land ! With mercy and with judgment My web of time he wove. And aye the dews of sorrow Were lustered with his love. I '11 bless the hand that guided, I '11 bless the heart that planned. When throned where glory dwelleth. In Immanuel's land. Soon shall the cup of glory Wash down earth's bitterest woes ; Soon shall the desert brier Break into Eden's rose ; The curse shall change to blessing. The name on earth that 's banned Be graven on the White Stone In Immanuel's land. Oh, I am my Beloved's, And my Beloved is mine ! He brings a poor vile sinner Into his "house of wine." I stand upon his merit; I know no safer stand. Not even where glory dwelleth. In Immanuel's land. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 97 I shall sleep sound in Jesus, Filled with his likeness rise, To love and to adore him. To see him with these eyes ; 'Tween me and resurrection But Paradise doth stand, Then — then for glory, dweUing In Immanuel's land ! The bride eyes not her garments. But her dear bridegroom's face : I will not gaze at glory. But at my King of grace ; Not at the crown he giveth. But on his pierced hand : The Lamb is all the glory Of Immanuel's land. I have borne scorn and hatred, I have borne wrong and shame. Earth's proud ones have reproached me For -Christ's thrice blessed name. Where God's seal's set the fairest. They 've stamped their foulest brand ; But judgment shines like noonday In Immanuel's land. They 've summoned me before them. But there I may not come ; My Lord says, " Come up hither ;'' My Lord says, " Welcome home ;" My King at his white throne My presence doth command. Where glory, glory dweUeth, In Immanuel's land. story of HymnR. 98 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. ADDISON'S TRA VELLER'S HYMN. How are thy servants blessed, O Lord, How sure is their defence ! Eternal Wisdom is their guide. Their help Omnipotence. In foreign realms, and lands remote, Supported by thy care. Through burning climes they pass unhurt. And breathe in tainted air. When by the dreadful tempest borne High on the broken wave. They know thou art not slow to hear. Nor impotent to save. The storm is laid, the winds retire. Obedient to thy will ; The sea, that roars at thy command, At thy command is still. In midst of dangers, fears, and deaths. Thy goodness we 'U adore ; We 'U praise thee for thy mercies past. And humbly hope for more. Our life, while thou preserv'st that life, Thy sacrifice shall be : And death, when death shaU be our lot, Shall join our souls to thee. This hymn, often used in divine worship by travellers, was first published in No. 489 of the " Spectator,'' for Sept. 20, 1712. The article to which it is appended is on the sublimity of the sea, and the passages that de scribe the majestic phenomena .of the deep in Holy Writ. It was doubtless written while the ocean scenery HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 99 was fresh in the author's mind, and is a choice expression of a peculiar Christian experience. It is claimed that Addison wrote this piece immediately after his conti nental tour in 1 700-1. The original has a fine stanza that is commonly omitted : " Thy mercy sweetened every soil, Made every region please. The hoary Alpine hills it warmed. And smoothed the Tyrrhene seas," COUNT ZINZENDORF'S HYMN, J. WESLF.Y'S TRANSLATION. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress : 'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed. With joy shaU I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in thy great day. For who aught to my charge shaU lay ? Fully absolved through these I am — From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb, Who from the Father's bosom came — Who died for me, e'en me t' atone — Now for my Lord and God I own. Lord, I believe thy precious blood — Which, at the mercy-seat of God For ever doth for sinners plead — For me, e'en for my soul, was shed. Lord, I believe were sinners more Than sands upon the ocean shore, Thou hast for all a ransom paid. For all a full atonement made. 100 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. When from the dust of death I rise To claim my mansion in the skies. E'en then shall this be all my plea, Jesus hath lived and died for me. The first stanza of the above hymn is very well known in Germany, and is there frequently quoted at deathbeds, as Dr. Watts' stanza, beginning, "Jesus can make a dying bed,' is quoted in the English tongue. The sentiment in the fourth and fifth stanzas was particularly acceptable to the primitive Methodists. The hymn, which in the original has thirty stanzas, was written by Count Zinzendorf, (1700- 1760,) one of the purest and most spiritual of men, the founder of the religious community of Herrnhut, and the champion and defender of the United Moravian Brethren. His childhood was remarkable for its confiding sim plicity and the beauty of piety. He used to gather chil dren to pray with him, and his pure and aspiring imagi nation found delight in writing messages of love to the Saviour. Referring to his youthful days and the purity of his motives, he says: "The desire to bring souls to Jesus took possession of me, and my heart became fixed on the Lamb." From his eleventh to his sixteenth year, Zinzendorf studied at Halle, under the pietist Franke, the founder of the celebrated orphan school. He travelled widely, obtained great learning, and a large knowledge of so ciety. He became in early life enamored of Theodosia, the daughter of the Countess of Castell, but from a s 'igv ' Jr it^^ri-uo^-^^- HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, loi Strong sense of duty, resigned his place in her heart to the reigning Count of Reussebersdorf. " From that mo ment," he said to Charles Wesley, of this act of self-sac rifice, " I was freed from all self-seeking, so that for ten years I have not done my own will in anything, great or small. My own will is hell to me." In 1 73 1 Count Zinzendorf resigned all public duties, and the encumbrances that follow rank, to devote himself to the service of the Moravian Brethren. He travelled extensively in their behalf, extending his journeys to America, where he labored more than a year in Penn sylvania. He wrote many works, and two thousand hymns. Among his last words were, "I am going to my Saviour." His hymn, beginning, " Jesus, thy blood and righteousness," was written on the island of St. Eustatius, on his return from visiting the missionaries in the West Indies. He was filled at the time with a large missionary spirit, and a lofty religious confidence, as the hymn itself strongly evidences. LADY HUNTINGDON'S HYMN, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, the friend of White- field, devoted her time and fortune to the welfare of others. In her nraidenhood she heard her sister-in-law. Lady Mar garet Hastings, remark, that since she had known and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for life and salvation, she had been as happy as an angel. This remark made an impression upon her mind. It 9* 102 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. led her to desire to become a follojwer of Christ, and after wards resulted in her belief in him as her Saviour. Her after-life was very attractive in the devoted piety that she exhibited b,y her unwearied usefulness. She erected chapels at her own expense, and lived abstemiously that she might give more money to the poor and advance the religion of her Master. Her religious experience was continuous, and was sanctified by affliction : " The world can nSither give, nor take. Nor can they comprehend The peace of God, which Christ has bought — The peace which knows no end. " The burning bush was not consumed. While God remained there ; The three, when Jesus made the Fourth, Found fire as soft as air. " God's furnace doth in Zion stand. But Zion's God sits by. As the refiner views his gold. With an observant eye. " His thoughts are high, his love is wise. His wounds a cure intend ; And, though he does not always smile. He loves unto the end." She died at the age of eighty-four. A year before her death she met with an accident, which was the be ginning of her last illness. Although in great pain, her mind was at perfect peace. As death drew near, she often said, with emphasis, "The coming of the Loid HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 103 draweth nigh ! The thought fills me with joy unspeak able !" Here was the ground of her hopes and her happiness : " I see," she said, " myself a poor worm, drawing near to Jesus, What hope could I entertain if I did not know the efficacy of his blood .¦• How little could anything that I have done give a moment's rest at such an hour as this ! I confess I have no hope but that which inspired the dying malefactor at the side of my Lord, and I must be saved in the same way, as freely, as fully, or not at all," New views and revelations came to her in her tri umph over the terrors of death. " I cannot tell you," she said, " in what light I now see these words : ' If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' To have in this room such company, and to have such an eternal prospect! I see this subject now in a light impossible to be described. I know my capacity will be then enlarged, but I am now as sensible of the presence of God, as I am of the presence of those I have with me." Her dying testimony was a fitting close to so grand an earthly life. "My work is done; I have nothing to do but to go to my Father !" Lady Huntingdon's motives were very pure and sin cere, and she ruled her life by secret, self -examination, living always with eternity in view. Her best known hymn has reference to this constant aim to keep a blame less conscience in the sight of God. 104 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come, To take thy ransomed people home, Shall I among them stand ? Shall such a worthless worm as I, Who sometimes am afraid to die. Be found at thy right hand ? I love to meet thy people now. Before thy feet with them to bow. Though vilest of them aU ; But can I bear the piercing thought What if my name should be left out. When thou for them shalt call ? O Lord, prevent it by thy grace : Be thou my only hiding place. In this th' accepted day ; Thy pardoning voice oh let me hear. To still my unbelieving fear. Nor let rae fall, I pray. Among thy saints let me be found. Whene'er the archangel's trump shall souix^ To see thy smiling face ; Then loudest of the throng I '11 sing. While heaven's resounding arches ring With shouts of sovereign grace. JOHN WESLEY'S HYMN. How happy is the pilgrim's lot ; How free from every anxious thought From worldly hope and fear ! Confined to neither court nor ceU, His soul disdains on earth to dwell. He only sojourns here. :n ¦?f:g©:::.3.'i HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 105 This happiness in part is mine. Already saved from low design. From every creature-love ; Blest with the scorn of finite good. My soul is lightened of its load. And seeks the things above. The things eternal I pursue. My happiness beyond the view Of those who basely pant ; The things by nature felt and seen. Their honors, wealth, and pleasures mean, I neither have nor want. There is my house and portion fair; My treasure and my heart are there. And my abiding home ; For me my elder brethren stay. And angels beckon me away. And Jesus bids me come, I come, thy servant. Lord, replies ; I come to meet thee in the skies. And claim my heavenly rest! Soon will the pilgrim's journey end ; Then, O my Saviour, Brother, Friend, Receive me to thy breast ! This hymn, which we give as we find it in many col lections, but which is greatly extended by the narration of personal circumstances in the original, was written by John Wesley, at the most stormy and tempestuous period of his life, when his lot from a worldly point of view would have been deemed anything but happy. On February 17, 1746, when days were short and weather far from favorable, he set out on horseback from io6 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Bristol to Newcastle, a distance between three and four hundred miles. The journey occupied ten weary days. Brooks were swollen, and in some places the roads were impassable, obliging the itinerant to go round through the fields. At Aldrige Heath, in Straffordshire, the rain turned to snow, which the northerly wind drove against him, and by which he was soon crusted over from head to foot. At Leeds, the mob followed him, and pelted him with whatever came to hand. He arrived at New castle, February 26, "free from every anxious thought," and "every. worldly fear." It was amid such scenes as these that the hymn was written, though we have not the exact date. The hymn in the original is autobiographical. Wes ley had at the time of writing it no wife, and he held no property, having made over his estates to trustees. He says, " I have no babes to hold me here. But children more sincerely dear Than mine I humbly claim, Better than daughters or than sons, Temples divine of living stones, Inscribed in Jesus' name. " No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in the wilderness ; A poor wayfaring man, I lodge awhUe in tents below, Or gladly wander to and fro, Till I my Canaan gain." John Wesley was disposed to lightly regard all of the scenes of distressing self-sacrifice associated with his HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 107 itinerant labors. After a most calamitous journey, he once was known to declare : "Pain, disappointment, sickness, strife, Whate'er molests or troubles life. When past, as nothing we esteem, And pain like pleasure is a dream." CHARLES WESLEY'S WATCH-NIGHT HYMNS, Wesley concluded the eventful year of 1740 at Bris tol, by holding a watch-meeting, proposed by James Rogers, a Kingswood collier, noted among his neighbors for his playing on the violin, but who, being awakened under the ministry of Charles Wesley, went home, burnt his fiddle, and told his wife he meant to seek religion. This was the first watch-night meeting among the Methodists. The people met at half-past eight: the house was filled from end to end, and " we concluded the year," says Wesley, " wrestling with God in prayer, and praising him for the wonderful work which he had al ready wrought upon the earth." The meeting became a favorite one and was held monthly. The church in ancient times was accustomed to spend whole nights in prayer, which nights were termed vigilics or vigils : and sanctioned by such au thority, Wesley appointed monthly watch-nights, on the Friday nearest the full moon, desiring that they, and they only should attend, who could do so without prejudice to their business or families. The annual watch-night services on New Year's eves. io8 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. appointed by the Wesleys, had been continued by the Wesleyan societies. Charles Wesley wrote, both for the monthly watch-night, and for the annual watch-night, a number of hymns whose sublime and solemn language is in harmony with the impressive and somewhat poe tic occasions that inspired them. One of these begins, " Ye virgin souls, arise." Another : How many pass the guilty night, In revelling and frantic mirth ! The creature is their sole delight — Their happiness the things of earth : For us suffice the season past : We choose the better part at last. We wUl not close our wakeful eyes, We will not let our eyelids sleep. But humbly lift them to the skies. And all a solemn vigil keep ; So many nights on sin bestowed, Can we not watch one hour for God ? WATCH-NIGHT, How happy, gracious Lord, are we. Divinely drawn to follow thee, Whose hours divided are Betwixt the mount and multitude : Our day is spent in doing good. Our night in praise and prayer. With us no melancholy void, No moment lingers unemployed Or unimproved below : Our weariness of life is gone. Who lived to serve our God alone, And only thee to know. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 109 The winter's night and summer's day Glide imperceptibly away. Too short to sing thy praise ; Too few we find the happy hours. And haste to join those heavenly bowers In everlasting lays. With all who chant thy name on high, And, Holy, holy, holy ! cry, (A bright, harmonious throng) We long thy praises to repeat. And ceaseless sing around thy seat The new eternal song. NEW YEAR'S VIGIL, Come, let us anew our journey pursue, RoU round with the year. And never stand still tiU the Master appear. His adorable wiU let us gladly fulfil. And our talents improve. By the patience of hope, and the labor of love. Our life is a dream ; our time, as a stream, GUdes swiftly away. And the fugitive moment refuses to stay. The arrow is flown — the moment is gone ; The miUenniai year Rushes on to our view, and eternity 's here. O that each, in the day of his coming, may say — I have fought my way through : I have finished the work thou didst give me to do. Oh that each from his Lord may receive the glad word- WeU and faithfully done ! Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne. 10 no THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. CHARLES WESLEY'S HYMN IN TIME OF TROUBLE, Early in the year 1750, the city of London was twice severely shaken by shocks of an earthquake. Sev eral weeks elapsed between the first and second con vulsions, during which interim, the earth seems to have been internally agitated. The public mind was un settled with apprehension, and the parks and squares, where the people were wont to assemble, presented at times a very impressive spectacle. For several years after the threatened calamity at London, the earth seemed to be in trouble. The stroke came at last, but it fell upon the South, iipon Lisbon and Quito. The work of destruction in these two cities indicates the magnitude of the calamity to which the great centre of life on the eastern isle seemed to be exposed. George Whitefield and Charles Wesley were in Lon don during these days of peril. Seldom, if ever, had these zealous men preached so acceptably as they did then. The most profane were overawed by the danger and sublimity of the situation, and the most hardened and unbelieving were eager to listen to the doctrine of God's providence, and to the promises of the gospel. Mr. Whitefield once preached a sermon at midnight to an immense concourse of people in Hyde Park, who seemed to receive the truth as from the very brink of eternity. The effect was impressive in the extreme. Cries and groans were heard on every hand. Penitent ejaculations and prayers for mercy trembled on every lip. HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, in The following extracts from a letter, written at Lon don at this time, afford a brief but interesting view of the agitated city : " All London has been, for some days past, under terri ble apprehensions of another earthquake. Yesterday thou sands fled from the town, it having been confidently predict ed by a dragoon that he had a revelation that a great part of the city, and Westminster especially, would be de stroyed by an earthquake on the 4th instant, between twelve and one at night. The whole city was under direful apprehensions. Places of worship were crowded with frightened sinners, especially our two chapels, and the tabernacle, where Mr. Whitefield preached. Several of the classes came to their leaders, and desired that they would spend the night with them in prayer ; which was done, and God gave them a blessing. Indeed all around was awful. Being not at all convinced of the prophet's mission, and having no call from any of my brethren, I went to bed at my usual time, believing I was safe in the hands of Christ ; and likewise, that, by doing so, I should be the more ready to rise to the preaching in the morning ; which I did, praise be to my kind protector. " Though crowds left the town on Wednesday night, yet crowds were left behind ; multitudes of whom, for fear of being suddenly overwhelmed, left their houses, and repaired to the fields, and open places in the city. Tower Hill, Moorfields, but above all, Hyde Park, were filled the best part of the night, with men, women, and 1X2 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. children, lamenting. Some, with stronger imaginations than others, mostly women, ran crying in the streets, ' An earthquake ! an earthquake !' Such distress, per haps, is not recorded to have happened before in this careless city. Mr. Whitefield preached at midnight in Hyde Park. Surely God will visit this city ; it will be a time of mercy to some. Oh may I be found watch ing!" An incident occurred at this time which we have fre quently called to mind as a very impressive illustration of what is termed the majesty of faith. The second shock of the earthquake occurred on the morning of the 8th of March. At an early hour. Rev. Charles Wesley appeared before a great audience who had assembled at the foundry to listen to a morning discourse. He was about to begin his sermon, when a subterranean thunder ing was heard and the whole city began to shake and totter. The foundry reeled to and fro and seemed every moment about to fall. The worshippers shrieked, and each one felt that his hour had come. The soul of the preacher at this critical juncture seemed touched with an inspiration as from on high. With a face glowing with triumph, and an eye flashing as with ethereal fire, he raised his hands and uttered the sublime language of the Psalmist : " Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge !" The entry in his journal for that date was as fol lows: HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 113 "March 8, 1750. Thi-s morning, a quarter after five, we had another shock of an earthquake far more violent than that of February 8. I was just repeating my text, when it 'shook the foundry so violently, that we all ex pected it to fall on our heads. A great cry followed from the women and children. I immediately called out, 'Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.' He filled my heart with faith, and my mouth with words, shaking their souls as well as their bodies. The earth moved westward, then eastward, then westward again; through all London and Westminster. It was a strong and jarring motion, attended with a rumbling noise like that of thunder." The faith that could stand unmoved at such an hour would triumph amid the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. This anecdote of the zealous preacher seems to us interesting for the information it imparts. It gives us a certain feeling of confidence when singing the lyrics of Dr. Watts, to recall that he himself felt all of those sweet consolations of which he so fervently wrote. Charles Wesley composed very numerous hymns on the tri umphs of faith, a number of which are to be found in almost every work of psalmody. It is edifying to know that he himself was an example of that all-conquering faith to which he devoted his pen. He thus alludes to the events we have described in some lines written in 1755. 10* 114 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. How happy are the little flock. Who, safe beneath their guardian-rock In all commotions rest ! When war's and tumult's waves run high, Unmoved, above the storm they lie. They lodge in Jesus' breast. The plague, the dearth, the din of war, Our Saviour's swift approach declare. And bid our hearts arise ; Earth's basis shook confirms our hope ; Its cities' fall but lifts us up To meet him in the skies. The tokens we with joy confess : The war proclaims the Prince of Peace, The earthquake speaks his power. The famine all his fulness brings ; The plague presents his healing wings, And nature's final hour. Whatever ills the world befall A pledge of endless good we call, A sign of Jesus near ; His chariot will not long delay ; We hear the rumbling wheels, and pray — Triumphant Lord, appear ! LANGHORN'S "IT IS TOLD ME I MUST DIE." Fragments of a somewhat remarkable poem have been for a long period floating about in literature, and inquiries have frequently been made in regard to their authorship and origin. One of these fragments is enti tled, " It is told me I must die." HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 115 In order to understand the poem, it will be necessary to review a somewhat tragic chapter of English history, known as the Popish Plot. This popular madness was incited partly by the in trigues of Rome, and a remembrance of papal persecu tions in the past, and partly by one of the most corrupt and infamous men on record, Titus Oates. He was born in 1620, was educated at Cambridge, took orders, but soon lost his curacies by lying, perjury, and gross misbehavior. He received an appointment as chaplain in the navy, but was dismissed for disgraceful conduct. He then became a Catholic, went to Spain, but was shortly expelled by the Jesuits. In September, 1667, he made a disclosure before Sir Edward Godfrey, a noted justice, and afterwards before the Council and the House of Commons, to the effect that the Catholics had entered into a conspiracy against the life of the king, in order to reestablish the papal power in England. Lord Arundel, he said, was to be chancel lor of the new government ; Lord Powis, treasurer ; Lord Bellasis, general of the papal army, and Coleman, secretary of state. The office of advocate-general he assigned to Richard Langhorn, the subject of this paper. All England was thrown into a state of intense ex citement by this disclosure, and the fame of Titus Oates • flashed forth to blaze " the comet of a season." " The capital and the whole nation," says Macaulay, " went mad with hatred and fear. London had the aspect of a city in a state of siege. Patrols marched up and down the streets. Cannon were planted around Whitehall. II 6 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. No citizen thought himself safe unless he carried under his coat a small flail, loaded with lead, to brain the assas sins." Oates rose from beggary to sudden wealth, and assumed a grandeur of living becoming a prince. He went around with a retinue of guards. He received an ample pension, and was assigned lodgings at Whitehall. He put on the Episcopal gown and cassock, and claimed and received the title of the " Saviour of the Nation." " Whoever he pointed at," says Roger North, "was taken up and committed." He had the nation in his hands, and for weeks of popular blindness, excitement and prej udice, he exercised an even greater influence than the king. He was the real sovereign of the English nation. The state trials growing out of the so-called Popish Plot, are among the most interesting in history. Among these, with the exception of that of Lord Stafford, none are more interesting than that of Richard Langhorn. It took place on the 14th of June, 1679, ^"d, although the testimony of Oates was again and again proven false, Langhorn's case was prejudged ; he was convicted of high treason, and sentenced to be executed, Langhorn, though by birth and education a Catholic, was a man of moderate views and deep spiritual feelings. Few men were ever more unjustly accused or more hastily condemned. It was midsummer, a calm July day, and a great con course of people came together to see Richard Langhorn hung. He ascended the scaffold as one would go to a coronation. With a bearing which told that every word he uttered was true, he said, " I do declare, in the pres- HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL. 117 ence of the eternal God, and as I hope to be saved by the merits of my dear Jesus, that I am not guilty, direct ly or indirectly, of any crime that has been sworn against me." He declared further that the testimony of Mr. Oates against him was wholly false, and that he forgave him with his dying breath, and hoped that God would bring him to repentance. He prayed for the king, the nation, and for all his enemies and false accusers. He forgave the sheriff after the rope had been adjusted. His last prayer and last words were, "Blessed Jesus, into thy hands I recommend my soul and spirit, now, at this instant. Take me into paradise." He added, "I am desirous to be with my Jesus. I am ready, and you need stop no longer for me." Langhorn desired to be left entirely by himself in his last days, that he might give his time to meditation, wri ting, and acts of devotion. These days were passed on the heavenly border. The glory of the celestial world seemed already shining about him. His soul was im mersed in the love of God. It was thus in the solitude of his cell that he com posed the irregular poem to which we have alluded. It is a most triumphant witness to the all-tonquering power of the Christian faith. It is as follows: IT IS TOLD ME I MUST DIE. It is told me I must die. Oh, happy news ! Come on, my dearest soul. Behold thy Jesus caUs thee. He prayed for thee upon his cross, ii8 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. There he extended his arms to receive thee, There he bowed down his 'head to kiss thee. There he cried out with a powerful voice, " Father, receive him, he is mine !" • There he opened his heart to give thee entrance, There he gave up his life to purchase life for thee ! It is told me I must die. Oh blessed news ! I must quit Earth for heaven, My earthly prison for a liberty of joy; My banishment for my country Prepared for me. I must pass From time to eternity; From misery to felicity ; From change to immutabiUty ; From death to immortality. I must leave what I possess on earth, .-. To possess my God ; To enjoy my Jesus ; To converse with angels and saints. I must go to fill My spirit with a plenitude of light ; My will with a fulness of peace ; My memory with a collection of all good ; My senses with a satiety of pleasures. I must go where I shall find All things which I can desire, Nothing that I fear. I shall no more want any good ; God shall be unto me aU in all. And my aU to aU eternity. It is told me I must die. Oh what happiness ! HISTORICAL AND PERSONAL, 119 I am going To the place of my rest ; To the land of the living ; To the haven of security ; To the kingdom of peace ; To the palace of my God ; To the nuptials of the Lamb ; To sit at the table of my King ; To feed on the bread of angels ; To see what no eye hath seen ; To hear what no ear hath heard ; To enjoy what the heart of man cannot comprehend. It is told me I must die. Oh news of joy ! Let us go, my soul, I am content ; I jojffuUy renounce this life. And render it back to Him who gave it me. I am willing to die For his glory. For his love. Out of gratitude for his favors, And to satisfy his justice. I am wiUing to die for him as he died for me : I am wiUing to die. To see my Jesus, To love my Jesus, To bless my Jesus, And to sing his praises to all eternity. Come on, my soul, let us go and rejoice. He who by his grace Hath enabled thee to know Thy own miseries, And his mercies. He who hath enabled thee To rely on him. Commands thee to shake off all fear. 120 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. It is not for anything in thee That he loves thee and will save thee. He doth it because he is God, Perfect love and perfect goodness. Oh my Father, Oh thou best of all fathers. Have pity on the most wretched of aU thy children. I was lost, but by thy mercy found ; I was dead, but by thy mercy raised again. I was gone astray after vanity. But am now ready to appear before thee. Oh my Father, Come now in mercy receive thy child : Give him thy kiss of peace ; Remit unto him all his sins ; Clothe him with thy nuptial robe ; Receive him into thy house ; Permit him to have a place at thy feast. And forgive all those who are guilty of his death. The name of Langhorn well deserves a place among those worthies who, although associated by the influ ences of birth, educatit.m, and the force of circumstances with a corrupt church, have so fully relied on Christ as to keep their spiritual perceptions undimmed. "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments : and they shall walk with me in white ; for they are worthy." IIL SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. I. LORD, DISMISS US WITH THY BLESSING. 2. PEACE, TROUBLED SOUL 3. SWEET THE MOMENTS RICH IN BLESSING. 4. WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT, 5. WHILE THEE I SEEK, PROTECTING POWER. 6. HARK, THE VOICE OF LOVE AND MERCY, 7. WHEN MARSHALLED ON THE NIGHTLY PLAIN, 8. WHILE WITH CEASELESS COURSE THE SUN. 9. ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP APPEARING. 10. IF I MUST DIE, OH, LET ME DIE TRUSTING IN JESUS' BLOOD. II. A WAKE MY SOUL, IN JOYFUL LAYS. Htory of Hymns. 11 SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. "SWEET THE MOMENTS, RICH IN BLESSING," The personal history of few writers of popular hymns is so little known at the present time, as that of Sir Walter Shirley, author of " Sweet the moments, rich in blessing," " Peace, troubled soul, whose plaintive moan," and " Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing." And yet the lives of few hymn-writers abound with more impressive and highly interesting incidents. Shir ley wrote but few hymns, but these have a popularity commensurate with their merits, and seem likely to prove enduring. With the single exception of Bishop Ken's " Doxology," and Perronet's " All hail the power of Jesus' name," no hymn is more universally used in public ser vice than the following : Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing, Fill our hearts with joy and peace ; Let us each, thy love possessing. Triumph in redeeming grace : Oh refresh us, TraveUing through this wilderness. Thanks we give, and adoration, For thy gospel's joyful sound ; May the fruits of thy salvation In our hearts and lives abound ; May thy presence With us evermore be found. 124 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Then, whene'er the signal 's given Us from earth to call away, Borne on angels' wings to heaven — Glad the summons to obey — May we ever Reign with Christ in endless day. The Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley was born in the year 1725. He was brother to Earl Ferrars, and first cousin of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. He was a frequent visitor to Lady Huntingdon's London residence, and there became acquainted with the 'Calvinist Metho dist preachers. He was converted under the ministry of Mr. Venn, became intimate with Whitefield, took orders, and began to preach in the Church of England. After preaching with great success in his native country, he received the living of Loughrea, Ireland, where he con tinued to exercise his ministry for many years. In the year 1760 he was called to endure severe dis cipline, which had the effect of making him deeply hum ble. While Sir Walter had been receiving the truths of the gospel, and growing in Christian graces, his brother, Earl Ferrars, had been leading a most worldly and licen tious life, which, after years of secret dishonor, ended in public shame. In the year mentioned he became greatly incensed with a Mr. Johnson, his steward, who had been a servant in the family for thirty years, and who had shown a good disposition towards Lady Ferrars in her case against a favorite mistress of the nobleman. The details of the whole case are too unprofitable for recital ; but the earl finding his old servant fearlessly devoted to his duty, deliberately shot him, and made no concealment SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE, 125 of the deed. The murder proved a shock to English society. The earl was arrested and lodged in the Tower of London. He was brought to trial in Westminster, on which occasion, according to Charles Wesley, " most of the royal family, the chief gentry, and foreign minis ters were present." After three days' sitting, the court sentenced the earl to be hanged at Tyburn, and "his body to be delivered to Surgeons' Hall to be dissected and anatomized." The distress of Walter Shirley, Lady Huntingdon, and other pious relatives of the doomed earl, was ex treme. The whole English church, and especially the then portion of it known as the Methodists, deeply sym pathized with Walter Shirley. The conduct of the high born convict now gave a still darker aspect and more heartrending associations to the crime. He resolved to die as hardened as he had lived. Walter Shirley left his humble parish in Ireland and hastened to England, and, with Lady Huntingdon, did everything in his power to bring his brother to repent ance and the exercise of religious faith, but without suc cess. The religious society of London was deeply affected ; prayers were offered up for the earl in the churches, and the Methodist societies spent a day in fasting and prayer for the unhappy nobleman's conver sion. But all was of no avail. He spent the night be fore his execution in playing piquet with the warden of the prison. Just before leaving his cell on the fatal day, he wrote the following lines, which he left on tlie table : 11* 126 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. " In doubt I lived, in doubt I die. Yet stand prepared the vast abyss to try. And undismayed expect eternity." He went to Tyburn amid the tears of his friends and the derision of immense crowds of people. He dressed himself for execution in his wedding clothes, and received a note in his carriage from the wretched woman who had occasioned all this misery. Sir Walter returned to his little flock in Loughrea a broken-spirited man. Three weeks after the execution he wrote to Mr. John Wesley as follows : " I have reason to bless God for the humbling lessons he has taught me through these awful visitations." It is probable that family misfortune was the source of the inspiration of his well-known hymn : Peace, troubled soul, whose plaintive moan Hath taught these rocks the notes of woe j Cease thy complaint — suppress thy groan, And let thy tears forget to flow ; Behold the precious balm is found. To lull thy pain, to heal thy wound. Come, freely come, by sin oppressed. Unburden here thy weighty load ; Here find thy refuge and thy rest. And trust the mercy of thy God : Thy God 's thy Saviour — glorious word I For ever love and praise the Lord. Shirley opposed Wesley in forming societies outside of the Established Church. " I have hitherto learned to consider the Methodists," he wrote to Mr. Wesley, " not as any sect, but as a purer part of the Church of Eng- SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE, 127 land." In the great religious controversy between the Arminian and Calvinist Methodists, Shirley sympathized with the views of Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon. He greatly loved his little parish in Ireland, and was influenced with warm zeal for the conversion of souls. His piety and humility grew with advancing years, and he fully felt the power of the experience which he has so delightfully sung : Sweet the moments, rich in blessing. Which before the cross I spend, Life, and health, and peace possessing From the sinner's dying Friend. Here I rest, for ever viewing Mercy poured in streams of blood ; Precious drops, my soul bedewing. Plead and claim my peace with God. Truly blessed is the station. Low before his cross to lie. While I see divine compassion Beaming in his languid eye. Lord, in ceaseless contemplation Fix my thankful heart on thee, TiU I taste thy full salvation. And thine unveUed glory see. This beautiful hymn is said to have been suggested by a religious poem written by James Allen, a local poet, which begins, " While my Jesus I 'm possessing." His last days were serene and peaceful, and he wit nessed to the end the power of Christian consolations. His sickness was protracted. When no longer able to 128 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. leave the house, he was unwilling to cease preaching. The old man used to send for his neighbors, and, sitting in his chair in his own house, used to preach to as many as could hear him. He died in 1786. His hymns are marked " Episcopal Collection " in some of the most widely used hymn-books. In several denominational collections of hymns, his hymn begin ning, " Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing,'" is attributed to Burden It appeared originally in Harris' collection of hymns. The last lines of the second verse in the origi nal are, " Ever faithful To thy truth may we be found." « WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT." Watchman, teU us of the night. What its signs of promise are. Trav'ler, o'er yon mountain's height See the glory-beaming star. Watchman, does its beauteous ray Aught of hope or joy foreteU ? Trav'ler, yes, it brings the day — Promised day of Israel. Watchman, tell us of the night; Higher yet that star ascends. Trav'ler, blessedness and Hght, Peace and truth, its course portends. Watchman, will its beams, alone, GUd the spot that gave them birth? Trav'ler, ages are its own ; See, it bursts o'er all the earth. SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 129 Watchman, teU us of the night. For the morning seems to dawn. Trav'ler, darkness takes its flight; Doubt and terror are withdrawn. Watchman, let thy wandering cease ; Hie thee to thy quiet home. Trav'ler, lo ! the Prince of Peace, Lo ! the Son of God is come. This hymn was written by Sir John Bowring in 1825. Mr. Bowring seems to have been an almost pro phetic poet, and, like Isaiah, to have had continually in view the spiritual victories that are to fill the world with righteousness. In every high position he took with him a hopeful, luminous Christian experience, and ever seemed like a watchman on the walls of Zion, who sooner than others saw and heralded the first beams of the full-orbed and glorious gospel day. He was born in Exeter in 1792. He was a preco cious youth, and possessed a remarkable power in acqui ring the languages. He became highly accomplished, was elected to Parliament, was appointed consul at Can ton, made governor of Hong Kong, and received the honor of knighthood. His Christian experience, and his hopes and expectations of the spread of the gospel over the whole world, are beautifully portrayed in his " Matins and Vespers." . — • « WHILE THEE I SEEK, PROTECTING POWER." While thee I seek, protecting Power, Be my vain wishes stiUed ; And may this consecrated hour With better hopes be fiUed. 130 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Thy love the power of thought bestowed ; To thee my thoughts would soar : Thy mercy o'er my life has flowed ; That mercy I adore. In each event of life, how clear Thy ruling hand I see ; Each blessing to my soul most dear. Because conferred by thee. In every joy that crowns my days. In every pain I bear. My heart shall find delight in praise, Or seek relief in prayer. When gladness wings my favored hour Thy love my thoughts shaU fiU ; Resigned when storms of sorrow lower. My soul shaU meet thy wUl. My lifted eye, without a tear. The gathering storm shaU see : My steadfast heart shaU know no fear ; That heart wiU rest on thee. Some expressions of this hymn have indirect reference to the stormy scenes in France about the time of the Rev olution. It was written in France when the political sky was very dark and threatening, and no one felt secure. Its author was Miss Helen Maria Williams. She was born in the North of England in 1762. She went to London at the age of eighteen, where she won much reputation as a poet. She afterwards went to Paris, where she lived during the breaking up of the monarchy, and where she published works in prose and verse. She was a very devout woman, and relied on the SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 131 strong arm of God at the time of peril. She held a high place in religious society, both in London and Paris. "HARK/ THE VOICE OF LOVE AND MERCY." Hark ! the voice of love and mercy Sounds aloud from Calvary ; See ! it rends the rocks astmder. Shakes the earth, and veUs the sky ; " It is finished !" Hear the djdng Saviour cry. It is finished ! Oh what pleasure Do these charming words afford I Heavenly blessings without measure Flow to us from Christ the Lord : It is finished : Saints, the dying words record. Tune your harps anew, ye seraphs Join to sing the pleasing theme ; AU on earth and aU in heaven Join to praise Immanuel's name ; It is finished : Glory to the bleeding Lamb. This hymn is the fruit of a remarkable Christian ex perience ; a grateful expression of a sense of the great ness of God's mercy, and the extent of the atonement which the writer had occasion to feel. It was written by Jonathan Evans about the year 1787, and appeared in "Rippons Selection," under the title of "Finished Redemption." Mr. Evans was in early life a very irreligious man. He was employed in a ribbon factory, and led a very 132 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, profitless and unpromising life, until he was nearly thirty years of age, when he became converted, and joined the Congregationalists. Soon after his conversion he began to speak of God's dealings with him, in public, preach ing at such times as his secular employments permitted. He at last gathered around him a church and began a stated ministry. "WHEN, MARSHALLED ON THE NIGHTLY PLAIN? Henry Kirke White was born at Nottingham, Eng land, 1785. His father was a butcher in very humble circumstances. At the age of fourteen he became a weaver's apprentice, and two years later he was articled to an attorney. His religious experience is interesting. He had an intimate friend in youth, named Almond. White was a skeptic, and used to ridicule religion and religious things ; while Almond's heart was open to conviction ; he seemed anxious to know the truth and to practise it. One day Almond was called to the bedside of a dying believer, who passed away in great peace, consoled by a triumphant faith. He was fully convinced of the truth of religion by the impressive scene, and resolved to be come a Christian. But he shrunk from making known his convictions through fear of the ridicule of White. His mind for a time was greatly agitated and divided, but he at last made the resolution to give up the society of his friend, should it be necessary, and to avow himself a believer in Christ. SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 133 White felt the neglect of his friend keenly, and went to him in an injured way, and inquired the cause. Al mond confessed the change that had taken place in his views, and announced his purpose of leading a different life. The answer, of course, implied that his friend was unworthy the confidence of one who aimed to live pi- ' ously. White saw it in this light, and was cut to the quick, " Good God, Almond !" exclaimed the conscience- smitten skeptic, " you surely regard me in a worse light than I deserve." The interview melted the heart of White, and he, too, became an inquirer after truth, embraced religion, and the two youths renewed their friendship with warmer feelings and more elevated aims. This experience White relates metaphorically in his familiar hymn which follows : When, marshalled on the nightly plain. The glittering host bestud the sky. One star alone of all the train Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. Hark, hark ! to God the chorus breaks, From every host, from every gem ; But one alone the Saviour speaks ; It is the Star of Bethlehem. Once on the raging seas I rode : The storm was loud, the night was dark ; The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed The wind that tossed my foundering bark. Deep horror then my vitals froze. Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem, When suddenly a star arose. It was the Star of Bethlehem. 12 134 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. It was my guide, my light, my aU, It bade my dark forebodings cease ; And through the storm and danger's thraU, It led me to the port of peace. Now, safely moored, my perils o'er, I '11 sing, first in night's diadem. For ever and for evermore. The Star, the Star of Bethlehem ! White now turned his purpose of life to the ministry, and prepared himself for Cambridge by severe study. At college his health gave way under the severity of his application, and he died in the autumn of 1806, at the age of twenty. "WHILE WITH CEASELESS COURSE THE SUN." While with ceaseless course the sun Hasted through the former year. Many souls their race have run. Never more to meet us here : Fixed in an eternal state. They have done with aU below ; We a little longer wait, But how little — none can know. As the winged arrow flies Speedily the mark to find. As the lightning from the skies Darts and leaves no trace behind. Swiftly thus our fleeting days Bear us down hfe's rapid stream; Upward, Lord, our spirits raise ; All below is but a dream. SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 135 Thanks for mercies past receive. Pardon of our sins renew ; Teach us henceforth how to live With eternity in view. feless thy word to young and old ; FiU us with a Saviour's love ; And, when life s short tale is told. May we dwell with thee above. Tliis hymn was written by the Rev. John Newton, for the " Olney Hymns." Mr. Newton calls his hymns " The fruit and expression of his own experience." The allu sion in the first stanza of the hymn has reference to the changes that had taken place in his own parish at Olney, where he was, at the time of the writing, a very active and sympathizing curate. "ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP APPEARING." Thomas Kelly, an admired hymn-writer and an ex cellent and useful clergyman, was the son of the Hon. Chief Baron Kelly of Dublin, and was born in 1769. He was educated in Dublin University, and was partly pre pared to enter the profession of law, when he became deeply impressed with the instability of worldly things and the magnitude of spiritual riches, and decided to enter the ministry. He was ordained in the Established Church at the age of twenty-four. He began to labor with great zeal for the, conversion of souls, preaching the doctrine of justification by faith. This course was deemed by his friends a departure from the dignity of of his office, and was deeply humiliating to his high-born 136 THE STORY OF THE HYMIS/S. family, who for a time treated him with marked coolness and disregard. "To go to the stake," he said, "would be a less trial to me than to so set myself against those whom I so dearly love." But he remained firm to his convictions of duty, and multitudes flocked to his preach ing, and he was able to exert a very powerful influence. He was an Oriental scholar and a musical composer, as well as a poet, but he laid all of his varied gifts and ac complishments, with unaffected simplicity and humility, at the foot of the Cross. His religious experience is related in the following hymn : Poor and afiiicted. Lord, are thine, Among the great they seldom shine ; Yet though the world may think it strange, They would not with the world exchange. Poor and afflicted — 'tis their lot; They know it, and they murmur not ; 'T would iU become them to refuse The state their Maker deigned to choose. Poor and afiiicted — ^yet they sing ; For Jesus is their glorious King ; Through sufferings perfect now he reigns, And shares in all their griefs and pains. And whUe they walk the thorny way They 're often heard to sigh and say Dear Saviour come, oh, quickly come. And take thy mourning pilgrims home. The lines, as applied to his own case, are not in the strictest sense true, for he was a man of large wealth. He wrote more than seven hundred hymns of many de- SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 137 grees of excellence. He was dissatisfied with the disci pline of the Established Church ; entertained broad views, and looked for the coming of Christ's universal kingdom. This experience is the origin of his well- known hymn : On the mountain-top appearing, Lo the sacred herald stands, Joyful news to Zion bearing, Zion long in hostile hands : Mourning captive, God himself shall loose thy bands. Has thy night been long and mournful ? Have thy friends unfaithful proved ? Have thy foes been proud and scornful, By thy sighs and tears unmoved ? Cease thy mourning ; Zion still is weU beloved. God, thy God, will now restore thee ; He himself appears thy Friend ; All thy foes shall flee before thee ; Here their boasts and triumphs end Great deliverance Zion's King will surely send. Peace and joy shall now attend thee ; All thy warfare now is past ; God thy Saviour wiU defend thee; Victory is thine at last : AU thy conflicts End in everlasting rest. He labored in Dublin for more than sixty years. Lord Plunkett, one of his intimate friends, once said to him, "1^2* 138 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. " I think you will live to a great age." " I am confident I shall," said the vicar ; " I expect never to die." His dying testimony was to this effect : " The Lord is my adl in all." "IF I MUST DIE, OH LET ME DIE TRUSTING IN JESUS' BLOOD," Benjamin Beddome, a Baptist minister, lived a life of comparative seclusion in a small country village, called Bourton-on-the- Water, Gloucestershire, where he died September, 179S, in the 79th year of his age. He was a religious poet, and wrote nearly one thousand hymns. In 1749 he was prostrated by a very severe illness, and on his recovery wrote a hymn, which, after some improving, was published as follows : If I must die, oh let me die Trusting in Jesus' blood, That blood which full atonement made And reconciles to God. If I must die, then let me die In peace with all mankind. And change these fleeting joys below For pleasures all refined. If I must die, as die I must, Let some kind seraph come. And bear me on his friendly wing To my celestial home. SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 139 Of Canaan's land, from Pisgah's top, May I but have a view, Though Jordan should o'erflow its banks, I 'U boldly venture through. His death fulfilled the expectations of the hymn. He preached long after the silver crown of age had been set upon his head, and venerableness had added solemnity and dignity to his words. He desired that he might de part without a long sickness. He was confined to his house at last only a single Lord's day. An hour before his death he was found composing a hymn, in which was the following stanza : " God of my life and of my choice. Shall I no longer hear thy voice ? Oh let the source of joy divine With rapture fill this heart of mine." "AWAKE, MY SOUL, IN JOYFUL LAYS." Rev. Samuel Medley was born in Hertfordshire, England, 1738. At the age of eighteen he entered the navy, and was wounded in the engagement off Cape La gos, under Admiral Boscawen, in 1759. His wound proved a very serious one. "I am afraid," said the surgeon, "that amputation is the only thing that will save your life. I can tell to morrow morning." Medley had received religious instruction from a pious father and grandfather, and had been made the subject of frequent prayer. He had led a profligate life in the navy, but the pious lessons of his early youth I40 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. returned upon him at the surgeon's awful warning, and he remembered that God was a Helper when human helps fail. He began to pray, and passed a part of the night in prayer. The next morning the surgeon came to examine his wounds, and lifted his hands in surprise at the favorable change that had taken place. " This," said he, " is little short of a miracle." Medley now resolved to lead a religious life, but on recovery was again led into thoughtless habits. Returning to his home, he was compelled to listen to many a faithful admonition and warning. One Sabbath evening he inquired of a servant if his grandfather was going out to worship. "No," was the answer, "he is coming to' read a sermon to you." " A sermon to me I" replied Medley ; " he had better be anywhere else !" The sermon was one by Dr. Watts, from Isaiah 42:6, 7. He listened to it at first with indifference, but his heart at last began to melt, and he was led to see the wonder ful forbearance of God. As soon as the aged man left him alone, he fell upon his knees, and not long after the love of Christ filled his soul and changed the purpose of his life. His best known hymn is a relation of this ex perience : Awake, my soul, in joyful lays, And sing thy great Redeemer's praise ; He justly claims a song from me ; His loving-kindness is so free I He saw me ruined in the faU, Yet loved me notwithstanding all : He saved me from my lost estate ; His loving-kindness is so great ! SONGS IN THE PILGRIMAGE. 141 Through mighty hosts of cruel foes. Where earth and hell my way oppose, He safely leads my soul along ! His loving-kindness is so strong ! When earthly friends forsake me quite, And I have neither skiU nor might. He 's sure my helper to appear; His loving-kindness is so near I Often I feel my sinful heart Prone from my Jesus to depart; And though I oft have him forgot^ His loving-ldndness changes not. So when I pass death's gloomy vale. And life and mortal powers shaU fsul, Oh may my last expiring breath His loving-kindness sing in death I IV. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. I. SHEPHERD OF TENDER YOUTH. 2. THERE IS A HAPPY LAND. 3. I THINK WHEN I READ THA T SWEET STORY OF OLD. 4. WE SPEAK OF THE REALMS OF THE BLEST. I. NOW T LAY ME DO WN TO SLEEP, 6. GOLDEN HEAD, SO LOWLY BENDING. 7. "NOW I LA Y,"—REPEA T IT, DARLING. 8. / WANT TO BE AN ANGEL. 9. 'TIS RELIGION THAT CAN GIVE. 10, STAND UP FOR JESUS, II, DAILY, DAILY SING THE PRAISES. 12. JUST AS I AM, WITHOUT ONE PLEA. 13. BY COOL SILOAM'S SHADY RILL. 14. O MOTHER DEAR, JERUSALEM, 15. JERUSALEM, MY HAPPY HOME, 16. PM BUT A STRANGER HERE 17. GOD CALLING YET, 18. LITTLE TRA VELLERS ZIONWARD, 19. LAND AHEAD I ITS FRUITS ARE WAVING. 20. HE LEADETH MEI OH, BLESSED THOUGHT. 21. I AM SO GLAD THAT OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN 22. / GA VE MY LIFE FOR THEE. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. WRITERS OF SUNDA Y-SCHOOL HYMNS. The writers of the best Sunday-school hymns are benefactors, whose influence is hardly calculable, but whose p'ersonal history, with but few exceptions, is little known. I. The following is a part of the oldest Christian hymn for children : Shepherd of tender youth, Guiding in love and truth Through devious ways, Christ, our triumphant king. We come thy name to sing, And here our children bring To shout thy praise. Ever be thou our guide. Our shepherd and our pride. Our staff and song ; Jesus, thou Christ of God, By thy perennial word Lead us where thou hast trod, Make our faith strong. So now, and tiU we die Sound we thy praises high. And joyful sing ; Infants, and the glad throng Who to thy church belong, Unite and sing the song To Christ our king. Btori of HTmns. Ig 146 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 2. The favorite Sunday-school hymn beginning — " There is a happy land," seems to have been suggested by a Hebrew melody. It was written by Andrew Young, a cultured Scotchman, and a popular teacher of youth. In 1 830, he was elected by the City Council of Edinburgh, head master of the Niddry street school, and in 1840 was appointed English master in Madras college. He held the latter position thirteen years, and has since resided in Edinburgh. 3. The hymn beginning — " I think when I read that sweet story of old," ' which is sometimes attributed to Mrs. Judson, was com posed by Mrs. Jemima Luke, a benevolent and accom plished English lady, born at Colebrook Terrace, Islington, August 19, 1 813. She took a great interest in mission ary enterprises, and for several years edited The Mission ary Repository. She exhibited a fine literary and poetic taste early in life, and at the age of thirteen was able to write acceptably for the juvenile Magazine, The hymn was composed under somewhat peculiar circumstances, and she had no idea of its value or ultimate popularity at the time of writing. Her father, Thomas Thompson, Esq., was a philanthropist, and took an interest, like her self, in missions, and in the education of poor children. Mrs. Luke became much attached to a little village school near her father's residence at Pondsford Park, and, on a certain occasion, wished to write a little song for it, that would awaken an interest in religion and have a salutary effect on the minds of the children. The SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. 147 leading thought of the hymn, which is Christ's present sympathy for the little ones, was brought to her mind while riding in a stage-coach, and she composed the poem during the ride, while the inspiration of the sub ject yet lingered. It was published in 1865. The following is the original of Mrs. Luke's beautiful hymn, which has two stanzas not found in many collec tions : I THINK when I read that sweet story of old, When Jesus dwelt here among men. How he called little chUdren as lambs to his fold, I should like to have been with him then. I wish that his hand had been put on my head, And that I been placed on his knee, And that I might have seen his kind look when he said, "Let the little ones come unto me." Yet still to his footstool in prayer I may go, And ask for a share in his love ; And if I thus earnestly seek him below, I shall hear him and see him above, In that beautiful place he is gone to prepare For all who are washed and forgiven ; And many dear children are gathering there, For of such is the kingdom of heaven. But thousands and thousands who wander and faU Never heard of that heavenly home ; I should like them to know there is room for them aU And that Jesus has bid them to come. I long for that blessed and glorious time — The fairest, the brightest, the best — When the dear little chUdren of every clime Shall crowd to his arms and be blessed. 148 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 4. The hymn found in nearly all Sunday-school collec tions, entitled " What must it be to be there .'" and be ginning — " We speak of the realms of the blest," was written by a young English lady, the wife of Thomas Mills, Esq., M. P., who was much esteemed for her amia- bleness, tenderness of feeling, and calm religious trust. She died at the age of twenty-four. The hymn was composed about three weeks before her decease, while she was yet lingering, as it were, on the heavenly border refreshed with the near prospect of Paradise. She had been reading Bridges on Psalm 119:44, "We speak of heaven, but, oh, to be there I" The original has six stanzas. 5. The little prayer beginning — " Now I lay me down to sleep>" is altered from Dr. Watts. It has been an evening pray er for children, as far as the English language is spoken, for nearly two centuries. Several little Sunday-school ballads have been written upon it. 6. One of these first appeared in Putnam's Magazine: Golden head, so lowly bending, Little feet so white and bare. Dewy eyes, half shut, half opened. Lisping out her evening prayer. Well she knows when she is saying " Now I lay me down to sleep," 'Tis to God that she is praying. Praying him her soul to keep. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. 149 Half asleep, and murmuring faintly " If I should die before I wake" — Tiny fingers clasped so saintly — " I pray the Lord my soul to take." Oh the rapture, sweet, unbroken. Of the soul who wrote that prayer ! Children's myriad voices floating Up to heaven record it there. If, of all that has been written, I could choose what might be mine. It should be that child's petition. Rising to the throne divine. 7, The following, entitled " The unfinished Prayer," originally appeared, we think, in the Lutheran Home Monthly: " Now I lay,'' — repeat it, darling — " Lay me," lisped the tiny lips Of my daughter, kneeling, bending O'er her folded finger tips. '-' Down to sleep" — " To sleep," she murmured, And the curly head bent low ; " I pray the Lord" — I gently added, " You can say it all I know." " Pray the Lord — " The sound came faintly, Fainter still — " My soul to keep ;" Then the tired head fairly nodded, .\nd the child was fast asleep. But the dewy eyes half opened When I clasped her to my breast. And the dear voice softly whispered, " Mamma, God knows all the rest. 13* ISO THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. 8. Rev. Dr. Armitage of New York, in a lecture on " Our Female Hymn Writers," has recently brought to light the touching history of the hymn, beginning, " I want to be an angel." " It was written," he says, " by Mrs. Sydney P. Gill, in Philadelffhia. In the Sunday-school of Dr. Joel Parker's church she taught the infant class. She had been teaching a lesson on angels, when a little child said, ' I want to be an angel.' A few days after, the child died, the hymn was written for that Sunday-school to sing. on her death, and it has struck a chord in every child's heart since 1845." It was composed April 19, 1845, on the day of the death of a little girl named Annie Louisa Farrand, the Sunday-school scholar to whom Dr. Armitage refers. The words " I want to be an angel" had at this time been made familiar by the following incident, written by Dr. Irenteus Prime, April 5, 1845, which was being copied by nearly all religious and Sunday-school papers : " A child sat in the door of a cottage at the close of a summer Sabbath. The twilight was fading, and as the shades of evening darkened, one after another of the stars stood in the sky and looked down on the child in his thoughtful mood. He was looking up at the stars and counting them as they came, till there were too many to be counted, and his eyes wandered all over the heav ens, watching the bright worlds above. They seemed just like "holes in the floor of heaven to let the glory through," but he knew better. Yet he loved to look up SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS, 151 there, and was so absorbed, that his mother called to him and said : " ' My son, what are you thinking of .-" " He started as if suddenly aroused from sleep, and answered, " ' I was thinking " ' Yes,' said his mother, ' I know you were thinking, but what were you thinking about V " ' Oh,' said he, and his little eyes sparkled with the thought, ' / want to be an angel.' " ' And why, my son, would you be an angel ?' " ' Heaven is up there, is it not, mother 1 and there the angels live and love God, and are happy. I do wish I was good, and God would take me there, and let me wait on him for ever.' " The mother called him to her knee, and he leaned on her bosom and wept. She wept too, and smoothed the- soft hair of his head as he stood there, and kissed his forehead, and then told him that if he would give his heart to God, now while he was young, the Saviour would forgive all his sins and take him up to heaven when he died, and he would then be with God for ever. " His young heart was comforted. He knelt at his mother's side and said : " ' Jesus, Saviour, Son of God, Wash me in thy precious blood ; I thy little lamb would be. Help me. Lord, to look to thee. The mother took the young child to his chamber and soon he was asleep, dreaming perhaps of angels and IS2 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. heaven, A few months afterwards sickness was on him, and the light of that cottage, the joy of that mother's heart, went out. He breathed his last in her arms, and as he took her parting kiss, he whispered in her ear : " ' I am going to be an angel' " 9. 'T IS religion that can give Sweetest pleasure while we live ; 'T is religion can supply SoUd comfort when we die. After death its joys shall be Lasting as eternity. This poem, in six lines, is from an English book, by Mary Masters. In the preface to the work, we read, " The author of the following poems never read a trea tise of rhetoric or an art of poetry, nor was ever taught her English grammar. Her education rose no higher than the spelling-book or her writing-master. Her ge nius to poetry was always discountenanced by her pa rents, and till her merit got the better of her fortune, she was shut out from all commerce with the more knowing and polite part of the world." ID. The American Sunday-school hymn, beginning, " Stand up, stand up for Jesus," was composed by George Duffield, a Presbyterian clergy man in Detroit. He was born at Carlisle, Penn., in 1818, and graduated at Yale College in 1837. He has written a number of hymns, of which, " Stand up for Jesus," owing perhaps to its associations, is best known. It was composed to be sung after a sermon delivered by the SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. 153 writer on the sudden death of Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, whose dying words to his Christian brothers were, " Stand up for Jesus." Dudley Atkins Tyng was born on the 12th of January, 1825, in a quiet parsonage in Prince George Co., Va. His father. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, removed to St. George's Church, Philadelphia, in which parish Dudley passed his boyhood. He was a precocious scholar. He was able to read the Latin authors at the age of seven, and he entered the University of Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen. He became the subject of converting grace and ex perimental religion in 1841, His father relates the fol lowing touching incident in connection with his conver sion : " Late one night, when all the family had retired to rest, and left me to my closing hour of solitude in my study, I heard the sound of feet descending the stairs. It was this dear boy, who had risen from his bed in sleepless sorrow. As he came into my room and pressed his arms around my neck, he said, " Dear father, I can not sleep, I am so sinful. Father, will you pray for me .'" In 1854, Mr. Tyng became rector of the church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, and he entered with glowing zeal and love for souls into the revival work associated with the great religious awakening which, soon after his instalment, manifested itself at Philadelphia and in the principal cities of the United States. He was the favor ite leader of the great union prayer-meetings held in Philadelphia, and it is said that he met more inquirers during the revival than any other pastor in the city. IS4 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. In the spring following the great awakening, he met with a terrible accident that proved fatal in its results. " Dr. ," said the young pastor to his physician, " my friends have given me up; they say that I am dying; is that your opinion .'" The doctor replied in the affirma tive. " Then, doctor, I have something to say to you, I have loved you much as a friend ; I long to love you as a brother in Jesus Christ, Let me entreat you now to come to Jesus." He was asked if he had any message to his brethren in the ministry. He said, addressing his father, " Father, stand up for Jesus. Tell them, let us all stand up for Jesus." He became partially unconscious. He did not know any of the members of the family, " Do you know Jesus ?" he was asked. His answer was jubilant. " I know Jesus. I have a steadfast trust in Jesus — a calm and steadfast trust." " Are you happy .¦•" " Perfectly ! perfectly." He was buried amid the tears of more than ten thou sand people. II. The English Sunday-school hymn, so popular in Episcopal churches, beginning, " Daily, daily sing the praises Of the city God has made," was composed by Sabine Baring-Gould, and originally printed on a card for the use of St. John's Mission, Hor- bury Bridge, Yorkshire, The same year it appeared in SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. 155 the " Church Times." The chorus is vigorous, and the music is animating as the hymn : " Oh that I had wings of angels, Here to spread and heavenward fly, I would seek the waUs of Zion, Far beyond the starry sky." 12. The authorship of the hymn, beginning, "Just as I am, without one plea," has recently been noticed in several religious papers. It was written by Chariotte Elliott of Torquay, Eng. She was born March 18, 1789, and died at Brighton, Sept. 22, 1871. The original hymn has a stanza often omitted : " Just as I am, of that free love The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove, Here for a season, then above, O Lamb of God, I come." 13. The favorite Sunday-school hymn, beginning, " By cool Siloam's shady riU," was composed by Bishop Heber. He but gives in it his own experience. His early feet " trod the paths of peace," and his mind was early " upward drawn to God." He was a solitary student at Oxford, his gentle, devo tional nature shrinking from the show and affectation of society. His fine poem, " Palestine," was written for a college exercise. Though so quiet, he became greatly beloved at Oxford, and when "Palestine" was first read by him in the theatre, at the annual college commence ment, it was received with such an outburst of applause as probably never before greeted an Oxford student. His 156 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. aged father and mother were present on the occasion. After the reading of the poem, young Heber was for a long time missing, and his ihother, going to look for him, softly opened the door of his sleeping room. She found him on his knees breathing out his soul in gratitude and prayer. 14. The hymn, used both in the church and Sunday- school, beginning, " O mother dear, Jerusalem,'' was written in the Tower of London on the Thames, during the reign of Elizabeth. Its figures and contrasts are those of imprisonment. Such lines as " Oh happy harbor of God's saints," " There envy bears no sway," " Thy turrets and thy pinnacles," " We that are here in banishment," have new meanings as we understand the associations amid which they were written. Some of the stanzas, usually omitted in hymn-books, are very beautiful. Its author was Francis Baker. It is also inscribed to David Dickson, 1583-1662. O MOTHER dear, Jerusalem ! When shall I come to thee ? When shall my sorrows have an end ? Thy joys when shaU I see ? Oh happy harbor of God's saints ! Oh sweet and pleasant soil ! In thee no sorrow can be found, Nor grief nor care nor toil. SUNDA Y-SCHOOL HYMNS. 157 In thee no sickness is at all. Nor hurt nor any sore ; There is no death nor ugly §ight. But life for evermore. No murky cloud o'ershadows thee. Nor gloom, nor darksome night ; But every soul shines as the sun ; For God himself gives light. Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! Would God I were in thee ! Oh that my sorrows had an end. Thy joys that I might see. Thy turrets and thy pinnacles With carbuncles do shine. With jasper, pearl, and chrysolite, Surpassing pure and fine. Thy houses are of ivory. Thy windows crystal clear. Thy streets are laid with beaten gold ; There angels do appear. Thy walls are made of precious stone, Thy bulwarfjs diamond square. Thy gates are made of orient pearl ; O God, if I were there I Oh my sweet home, Jerusalem ! Thy joys when shall I see? The King that sitteth on thy throne In his felicity? Thy gardens and thy goodly walks Continually are green. Where grow such sweet and pleasant flowers As nowhere else are seen. 14 158 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. Right through thy streets with pleasing sound, The living waters flow. And on the banks, on either side The trees of life do grow. Those trees each month yield ripened fruit; For evermore they spring. And all the nations of the earth To thee their honors bring. If heaven be thus glorious. Lord, Why should I stay from thence ? What folly 's this, that I should dread To die and go from hence ! Reach down, O Lord, thine arm of grace. And cause me to ascend Where congregations ne'er break up And Sabbaths never end. O mother dear, Jerusalem ! When shall I come to thee ? When shall my sorrows have an end ? Thy joys when shall I see ? 15. The stanzas which follow, constituting a well- known and popular hymn by themselves, seem to have been formed on the same model : Jerusalem, my happy home. Name ever dear to me. When shall my labors have an end In joy and peace and thee ? When shall these eyes thy heaven-built waUs And pearly gates behold ? Thy bulwarks, with salvation strong, And streets of shining gold ? SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS, 159 There happier bowers than Eden's bloom. Nor sin nor sorrow know : Blest seats ! through rude and stormy scenes I onward press to you. Why should I shrink from pain and woe. Or feel at death dismay? I 've Canaan's goodly land in view And realms of endless day. Apostles, martyrs, prophets, there Around my Saviour stand : And soon my friends in Christ below Will join the glorious band. Jerusalem, my happy home. My soul still pants for thee ; Then shall my labors have an end, When I thy joys shall see. 16. Every Sunday-school scholar is familiar with the beautiful hymn, beginning, " I 'm but a stranger here,- Heaven is my home.'' Older and more experienced minds may have marked so much of evident sincerity and so little of the spirit of authorship in the lines, as to wish to know who was the author, and under what peculiar discipline of life they were composed. The hymn was written by Thomas Rawson Taylor, the son of an English Congregationalist minister. He was born near Wakefield on the 9th of May, 1807. At the age of fifteen he became a mer chant's clerk, and he was subsequently apprenticed as a printer. While thus employed he became interested in i6o THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. the concerns of his soul, experienced great spiritual con solations in seasons of prayer, and was impressed that it was his duty to give up his secular calling and prepare for the ministry. He entered Airesdale College, where he remained three years, living a life of most elevated and self-forgetful piety. He did not wait to complete his education before he commenced active service in the cause of his Master. He seemed to feel the force of the Divine command, " Work while the day lasts." While a student he used to go out to the towns and villages near the college preaching the Word, and appearing in his young zeal like a special messenger of celestial truth. In July, 1830, he was received as minister at Haward street chapel at Sheffield. Here his health began to de cline ; it became evident that he was marked for an early death, and that his bright prospects of worldly usefulness were destined to be disappointed. The change gradu ally continued. He struggled against it for several years, and at times seemed to check the sure hand of the destroyer. But all remedial efforts proved in vain and he died March 7, 1835. In his altered days he felt that he was a " stranger here'' in the world of life and activity. But as one by one his worldy hopes perished, and the things of earth lost their power to charm, he realized with glowing antici pations that " Heaven was his home. I 'm but a stranger here. Heaven is my home ; Earth is a desert drear. Heaven is my home. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. i6i Dangers and sorrows stand Round me on every hand ; Heaven is my Fatherland — Heaven is my home. What though the tempest rage, Heaven is my home ; Short is my pilgrimage. Heaven is my home. And time's wild, wintry blast Soon wiU be overpast ; I shall reach home at last — Heaven is my home. Therefore I murmur not, Heaven is my home ; Whate'er my earthly lot, Heaven is my home. And I shall surely stand There at my Lord's right hand — Heaven is my Fatherland — Heaven is my home. There at my Saviour's side. Heaven is my home ; I shall be glorified. Heaven is my home. There are the good and blest. Those I loved most and best. There, too, I soon shaU rest — Heaven is my home. Taylor died young, and he must have felt like Keats, that his name was " writ in water," or, like Kirke White, " I shall sink As sinks the traveller in the crowded streets Of busy London." 14* 1 62 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. But his little hymn, written amid the dreariness of worldly disappointment, has accomplished a mission that makes him a benefactor, and by it he yet speaks, as no living voice can speak, to almost countless congregations in nearly every part of the world. 17. The beautiful hymn which has lately become a fa vorite in the Sunday-school, Young People's meetings, and Inquiry meetings, beginning, " God calling yet," was written by Gerhard Tersteegen, Thousands who sing this hymn, and who also love to sing another precious stanza from a hymn by the same author, beginning — " Is there a tiling beneath the sun. That strives with Thee my heart to share ?" know but little of the personal history of the writer. Others who love to read — " Thou hidden love of God, whose height — " have never heard of the great religious happiness and elevation of soul that its German author enjoyed, Gerhard Tersteegen, the original author of the hymns to which we have alluded, and one of the most eminent religious poets of the Reformed German church in its early days, was born in 1697, in the town of Mors, in Westphalia. He was left an orphan in boyhood by the death of his father, and as his mother's means were lim ited, he was put to work as an apprentice when very young at Muhlheim on the Rhur. Here, when about fifteen years of age, he became deeply concerned for his soul, and experienced a deep and abiding spiritual work. He was riding one day to Duisburg in a deep forest SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. 163 alone, when he suddenly fell ill, being thrown into vio lent convulsions that threatened his life. He fell upon his knees and implored God to spare his life, that he might prepare for eternity. He experienced almost im mediate relief, and at once dedicated his life to Christ. An inward conflict followed, for his early religious com forts seem to have been like wandering lights, now vanish ing and now appearing. He used to express this state of his experience in the words of St. Augustine : " My heart is pained, nor can it be At rest, till it finds rest in Thee." But his religious perceptions became clearer ; the fountains of heavenly refreshment were opened ; his soul entered into the rest of divine love, and found in it a present heaven. He thus gratefully writes of the change : " He took me by the hand, he drew me away from per dition's yawning gulf, directed my eye to himself, and opened to me the unfathomable abyss of his loving heart." He seemed to be drawn into closer fellowship with God as youth ripened into manhood, and to live, as it were, on the heavenly confines as manhood fruited in a serene and cloudless old age. At the age of twenty-seven, he dedicated all his resources and energies to the cause of Christ, writing the dedication in his own blood. " God graciously called me," he says, " out of the world, and granted me the desire to belong to him, and to be willing to follow him. I long for eternity that I may suitably glorify him for it." When he was thirty years of age, a great spiritual awa kening was experienced at Muhlheim, and although- Ters- i64 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. teegen shrank from public notice, he was prevailed upon to address the people on themes relating to religious expe rience. He began to preach in private houses, but was soon compelled to enter upon more public labors. He gave up secular employments altogether, and devoted his whole time to religious instruction and to the poor. His house became famous as the Pilgrims' Cottage, and was visited not only by the most eminent Christians of Ger many, but by multitudes of people from foreign lands. Thus spending his time in communion with God and in humble charities, and speaking to the spiritually- minded people who flocked to visit him, of the consola tions of his own luminous experience, and of the new dis coveries that grace was constantly making to his soul, beloved at home and revered and respected in foreign lands, his life drew near a triumphant exit, which took place, April 3, 1769. He lived an ascetic life in his best years, practising austerities, that no physical imped iment might shut out the heavenly light or hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in comforming his soul to the will of God, He produced one hundred religious poems and spiritual songs, some of the best of which Wesley trans lated, and whose authorship is attributed to Wesley in most American collections of hymns. The following is a very literal translation of Terstee- gen's hymn before alluded to : God calling yet — and shall I never hearken ? But still earth's witcheries my spirit darken ; This passing life, thes? passing joys, all flying. And stUl my soul in dreamy slumbers lying. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS, 165 God calling yet ! — and I not yet arising ? So long his loving, faithful voice despising ; So falsely his unwearied care repaying ; He calls me still — and stiU I am delaying. God caUing yet ! loud at my door he 's knocking, And I, my heart, my ear, stiU firmer locking; He still is ready, willing to receive me. Is waiting now, but ah ! he soon may leave me. God calling yet ! — and I no answer giving ; I dread his yoke, and am in bondage living. Too long I linger, but not yet forsaken. He calls me still — O my poor heart, awaken ! Oh, calling yet ! — I can no longer tarry. Nor to my God a heart divided carry ; Now, vain and giddy world, your spells are broken, Sweeter than all ! the voice of God hath spoken. 18. James Edmeston, a writer who seems to have sympathized deeply with piety in early childhood, was a London architect, and was born in 1791. He was a mem ber of the Church of England, He wrote a collection of hymns for cottagers, which was followed by one hundred hymns for Sunday-schools. Many of his hymns were written week by week, to be read at the family devotions at his own home on Sunday morning. He was a friend of Mrs. Lake. The following favorite hymn is his : Little travellers Zionward, Each one entering into rest. In the kingdom of your Lord, In the mansions of the blest ; i66 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. There to welcome Jesus waits. Gives the crown his foUowers win ; Lift your heads, ye golden gates. Let the little travellers in. Who are they whose little feet. Pacing life's dark journey through, Now have reached that heavenly seat They had ever kept in view ? " I, from Greenland's frozen land ;" " I, from India's sultry plain ;" " I, from Afric's barren sand ;" " I, from islands of the main." "All our earthly journey passed. Every tear and pain gone by, Here together met at last At the portal of the sky. Each the welcome ' Come ' awaits, Conquerors over death and sin." Lift your heads, ye golden gates. Let the little travellers in. 19. " Land in sight !" said John Adams, when dying. He was one of the mutineers of the " Bounty." He had dwelt on Pitcairn Island for forty years, building up a religious community in that " Paradise of the Pacific." "Are you happy.-"' asked one who stood by his death-bed. "Rounding the cape into the harbor," was the jubi lant answer. Nearer drew the saintly man to the celestial pros pects ; calmer became the haven. " Let go the anchor," he exclaimed, and the Christian pioneer was no more. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS, 167 This religious experience became the subject of the following Sunday-school hymn : Land ahead ! its fruits are waving O'er the hiUs of fadeless green ; And the living waters laving Shores where heavenly forms are seen. Chorus — Rocks and storms I 'U fear no more, When on that eternal shore ; Drop the anchor ! furl the saU 1 I am safe within the veil. Onward, bark! the cape I 'm rounding; See, the blessed wave their hands ; Hear the harps of God resounding From the bright immortal bands. — Cho. There let go the anchor, riding On this calm and silvery bay ; Seaward fast the tide is ghding. Shores in sunlight stretch away. — Cho. Now we 're safe from aU temptation, AU the storms of life are past ; Praise the Rock of our salvation, We are safe at home at last. — Cho. 20. The author of the following hymn, which is one of those recent productions which seem to be growing in the affections of the church, is Rev. J. H. Gilmore, now a professor in Rochester University, New York. He gives the following experience, as associated with its origin : " I believe myself to be the author of ' He leadeth me.' Further, it was written in Philadelphia. I had made a talk at the Wednesday evening lecture of the First Baptist church, on the twenty-third Psalm; and. i68 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. while a few of us were developing the subject a little farther in Deacon Watson's parlor, I jotted the hymn down in pencil precisely as it now stands — save that the refrain has since been added by another hand- — and passed the paper to my wife, who sent it, without my knowledge, to the ' Watchman and Reflector.' " The first time that I knew it had found its way into the hymn-books, was on the day on which I first entered the Second Baptist chapel in Rochester, to take a view of the surroundings before appearing before the church as a candidate. 'What do they sing in their social meet ings .'' I queried ; and the ' Devotional Hymn and Tune Book' opened, of its own accord, to my own hymn, ' He leadeth me.' " He leadeth me ! Oh, blessed thought. Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught ; Whate'er I do, where'er I be, StUl 't is God's hand that leadeth me ! He leadeth me ! he leadeth me ! By his own hand he leadeth me ; His faithful foUower I would be. For by his hand he leadeth me. Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom, Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom. By waters stiU, o'er troubled sea — StiU 'tis His hand that leadeth me ! He leadeth me, etc. Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine. Nor ever murmur nor repine — Content, whatever lot I see, Since 't is my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, etc. SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS. 169 And when my task on earth is done, When, by thy grace, the victory 's won, E'en death's cold wave I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, etc. 21. The song, "I am so glad that our Father in Heaven," by Mr. P. P. Bliss, an American composer, is very popular in Scotland as well as in America, and has been a leading tone in the services of the recent great revivals across the sea. It was suggested to Mr. Bliss by hearing the chorus, " Oh, how I love Jesus." The thought came to him, " I have sung long enough of my poor love to Christ, and now I will sing of his love for me." Under the inspiration of this thought, he wrote, I AM so glad that our Father in heaven Tells of his love in the book he has given; Wonderful things in the Bible I see. This is the dearest— that Jesus loves me. Though I forget him, and wander away, Kindly he foUows wherever I stray ; Back to his dear, loving arms would I flee, When I remember that Jesus loves me. Oh, if there 's only one song I can sing, When in his beauty I see the great King, This shaU my song in eternity be — Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me. 22. The song, " I gave my Life for thee," by Miss F. R. Havergal, was probably suggested by a German atory of HymnB. 15 170 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS, motto under a picture of " Christ on the Cross." It is said that Count Zinzendorf owed his early Christian experience to this motto, which brought vividly before Jiis young mind his obligations to Christ : I GAVE my life for thee. My precious blood I shed, That thou might'st ransomed be And quickened from the dead. I gave my Ufe for thee : What hast thou given for me P My Father's house of light. My rainbow-circled throne, I left for earthly night, For wanderings sad and lone ; I left it all for thee ; Hast thou left aught for me ? And I have brought to thee, Down from my home above, Salvation fuU and free. My pardon and my love. Great gifts I brought to thee ; What hast thou brought to me ? Oh ! let thy life be given. Thy years for me be spent. World-fetters aU be riven, And joy with suffering blent I gave myself for thee ; Give thou thyself to me. V. SEAMEN'S HYMNS. I. FIERCE WAS THE WILD BILLOW. 2. JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL, 3. WHEN THROUGH THE TORN SAIL. 4. 'LISTED IN THE CAUSE OF SIN, S. / HEAR THE TEMPEST'S AWFUL SOUND. ORIGIN OF SEAMEN'S HYMNS. The principal seamen's hymn of the early church was that of St. Anatolius. It has lately been introduced into modern psalmody, being one of the happiest transla tions of Dr. John Mason Neale. Dr. Neale has not only clearly given the sense of the original, but has preserved the part of the Nicene creed — the " God of God," " Light of Light," and " Truth of Truth" — which it repeats. Its inspiration may have been drawn from the storms that beset the church, or from the tempests that darkened the Ionian seas. Fierce was the wUd bUlow, Dark was the night ; Oars labored heavily. Foam glimmered white ; Mariners trembled, Peril was nigh : Then said the God of God, " Peace ! it is I." Ridge of the mountain wave, Lower thy crest ! WaU of Euroclydon, Be thou at rest ! Peril can none be. Sorrow must fly. When saith the Light of Light, " Peace ! it is I." 15* 174 THE STOR Y OF THE HYMNS. Jesus, deliverer ! Come thou to me ; Soothe thou my voyaging Over life's sea. Thou, when the storm of death Roars, sweeping by. Whisper, O Truth of Truth, " Peace ! it is I." The origin of the best known sailors' hymns is inter esting, most of them being produced after perilous expe riences at sea. Perhaps no hymn is more sung on the water than Charles Wesley's, beginning, " Jesus, lover of my soul." It was written in 1740, shortly after Wesley's return from America to England, and during the first stormy scenes of his itinerant preaching. Whether the figures in the first stanza were suggested by the storms of the Atlantic, which the writer had but recently encountered, or by the storms of human passion, we cannot say. But most of the sea hymns of Charles Wesley were but the unfoldings of actual experiences. In his journal on the Atlantic, he thus describes his spiritual conflicts and tri umphs during a storm : " I prayed for power to pray, for faith in Jesus Christ, continually repeating his name, till I felt the virtue of it at last, and knew I abode under the shadow of the Almighty. The storm was at its height. At four o'clock, the ship made so much water, that the captain, finding it impossible otherwise to save her from sinking, cut down the mizen mast. In this dreadful mome.it, I bless God, I found comfort and hope, and )!>.: ¦ mi"- ^ 1 j. ¦ ¦> 1- ¦" -^ , j/l