GIFT OF L. Campbell m« 9{ — I-J M — I— ■»• -ft -cr- -5- ^_, sfe s "5T. =5±S *-^ o 5»" ^ see still clear-er, All thou art to me. Draw me with the cords of n 4 m.fS -g- d^rW r- t= F RF^F #-#- #- US love, Draw me up to things above. "While I sing, oh, may I be jp-' 42. M. -P- M. -PL K, 1= « >;j ■J-H F- -P-* u rit Drawn still clos-er, clos-cr to thee. Closer, TOT* closer to thee. l=--=f=f P=* Z± vx- rzr F h is- £J ^r Hymn by E. 31. Long continued. 33 As the eagles soaring, Higher and higher ascend, Thus, while Thee adoring, Upward I would tend. Further from earth and sin away, Nearer heaven's perfect day ; Even now, oh, may I be Drawn still closer, closer to thee. Closer, closer, closer to thee. As the river flowing, Ever draws nearer the sea, Thus would I keep going, Till I'm lost in thee. Daily advance and grow in grace, Till I see thee face to face, Then I'll sing eternally, Drawn still closer, closer to thee. Closer, closer, closer to thee. ;AYS Jesus, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. " The sainted Alfred Cookman remarked on his death- bed, " Jesus is drawing me closer and closer to his great heart of infinite love." To his wife he said, "I am Christ's little infant. Just as you fold your little babe to your bosom, so I am 'nestled close to the heart of Jesus. " Albert Barnes, commenting on Christians mounting "up with wings as eagles," says: "The image is de- rived from the fact that the eagle rises on the most vig- erous wing of any bird, and ascends apparently farther towards the sun. The figure denotes strength and vigor of purpose; strong and manly piety; an elevation above the world; communion with God, and a nearness to his throne — as the ea«;le ascends towards the sun." "Ah," said a dying soldier, "tell my mother that last night there was not one cloud between my soul and Jesus. " * C !/ 34 Henry Afford and Jus hymns. Alford and his Hymns. |EAN HENRY ALFORD was a son of an Episcopal clergyman of the same name. He was born in 1810, and closed his earthly career in 1871. He is widely known through his great work, "The Greek Testament with Notes." He began very early in life to "make his mark, " — at least his pencil marks. For in his memoir it is stated that when only six years of age he wrote and illustrated a book of fourteen pages, three inches by two in size. "The travels of St Paul from his Conversion to his Death, with a book of Plates. " When ten years old he made a more durable mark with ink, in a work that he wrote entitled : "Looking unto Jesus, or the Believers Support under Trials and Afflic- tions. By Henry Alford Jun. 1st edition." At this time he began to court the Muses, and in his eleventh year composed "A Collection of Hymns for Sun- dry Occasions." Among the number is one that begins — "Life is a journey, heaven is our home," and ends with this verse: — " Just as the school-boy longing for his home, Leaps forth for gladness when the hour is come ; So true believers, eager for the skies, Released by death on wings of triumph rise.'' The figure drawn from a school-boy's experience, came readily to him at this period; for at this time he was at- tending a new school he did not like, and had some symptons of that old complaint, called home-sickness. In his sixteenth year he wrote in his Bible, "I do this day, as in the presence of God, and my own soul, renew my covenant with God. and solemnly determine hence- forth to become His, and do His worK as far as in me lies." r =3J HENRY ALFORD. Alford's hymns continued. 37 ^ "Saying grace" ho did not simply reserve for meal time. But also as he obtained food for the mind. And so habituated did he become in this that as he clos- ed his books after a hard day's study, he would "stand up as at the end of a meal, and thank God for what he had received. " This early habit of acknowledging God in all his ways, of constantly looking for divine guidance was after- wards richly rewarded in his eventful life. It also found a natural expression in the beautiful hymn that he wrote when but sixteen years of age. A hymn well worthy to stand by the side of Williams' grand invocation: — " Guide me, thou great Jehovah." We are glad to meet with it in some American hymnals, lately issued. We give it herewith: — "Forth to the land of promise bound, Our desert path we tread : God's fiery pillar for our guide, His Captain at our head. "E'en now we faintly trace the hills, And catch their distant blue ; • And the bright city' s gleaming spires Rise dimly on our view. " Soon, when the desert shall be crossed, The flood of death past o'er, Our pilgrim host shall safely land On Canaan's peaceful shore. " There love shall have its perfect work, And prayer be lo>t in praise ; And all the servants of our God Their endless anthems raise. " His "Poetical Works" reached a fourth edition in 1865. In 1867 he issued acollection of hvmns entitled, " The Year of Praise,' of which 55 Avere of his own composition. One is found in nearly all collections, commencing, " Come, ye thankful people, come." c ( Bernard continued. 57 c by this favorite hymn, and his resuscitation was made known to them by his joining with them in the song. Bernard died in 115-3, being sixty-two years of age. Like Andrew, lie at "first findethhis own brother" and "brought him to Jesus." His father as well as his five brothers were among his first followers that lie led in the narrow way. Of his brother Gerard's death, he touchingly says, " Who could ever have loved me as he did ? He was a brother by blood, but far more bv religion God grant, Girard, I may not have lost thee, but that thou hast preceded me; for of a surety thou hast joined those whom in thy last night below thou didst invite to praise God; when suddenly to the great surprise of all, thou, with a serene countenance and a cheerful voice, didst commence chanting, ' Praise ye the Lord, from the heaven; praise Him, all ye angels" Bernard has been designated the honeyed teacher, and his writings a stream from Paradise. His heart seemed to overflow with love to Christ, of which in the first mentioned hymn, he says, — "Ah! this Nor tongue nor pen can show : The love of Jesus what it is, None but his loved ones know." The thoughts expressed by Bernard in this verso, were also forcibly brought out in a striking figure by one partially insane at Cirencester, in 1779. •' Could we with ink the ocean fill, Were the whole earth of parchment made, Were every single stick a quill, Were every man a scribe by trade ; To write the love of God alone, Would drain the ocean dry; Nor would the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. " 58 John Bcrridge and his hymns. Author of "0 happy saints, who dwell in light." IROMINENT among the workers that brought about the great revival of the eighteenth century was the Rev. John Berridge. He is described as " the salt of the church of England, and an instrument in God's hand of working revivals of religion within her pale, worthy of record with those that his compeers, White- field and Weslev, wrought without her." At nineteen he entered college at Cambridge, and be- came quite celebrated for his attainments, wit and humor. Though awakened in early life to a sense of his sinfulness, he entered the work of the ministry, without knowing the way of salvation. As six years passed around in his first charge at Staple- ford, England, without any souls being brought to Christ, he says, "God would have shown me. that /was wrong by not owning my ministry, but I paid no regard to this for a long time, imputing my want of success to the naughty hearts of my hearers, and not to my own naughty doctrine; that we are to be justified partly by our faith and partly by our works." In 1755 he removed to Everton, where there was a similar want of success. Until, as he says, "I began to be discouraged and now some secret misgivings arose in my mind that I was not right myself. Those misgivings grew stronger, and at last very painful. Being then un- der great doubts, I cried unto the Lord very earnestly. The constant language of my heart was this: 'Lord, if I am right, keep me so; if I am not right, make me so. Lead me to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.' Alter about ten days' crying unto the Lord, he was pleased to return an answer to my prayers, and in the following wonderful manner. As I was sitting in my house one morning, and musing upon a text of Scripture C -■ A! JOHN BK 11 RIDGE. Berridgc continued. 61 these words were darted into my mind with wonderful power, and seemed indeed like a voice from heaven, " Cease from thy works. " Before I heard these words my mind was in a very unusual calm; but as soon as I heard them my soul was in a tempest directly , and the iears flowed from my eyes, like a torrent. The scales fell from my eyes immediately, and I now saw the rock I had been splitting on for nearly thirty years. Do you ask what this rock was? Some secret reliance on my own works for salvation. " After his conversion, he says in relation to his preach- ing;, " I dealt with ray hearers in a very different man- ner from what I used to. " The effect was manifest at once. Soon one with a broken heart called upon him. " Why, what is the matter, Sarah?" he asked. " Matter ! I dont know what's the matter. Those new sermons. I find we are all to be lost now. I can neither eat, drink, nor sleep. I don't know what's to become of me." The same week came two or three more on a like errand. This sank him into the dust of self-abasement, to see what a blind leader of the blind he had been before. Immediately he burnt all his old sermons, and with tears of joy witnessed their destruction. The secret of his previous failures he expresses on thiswise: — "No wonder sinners weary grow Of praying to an unknown God, Such heartless prayer is all dumb show, And makes them listless, yawn, and nod.'' His warm heart now overflowed with emotion for perishing sinners. The church was awakened from its long sleep; some of his parishioners became angry; some opened their eyes with astonishment; while one and another bewail to come secretlv, and revealing a broken heart, would tell him their lost condition. r' — IB) JBerridge contin ucd. C Soon others came with the same story. His church became crowded. It is said: "The windows being - filled within and without, and even the outside of the pulpit to the very top, so that Mr. Berridge seemed almost stifled." Within a year as many as a thousand persons visited him, inquiring the way of life. He now began to visit and stir up the neighboring towns and villages. Being threatened with imprisonment, if he kept on preaching out of his parish, he replied that he would rather go to jail "with a good conscience, than be at liberty without one; adding there is one canon, my lord, which I dare not disobey, and that says, 'Go, preach my gospel to every creature." As churches could not always contain the great multi- tudes that flocked to hear him, he would resort to the open fields, as did his eloquent co-laborers, Whitefield and Wesley. The effect that often followed his preach- ing is described as truly remarkable. He had a tall and commanding figure, deep voice, a bold and impressive manner of speech, and a vivid fancy, that would often play around his utterances, as lightning about a cloud. Ten to fifteen thousand persons would often hang with breathless attention upon his weighty words as he portrayed the interests of time and eternity. His eccentricity no doubt helped to swell the number of his hearers. It is said that sometimes the curl of his lips and "the very point of his peaked nose" would seem to add to the effectiveness of his spicy sayings. But his quaint speech was always used as the diamond point on the arrow of truth, that helped to make it pierce far into the citadel of the heart. The slain of the Lord would be many after his use of the sword of the Spirit. Strong men would sink to the earth in great agony, and in a single year of "campaigning;" as many as four thousand would thus become "pricked in heart." Bcrrklgcs hymns. 63 An amusing story is told of Berridge while on a visit in the North of England. Stopping at a village where he must needs stay over the Sabbath, he requested the proprietor of the inn to let the "parson of the parish'' know that there was a clergyman stopping with him who would gladly assist at the service on the morrow. In reply to this statement the cautious shepherd re- marked to the landlord, "We must be careful, for you know there are many of those wandering Methodist preachers about. What sort of man is he?" "Oh, it is all right sir," was the answer, "just see his nose, sir, that will tell you he is no Methodist." "Well, ask him to call on me in the morning," said the rector, "and I shall judge for myself." At the morning call it is said, "the waggish and somewhat rubecund nose" disarmed prejudices.and opened the way to the pulpit, where he delivered a memorable discourse. " And fools, who came to sco3f, remained to pray." In 1785 he issued his "Sion's Songs, or Hymns com- posed for the use of them that love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," of which he says in the preface; " Many years ago, these hymns were composed in a six months' illness, and have since lain neglected by me, often threatened with fire, but have escaped that martyr- dom." Of the singing in his day, he says, " It has become a vulgar business in our churches. This tax of praise is collected, chiefly from an organ, or a clerk, or some bawl- ing voice in a singing loft. The congregation may listen if they please, or talk in whispers, or take a quiet nap." His hymns number three hundred and forty-two. We give five of the six verses of the one on " pleasures for evermore." This is thought to be his best, and is found in nearly all the church hymn-books of the present day : — C_ 7» 64 Berridffe's hyinns continued. "0 happy saints, who dwell in light And walk with Jesus clothed in white, Safe landed on that peaceful shore Where pilgrims meet to part no more. *' Released from sin and toil and grief, Death was their gate to endless life : An opened cage to let them fly And build their happy nests on high. "And now they range the heavenly plains, And sing their hymns in melting strains; And now their souls begin to prove The heights and depths of Jesus ' love." " He cheers them with eternal smile j They sing hosannas all the while; Or, overwhelmed with rapture sweet, Sink down adoring at his feet. " Ah, Lord ! with tardy steps I creep, And sometimes sing and sometimes weep ; Yet strip me of this house of clay, And I will sing as loud as they." As a specimen of some quaint verses that spice his collection, we give the following: — " But when thy simple sheep For form and shadows fight, I sit me down and weep To see their shallow wit, Who leave their bread to gnaw the stones, And fondly break their teeth with bones- Hymn number seven commences thus : — "With solemn weekly state The worldling treads thy court Content to see thy gate, And such as thert resort, But, ah, what is the house to, me, Unless the master I can see. Another contrasts the law and grace on this wise: — " Ran, John, and work, the law commands, Yet finds me neither feet nor hands; But sweeter news the gospel brings. It bids me fly, and lends me wings. Berriclge's hymn continued. 65 Although Berridge was never married, he has furnished a good marriage hymn, that is about the only one on that subject in most hymn-books. It commences, "Since Jesus freely did appear To grace a marriage feast, Dear Lord, we ask thy presence here, To make a wedding guest." His purse was as open as his heart, so that during his lifetime he gave away a fortune and all his patrimony. For four and twenty years he preached on an average ten or twelve sermons a week, and travelled a hundred miles. In a characteristic epitaph he thus epitomizes the events of his life. This, in accordance with his wish, was placed on his tomb-stone after death, with the date of the last line added : — "Here lie the earthly remains of John Berridge, late Vicar of Everton, and an itinerant servant of Jesus Christ, who loved his Master and his work, and after running his errands many years, was called up to wait on him above. "Reader, art thou born again? u No salvation without a new birth. "I was born in sin, February, 1716. "Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730. "Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1751. "Admitted to Everton vicarage, 1755. "Fled to Jesus alone for refuge, 1756. "Fell asleep in Christ Jesus, January 22, 1793. " He was in his seventy-sixth year when the summons of death suddenly arrived. A clergyman remarked, "Jesus will soon call you up higher." He replied, "Ay, ay, ay, higher, higher, higher." Once he exclaimed, "Yes, and my childien, too, will shout and sing, ' Here comes our father!'" ( - -B) GG Iloratius Bonar Bonar and his Hymns. ftflTlIEN the feet of the psalmist were taken "out of an cxb horrible pit and the miry clay," he says that there was also "put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God." After the escape from Egyptian bondage, and from the waters of the Red Sea, what was more nat- ural to God's Israel than the spontaneous outburst of praise upon the banks of deliverance. Iiow often the redeemed soul, while surveying the great salvation, has found the language of Bonar's three well-known hymns exactly suited to tell the story. AVhile sweetly led through "green pastures" how easy to sing along the banks of "the still waters" the hymn commencing, " I was a wandering sheep, I did not love the fold ; I did not love my Shepherd's voice, I would not be controlled." Or when nestled near the loving heart of Jesus, to recount his wondrous love in the hymn : — ■ " I heard the voice of Jesus say, — ' Come unto me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one ! lay down Thy head upon my breast.' "I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad ; I found in him a resting-place And he has made me glad." Even the smallest babe in Christ can tell the plan of redemption in the simple verse that makes up the hymn commencing, " I lay my sins on Jesns, The spotless Lamb of God." Our readers will surely need no invitation to gaze upon the pleasant features of Bonar's likeness that ac- r—- ffi HORATIUS BONAR. Bonars hymn continued. 69 company these remarks, and see in tliem that goodness of heart that is indelibly stamped upon all that he has written. The Rev. Horatins Bonar D. D. was born in Edin- burgh Scotland in 1808. He was set apart to the work of the ministry at Kelso, in 1837, and has continued his pastoral work at Edinburgh, since 1867. In 1843 he united with the Free Church of Scotland. His pen has been not only busy and fruitful, but far- reaching in its influence. His "Night of Weeping; or Words for the Suffering Family of God," reached its forty-fifth thousand already in 1853. A sequel, "The Morning of Joy," was issued in 1850. His precious work called "The Blood of Christ," has also gained a world-wide reputation. His hymns and poems issued in 1857, entitled "Hymns of Faith and Hope," reached an eighth edition in 1862, and were followed by a second series in 1861, and a third in 1866. A second series was published in 1861. His earnest life has been in keeping with the heart- wish so well expressed in his lines entitled, "Use Me:" — "Make use of me my God! Let me not be forgot; A broken vessel cast aside, One whom thou needest not. "I am thy creature Lord; And made by hands divine; And I am part, however mean, Of this great world of thine. "Thou usest all thy works, The weakest things that be; Each has a service of its own For all things wait on thee. "Thou usest the high stars, The tiny drops of dew, The giant peak and little hill; — My God, Oh use me too. " r s>) 72 Donars hymn. C "I was a Wandering Sheep." URING a revival in a female seminary in Massa- 1 ehusetts, many of the pupils had shown the natural "enmity" of the "carnal mind'' to spiritual things. Helen B was among those who noticed the Spirit's work only by a curling lip and a scornful laugh. It seemed in vain to talk with her, or seek to induce her to attend a prayer meeting. Christians could do nothing more than to pray for her. One evening, however, as a praying band had gather- ed, the door opened, and Helen B entered. Her eyes were downcast, and her lace was calm and very pale. There was something in her look which told of an inward struggle. She took her seat silently, and the exercises of the meeting proceeded. A few lines were sung, two or three prayers offered, and then as was their custom, each repeated a few verses of some favorite hymn. One follow- ed another in succession, until it came to the turn of the new-comer. There was a pause, and a perfect silence, and then, without lifting her eyes from the floor, she commenced, "I was a wandering sheep, I did not love the fold." Her voice was low, but distinct, and every word, as she uttered it, thrilled the hearts of the listeners. She re- peated one stanza after another of that beautiful hymn of Bonar, and not an eye save her own was dry, as, with sweet emphasis, she pronounced the last lines : "No more a wayward child, 1 seek no more to roaro ; ] love my heavenly Father's voice — I love, I love his home. That single hymn told all. The wandering sheep, the proud and wayward child had returned. Bonars hymn — I lay my .sins on Jesus. 73 C Comfort Sung to a Weary Teacher. X infant school teacher thus describes her experience : "I was not very well, and all my nerves seemed to be in a quiver. It was washing-day, with extra cares and labors. There was company in the house which must be entertained. There was fruit to be attended to — a duty that cannot be put off a single day. In fact there seemed to be everything to do, and the most of it must be done by my own tired hands. My head ached, too. " I went into the garden for a breath of fresh air, and behold, the long rains had brought out the weeds in un- precedented luxuriance. It would never do to leave those weeds. I went to work with a will — with more will than strength, indeed — and worked till I was utterly exhausted. Then I went into the house to resume my labors there, but I was weary and worn, and the com- plaining thought uppermost in my mind was, 'Must it be so always? Can I never, anywhere, find rest?' "As if in answer to my question, a little voice, clear and sweet, came from under the clustering vines in the next yard. It was the voice of one of my own little scholars, and she was singing to herself, one line of a favorite song she had learned in my class : — •' I lay my head on Jesus — I lay my head on Jesus. ' She repeated it over and over again. But it was enough. " When they were learning that song, I had told them they should go to Jesus whenever they were tired or sick or sorry, and they should lean their heads on him, and there they would find rest and peace. " It all came back to me. I tried then and there, weary and depressed as I Avas, to "lean my head on Jesus." I seemed to feel on my hot forehead the touch of his own hand in benediction, and the promised rest entered into my spirit » 1J 74 Origin of Mrs. P. II. Brown's hymn. "■;.'"-.. ., The Leafy Closet of Prayer C= LONG a mountain stream, skirted with trees and alders, £ near the village of Ellington, Connecticut. there was a well trodden foot path, that led from a cottage to a place of prayer. At the close of the day, a mother was wont to leave the cares of her family, and, in the quiet of this secluded spot, to hold sweet communion with God. One summer evening she was criticised by a neighbor for the seeming neglect of her family, and for this habit of stealing thus "a while away." When she returned home her heart was much pained at what had been said. So she at once took her pen and wrote an answer to the criticism. She headed it, "An apology for my twilight rambles addressed to a Lady." This mother was Mrs. Phoebe H. Brown. In 1824 she gave Dr. Nettleton permission to issue it in his "Village Hymns." The first verses of the orig- inal hymn commenced thus: — "Yes, when the toilsome day is gone, And night with banners gray Steals silently the glade along, In twilight's soft array — "I love to steal awhile away From little ones and care, And spend the hours of setting day In gratitude and prayer. " w - ,■"■•> 'Li' OS. « y^s PHCEBE H. BROWN. Mrs. Brown's hymn continued. ^ I One of the " little ones" for whom she was thus accus- tomed to pray is now the Rev Samuel Ii. Brown. D. D. who has been a most efficient missionary in Japan since 1859. What an example to praying mothers, and what an apt illustration of God's promises showing that those who resort to "the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" — that when we pray to him in secret he shall reward us openly. When it is known how true the language of thia hymn was, as the heart utterance of its author . and how truth- fully it expresses the inward emotion 01 every prayerful soul, it is no wonder that it finds a place in nearly all the standard hymn-books of Christendom. As long as Christians are like their Master, of whom it is said: " Rising up a great while before day he went out, and departed into a solitary place and prayed," they will also love to sing : — " I love to steal awhile away Prom every cumbering care, And spend the hours of setting dry In humble, grateful prayer. " 1 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. C{ I love by faith to take a view Of brighter scenes in heaven ; The prospect doth my strength rensw, While here by tempest 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 " c IW 78 Phoebe H. Brown. C The tune called " Monson " was composed for this hymn by her son, the Rev. Dr. Brown, who is "a lover of song and an admirable singer." William B. Brad- bury also wrote a tune expressly for this hymn, and named it "Brown," as a compliment to its gifted author- ess." One of the omitted verses of her hymn reads; — "I love to meditate on death, When will its summons come, With gentle power to steal my breath. And waft an exile home ? " We are indebted to Rev. Charles Hammond for the following particulars. He is in possession of her auto- biography, a manuscript volume of four hundred and twelve pages quarto, and a volume of her poems, nearly as large, besides many unpublished papers of equal value. Mrs. Brown was the wife of Timothy H. Brown of Monson, Mass. She was born at Canaan, N. Y., May 1st, 1783. Her father, George Hinsdale, having died suddenly of small-pox when she was but ten months old, she was placed in the care of her grandmother. In her autobiography written in her old age, Mrs Brown pays a tribute to the deathless impressions of her grandmother's instructions, in which she says, "the bright and sunny period of my first nine years has never been forgotten, nor can be undervalued while memory and reason retain their empire. " Being placed in other hands from the age of nine until eighteen her life was one of bondage, hardly less severe and hopeless than that of slavery itself. She lived in poverty, never went to school a day, and for years did not get to church, and was com- pelled through all the plastic period of youth to spend her time in unrequited toil, and in the most menial service. At the age of eighteen she "left the abode of her sorrows and managed to go to school, where, with little children, she learned to write for the first time, and to V Origin of " Lord! thy work revive." 79 sew, and some of the primary studies in a common-school education. Returning to Canaan, the residence of her childhood, she was most kindly cared for by the Whiting family, and with them shared in the results of a revival, which, near the beginning of the century, visited that region. No sooner had she learned to write with the pen mechan- ical lv, than she began to write as the composer of verses, and essays in prose. Her pen was never laid aside until extreme age and disease prevented its further use. Next to her "twilight hymn" in popularity was the one of which she left the following record : "Prayer for a Revival." This hymn was written from the impulse of a full heart, incidentally shown to a friend, that friend begged a copy for his own private use, but it soon found its way to the public in "The Spiritual Songs." The hymn is familiar to all commencing : — "0 Lord! thy work revive In Zion's gloomy hour, And let our dying graces live By thy restoring power." We need not wonder that to a, full heart, overflowing in such earnest cries, a speedy answer should be witnessed. For this verily followed the same year in the neigh- borhood from which her earnest petition ascended to the skies. The children growing up under the influence of so many prayers, did not disappoint a mother's wishes for positions of usefulness. The eldest daughter, Julia, was married to the Rev. Daniel Lord; the second to the Rev. Joseph Winn; the remaining daughter, Hannah, first to Mr. Lord of Connecticut, and after his death to Deacon Elijah Smith, now of Illinois. All her children are numbered with the departed, except the son in Japan. Not only at the close, but also at the dawn of day did r El 80 Mrs. Brown continued. she love to "steal a while away." Even when bending under the weight of old age, she wrote to a friend, saying, " I have risen before the light, that I may have a quiet hour for communion with my God and Saviour." In 1819, she wrote the following Morning Hymn for a sun- rise prayer meeting, held in Monson, during a season of revival: — " How sweet the melting lay, Which breaks upon the ear, When at the hour of rising day, Christians unite in prayer, " The breezes waft their cries Up to Jeliovah*s throne, He listens to their heaving sighs And sends his blessings down. 11 So Jesus rose to pray Before the morning light, Once on the chilling mount did stay To wrestle all the night. "Glory to God on high, Who sends his Spirit down To rescue souls condemned to die, And make his people one." By special request, she added a Mid-day Hymn, for the Fulton street prayer meeting, where it is often sung. It commences, ''Jesus this mid-day hour We consecrate to Thee; Forgetful of each earthly care, We would Thy glory see. " Some writers mention Monson, as the place where she wrote her twilight hymn. This is a mistake. On the original manuscript, in the hands of Mr. Hammond, she says; "Written at Ellington, Connecticut, in reply to a censure for Twilight Rambles, Aucmst 1818." Near the close of her pilgrimage, she penned these lines: "As to my history, it is soon told; a sinner saved by grace and sanctified by trials." Mrs. Brown's hymn illustrated. 81 Stealing Away to Jesus. «V brief circular, announcing the preaching of my II- £> lustrated Sermons, attracted the attention of little "" Minnie whose parents would nut permit her to go to any church or Sunday school, as they did not believe in Christ. Through her pleadings permission was given her to attend our services in the " Union Tabernacle " at Broad St. and Girard Ave., Philadelphia. Minnie made herself a little book in which to put down every wrong word and action during the day. Said she to her mother, " It seems as if my little page gets so full every dav, that it makes me feel very bad. I am so naugh- ty. It seems every thing I do, is sinful." Our meetings continued six weeks. Daily would Min- nie come, long before the time of service, and putting her hand in mine would look up so imploringly, asking the way to Jesus. We jrave her a little hymn book, which, with her lit- tle Bible, she kept in a little garret store-room, where she would go after service, saying, that she wished to be left alone. Her mother supposed it was in order to play, or read some favorite book, and never interrupted her; but after her death, her Bible and hymn-book were found lying there, having been evidently much read. Thus it became evident that this little disciple had been stealing away to this garret, to enjoy quiet and sweet communion with her Saviour. Two verses in Isaiah, she had emphasized, and then re- ferred to them especially on the fly leif of her Bible as expressive of her experience, " Behold, God is my Salva- tion : I will trust and not be afraid ; for the Lord Jeho- vah is my strength and song ; he also is become my salvation ; Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. " c 1 — "»J 82 Prayer "in the solitude so drear" rewarded. &? A Mother Recognized by a Hymn. AR was raging in Canada in 1754 between the French and English. The Indians took part with the French and came as far as Pennsylvania, where they burned the houses, and murder- ed the people. In 1 755 they reached the dwel- ling of a poor Christian family. The father and son were in- stantly killed. A little daughter, Regina., was taken, with many other children, into captivity. They were led many miles through woods and thorny bushes, that nobody could follow them. Regina and a little girl two years old were given to an old Indian widow. The poor children were forced tp go into the forest to gather roots and other provisions for the old woman ; and when they would not bring her enough, she would beat them in so cruel a manner that they were nearly killed. Regina continually repeated the verses from the Bi- ble, as well as the hymns which she had learned at home, and taught them to the little girl. And often would they retire to a tree and kneel down, when Regina would pray, and teach her little companion the way to Jesus. Often they cheered each other by the hymn, " Alone, yet not alone am I, Though in the solitude so drear. " In this sad state they remained nine long years, till Regina reached the age of nineteen, and her little com- panion eleven years. r !*• Incident of Mrs. John Ilartman and daughter. 83 r In 1764 the providence of God brought the English Colonel Boquet to the place where they were in captivity. He conquered the Indians and forced them to ask for peace. The first condition he made was that they should restore all the prisoners they had taken. Thus the two girls were released. More than four hun- dred captives were brought to Col. Boquet. It was an affecting sight. The soldiers gave them food and clothing, took them to Carlisle, and published in the newspapers that all parents who had lost their children might come and get them. Begina's mother came; but, alas! her child had be- come a stranger to her. Regina had acquired the appear- ance and manners of the natives, and by no means could the mother discover her daughter. Seeing her weep in bitter disappointment, the colonel asked her if she could recollect nothing by which her poor girl might be known. She at length thought of, and began to sing, the hymn, i " Alone, yet not alone am I, Though in this wilderness -so drear; I feel my Saviour always nigh, — He comes the weary hours to cheer. I am with him, and he with me; Even here alone I cannot be. " Scarcely had the mother sung two lines of it when Re- gina rushed from the crowd, began to sing it also, and threw herself into her mother's arms. They both wept for joy; and with her young companion, whose friends had not sought her, she went to her mother's house. Happi- ly for herself, though Regina had not seen a book for nine years, she at once remembered how to read the Bible. This narrative was recorded by Pastor Rone of Elsi- nore. M 84 Phcebe Cary and her hymns. Author of '' One sweetly solemn thought. " i HIS hymn, so precious to those whose affection is set on things above, was penned by Miss Phoebe Cary. She was born in the Miami Valley, Ohio, September 4, 1824. Early in life she and her sister Alice became so busy with their poetic pens, that by the year 1849 they had a volume ready for the press of which Phcebe made the following record : "Alice and I have been col- lecting and revising all our published poems to send to New York for publication. We are to receive for them one hundred dollars. " After the issue of this volume they were tempted to visit their unknown friends in the East, who had written kind words of approbation. Mr Whittiercommemorates their visit by a poem pub- lished after the death of Alice, which commences thus: — " Years since ( but names to me before, ) Two sisters sought at eve my door ; Two song-birds wandering from their nest A gray old farm house in the West." Speaking of the welcome he gave, he says: — " What could I other than I did ? Could I a singing bird forbid? Deny the wind-stirred leaf? Rebuke The music of the forest brook?" The wind that stirred their forest nest was some unpro- pitious gales that made home uncomfortable after the deatli of a mother, and unsuited to that intellectual ad- vancement they so much coveted. So with much courage and biit little money, the sisters bade adieu to the home of their childhood, and sought to make to themselves one in the city of New York. Having rented two or three rooms in an unfashionable neighborhood they began to do with their might, whatsoever their hands could do with the pen, to make a living. Success attended their efforts till they were enabled to purchase a home on r -~ S>/ , -%cz ^ Phoebe Carxfs hymn continued. 87 Twentieth street, from which they ascended in after years to their home above. The two sisters were united by the warmest affection. Phoebe said, " It seems to me that a cord stretches from Alice's heait to mine." When this cord was severed by the rude hand of death it left a bleeding wound which time could not heal. A shadow seemed to linger upon the hearthstone after the loved form of Alice was removed to the Greenwood cemetery that became the shadow of death to the surviving sister. How keenly she felt the departure of Alice can be judged from the last sweet hymn she penned, in which she says; — " mine eyes be not so tearful ; Drooping spirit, rise, be cheerful; Heavy soul why art tliou fearful? "Nature's sepulchre is breaking, And the earth, her gloom forsaking, Into life and light is waking! "0 the weakness and the madness Of the heart that holdeth sadness When all else is light and gladness! "Though thy treasure death hath taken, They that sleep are not forsaken, They shall hear the trump and waken. u Shall not he who life supplieth To the dead seed where it lietli Quicken also man who dieth ? "Yea the power of death was ended When He who to hell descended, Rose, and up to heaven ascended. " Rise, my soul, then, from dejection, See in nature the reflection Of the dear Lord 's resurrection. "Let his promise leave thee never: ' If the night of death I sever Ye shall also live forever.'" During the heat of the summer of 1871 she went to Newport hoping to revive her sinking frame but suddenly c' — ~~» 88 Phoebe Cary continued. *qg' and unexpectedly the summons came that called her to that home of which she wrote in her popular hymn: — "One sweetly solemn thought Comes to me o'er and o'er, I am nearer home to day Than I have been before." In the last year of her life she was much cheered by the incident, given on the opposite page. Writing to an aged friend, she says: "I enclose the hymn, and the story for you, not because I am vain of the notice, but because I thought you would feel a peculiar interest in them, when you know the hymn was written eighteen years ago, (1852,) in your house. I composed it in the little back third story bed-room, one Sunday morning, after coming from church; and it makes me happy to think that any word I could say, has done a little good in the world." After her death, Mr. Conwell received a letter from the old man referred to, of whom he says, that he "has become a hard working Christian, while 'Harry' has renounced gambling and all attendant vices, and thus the hymn has saved from ruin, at least two, who seldom or never entered a house of worship. " The thought of the following verse was exemplified in her death. Mary C. Ames, her biographer, says, "With- out an instant's warning, her death throe came. She knew it. Throwing up her arms in instinctive fright, this loving, believing, but timid soul, who had never stood alone in all her mortal life, as she felt herself drifting out into the unknown, the eternal, starting on the awful passage, from whence there is no return, cried, in a low, piercing voice: 'O God, have mercy on my soul!' and died." "0. if my mortal feet Have almost gained the brink ; If it be I am nearer home Even to-day than I think,'' etc. Phoebe Cary's hymn. 89 r~ Gamblers Reclaimed by a Hymn. CHOES of hymns reverberate a long while. Col. Russel H. Con well while on a visit to China, was an eye-witness to the following scene : — "Two Americans, one a young man, the other over for- ty, were drinking and playing at cards in a gambling house in China. While the older one was shuffling the cards, the younger began to -hum, and finally sung in a low tone, but quite unconsciously, the hymn : — " ' One sweetly solemn thought Comes to me o'er and o'er, I am nearer home to-day Than I have been before.' The older one threw down the cards on the floor and said; "' Harry, where did you learn that tune?' "'What tune?' " ' Why, that one you have been singing. ' " The young man said he did not know what he had been singing. But when the older one repeated some of the lines, he said they were learned in the Sunday School. " ' Come, Harry, ' said the older one, ' come, here's what I've won from you. As for me, as God sees me, I have played my last game, and drank my last bottle. I have misled you, Harry, and I am sorry for it. Give me your hand, my boy, and say that, for old America's sake, if no other, you will quit the infernal business. ' Mr. Con well says that both of the gamblers were per- manently reclaimed by the influence of this hymn. §* M) 90 John Ccnniclc. *0 " Jesus, my all to Heaven is gone. " f" HIS sweet hymn is said to have been a description of the author's experience. It was written by John Cennick, who was born at Reading in 1717. " As a youth he delighted in attending dances, play- ing at cards, and going to the theatre. " In 1735, while pacing the streets of London, he suddenly felt great con- victions of sin. At first he yielded to despair, was " weary of life, and often prayed for death." He fled to and fro, seeking rest in infidelity and open sin. At length he tried to rid himself of sin by penance. Says he, " I even ate acorns, leaves of trees, erabs, and grass." For three long years he groaned under the bur- dens of a guilty conscience. This thought lie expresses in the verses : — " This is the way I long have sought, And mourned because 1 found it not ; My grief a burden long has been, Because I was not saved from sin. The more I strove against its power, I felt its weight and guilt the more ; Till lute I heard my Saviour say, Come hither, soul, I am the way. " While reading Whitfield's journal light dawned upon his soul. In 1739 he commenced work for Christ, in teaching and preaching .among the colliers at Kingswood. Eventually he went along with Wesley and Whitfield in their preaching tonrs. In 1745 he cast his lot with the Moravians. In 1755 he was taken ill of fever and died in London. He is the author of the well known hymn, " Children of the Heavenly King." c Comtek's hymn illustrated. 91 ^f' "Now, I will tell to sinners 'round What a dear Saviour I have found. fEING much exhausted during the delivery of a course of " Illustrated Sermons " at Cleveland, Ohio, we proposed to meet any in a social gathering, on Sat- urday evening in the parlor of a friend. After spending the evening in general conversation, the group of young friends were about bidding each other "goodnight," when a little orphan, about ten years of age, of her own accord, arose at the sofa and said: "Mr. Long, before we separate, I would like to say something. " Breathless silence following, she added : " I have been seeking Jesus all day at home in my closet, and I have found Him, and I want my playmates to seek and find Him too. Let us pray." As we sank in that parlor, many tears at- tested the effect of that little pleading voice that was leading us at a throne of grace, and of the interest awak- ened by the unexpected testimony of one so young, whose heart was so full that she could not go home without tel- ling "'round what a dear Saviour" she "had found. " The next week she met a little ragged boy on the street, and was overheard saying to him, as she caught him by the hand, "Are you interested in Jesus?" "I guess I would be if I had anybody to tell me about Him. But I've got no mother." "Neither have I," said the little Mary, " but come to Jesus and he will take care of you. " At the close of an "Illustrated Sermon" in the Luth- eran church at Ashland, Pa., on going down the aisle, I saw a little girl getting up on the bench, that she might speak to me. As I drew near she wished me to bend over my head, that she might whisper a precious secret. As I did so, she said softly: "I've found Jesus." It came so joyously and sweetly from her lips that it left an echo that shall never cease from my memory. 92 William Coivper. Cowper and his Hymns. fILLIAM COWPER is a name that will linger ' upon the page of hymnology, as long as there are sinners upon the earth to sing of the "fountain filled with blood." lie was the son of the rector of Berk- hampstead England, the Rev. John Cowper. The poet was born November 1 5, 1 731 . One of the greatest misfor- tunes that ever befell him was the loss of an affectionate mother, when he was but six years of age. His father seemed ill adapted for the training of a child whose "shyness, nervousness and sensitiveness were greatly aggravated by feeble health, and weak eyes. We may infer his injudieiousness from the fact that when his boy was eleven, he made him read a treatise on suicide and give him his opinion upon it. " At 18 he began the study of law for which he did not seem to be naturally inclined, as he says he was "con- stantly employed from morning to night, in giggling and making giggle." A cousin having procured for him the "Clerkship of the Journals," he was notified to stand an examination at the bar of the House of Lords. The time appointed was. to him such an approaching "'day of terror" that its prospect weighed so heavily upon his frail tenement that at length it unsettled his reason. The dark November night preceding he made several attempts to commit suicide, first by taking poison. Twenty times he put the black phial to his mouth. His courage failing him he next tried to drown himself, then with a knife tried to stab himself, and at last with a cord tried to hang himself at the top of his door. But the cord breaking and other means failing the half-dead man now began to turn his eyes away from the bar of the House of Lords, to the bar of the King of Kings. At length his brother found him in his terrible agony, c 1) W: William Cowper continued. 95 his knees smiting together, and his quivering lips uttering the piercing cry, "Oh, brother, I am damned! Think of eternity, and then think what it must be to be damned." While in this condition he panned those piteous lines : — '• Man disavows and Deity disowns me Hell might afford ray miseries a shelter; Therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all Bolted against me. " It is sad to think how one, who has since poured into so many broken hearts the balm of Gilead, should have had his own wrung with what he called "unutterable sftiguish," and yet this bitter experience may have taught him afterwards to say with more emphasis of that fountain the " thief rejoiced to see," "And there have I, as vile as he, Washed all my sins away. " The Rev. Martin Madan, a cousin whom he had hitherto avoided came to him in this time of need, and told him of Jesus. As they were seated on the bedside Cowper burst, into a flood of tears, as a ray of hope flit across the dark horizon, but shortly afterwards actual brain disease came on that resulted in insanity, and poor Cowper was taken to St Alban's. Here it was that in less than two years he was restored mentally and saved spiritually, and in a double sense was found "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." In after years how exquisitely he described this experience in poetic form: — " I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since : with many an arrow deep infixed My panting side was charged. when v I withdrew To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. There was I found by One who had Himself Been hurt by archers. Tn his side He bore And in his hands and feet the cruel scars. With gentle force soliciting the darts, He drew them forth, and healed and bade me live. r W 96 William Coicper. •NET Cowper's Conversion and Hymns relating Thereto. TOWPER'S hymns were types of his varied experi- ences. Tliis was especially true of those referring to his new birth. July, 17G4, after being an inmate of the Insane Asyl- um at St. Albans for six months, he seated himself near the window, and seeing a Bible, took it up, and as he opened it, his eyes lit on Romans in. 25. The scales fell at once from his eyes. Says he, — ■ • Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon* me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in his blood, and all the full- ness and completeness of his justification. In a moment I believed and received the Gospel." These words he had doubtless said before, but only now he could say, "I saw;" thus illustrating the sen- timents of his exquisitely beautiful hymn beginning, — " The Spirit breathes upon the word, And brings the truth to sight." To this he refers, as he continues : — " Whatever my friend Madan had said to me so long before revived in all its clearness 'with demonstration of the Spirit and with power.' Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died of gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears and my voice choked with transport ; I could only look up to heaven in silence, overwhelmed with love and wonder. After this blissful experience, he composed his first hymn, which he entitled, " The happy change, " — " How blest thy creature is, God, When, with a single eye, He views the lustre of thy word, The day-spring from on high ! " r .W Cowpcrs hymns continued. 07 "But the work of the Holy Spirit is best described in his own words ; it was 'joy unspeakable and full of glory. ' Thus was my heavenly Father in Christ Je- sus pleased to give me the full assurance of faith, and out of a stony, unbelieving heart to raise up a child unto Abraham. How glad I should have been to have spent every moment in prayer and thanksgiving! I lost no opportunity of repairing to a throne of grace, but flew to it with an eagerness irresistible and never to be sat- isfied. Could I help it? Could I do otherwise than to love and rejoice in my reconciled Father in Jesus Christ? The Lord had enlarged my heart, and I ran in the ways of His commandments." This last thought he beautifully expressed in this — " My soul rejoices to pursue The steps of him I love, Till glory breaks upon my view In brighter worlds above. " " I should have been glad to have spent every mo- ment in prayer and thanksgiving! For many succeed- ing weeks tears were ready to flow if I did but speak of the Gospel, or mention the name of Jesus. To re- joice day and night was my employment. O, that the ardor of my first love had continued!" This thought he embodies in the well-known hymn, — " Oh, for a closer walk with God. " In which he says in the second and third stanza, — "Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and his word? "What peaceful hours I then enjoyed ! How sweet their memory still ! But now I find an aching void The world ean never fill. " #■ W 98 Cowper's hymns continued. Origin of Cowper's Second Hymn. tS" June 1765, Cowper, being restored to health, left the asylum at St. Alban's. Of his tour to Hunting- don, he says, "It is impossible to tell with how de- lightful a sense of his protection and fatherly care of me, it pleased the Almighty to favor me during the whole of my journev." Feeling his loneliness in his new home, and his heart at the same time yearning for communion with his newly found Saviour, he, at 'eventide, wandered forth in the fields, where he found a closet among the green shrubbery and bushes. While in this "calm retreat," and "silent shade," the gate of heaven seemed opened to his view, and the Lord gave him a glorious manifestation of his presence. The next day being the Sabbath his feet turned to the sanctuary. This was the first time he met with God's people in their Sabbath home, since his conversion. The story of the Prodigal Son was the lesson of the day. Cowper's heart was so full that he found it difficult to restrain his emotions. Of one, devoutly engaged in worship in the same pew, he says: "While he was sing- ing the Psalms I looked at him; and observing him intent upon his 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 the church services were over, he hastened at once to the secluded spot that had become so hallowed with the associations of the day before. "How," he exclaims, "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 converseth with his friend, except that my speech was only in tears of joy, and groanings which cannot be c Cowper 1 s second hymn. 99 MB" uttered. I could say indeed with Jacob, not how dread- fa!, but how lovely is this place! — this is none other than the house of God." This foretaste of heaven, in the "secret place of the Most High" gave rise to Cowper's second hymn, that has become incorporated in all the standard hymn books of Christendom. How precious and memorable the stanzas of the fol- lowing hymn when we thus take into account the sur- rounding circumstances that gave them birth: — " Far from the world 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 ; Aud seem, by thy sweet bounty made For those who follow thee. "There, if thy Spirit touch the soul, And grace her mean abode, Oh with what peace, and joy, and loTe, She communes with her God! "There like the nightingale, Bhe pours Her solitary lays, Nor ask a witness of her song, Nor tbirst3 for human praise." Speaking of Cowper at this period, Montgomery says : — "The first fruits of his muse, after he had been bap- tized with the Holy Ghost and with tire, will ever be pre- cious (independent of their other merits) as the transcript of his happiest feelings, the memorials of his walk with God, and his daily experience amidst conflicts and dis- couragements of the consoling power of that religion in which he had found peace, and often enjoyed peace to a degree that passed understanding." Cowper was a man of prayer, and Newton said of him, "No one walked with God more closely." 100 WilHain Cowper. Cowper's Olney Hymns- \$( )WPER had gone to Huntingdon to be near his brother, who was then studying at Cambridge. Here he made the acquaintance of the Unwins, who kindly received him as a member of their family, and became his warmest friends for life. After the death of Mr. Unwin in 1707, Rev. John Newton invited Cowper and Mrs. Unwin to move to Olney and secured a residence for them near his own dwelling. The twelve succeeding years became the happiest period of Cowper's life. Newton's estimate of Cowper's worth he in after years expressed in this strong language: — ''In humility, simplicity, and devotedness to God, in the clearness of his views of evangelical truth, the strength and the comforts he obtained from them, and the uniform and beautiful example by which lie adorned them, I thought he had but few equals. He was eminently a blessing, both to me and to my people, by his advice, his conduct, and his prayers. The Lord who had brought us together, so knit our hearts and affections, that for nearly twelve years we were seldom sepa rated for twelve hours at a time, when we were awake and at home. The first six I passed in daily admiring and trying to imitate him; during the second six I walked pensively with him in the valley of the shadow of death." Newton had a thousand parishioners. In the culti- vation of this extensive field of usefulness, he em- ployed every available instrumentality. He says: "We had' meetings two or three times in a week for prayer. These Cowper constantly attended with me. For a time his natural constitutional unwillingness to be noticed in public kept him in silence. But it was not very long before the ardency of his love to his Saviour, and his r B) Covyper's Ohiey hymns. 101 desire of being useful to others, broke through every restraint. He frequently felt a difficulty and trepidation in the attempt; but, when he had once begun, all difficulty vanished, and he seemed to speak, though with self- abasement and humiliation of spirit, yet with that free- dom and fervency as if he saw the Lord, whom he ad- dressed, face to face." Newton felt the need of hymns specially adapted to these prayer-meetings and the heart experiences of the common people, and so in 1770 he induced Cowper to undertake their preparation. Six years later, by their united efforts, these hymns formed a volume, and were sent forth to the world under the title of the "Olney Hymn Book." Among the first was the following one, so often re- peated since, in similar circles of prayer. When we remember that at this time such prayer-meet- ings in private houses, not specially dedicated to God was something new, and quite an innovation on old customs, we see great force and beauty, in the wording of this hvmn: — tt "Jesus, where'er thy people meet, There they behold thy mercy-seat; Where'er they seek thee, thou art found, And every place is hallowed ground. "For thou, within no walls confined, Inhabitest the humble mind; Such ever bring thee where they come, And going take thee to their home. "Dear Shepherd of thy chosen few, Thy former mercies here renew: Here to our waiting hearts proclaim The sweetness of thy saving name. "Here may we prove the power of prayer To strengthen faith, and sweeten care, To teach our faint desires to rise, And bring all heaven before our eyes.'' c: 102 William Cow per. Birth place of " There is a fountain filled with blood." Sit is interesting to trace the origin of our great rivers, that carry with them so many and such varied blessings in their meandering course, so the child of God finds it a pleasing and profitable exercise to go back in the streams of hymn-history to their humble starting point. As Christianity was cradled in a manger, so "Rock of Ages," one of its most famous hymns is tracea- ble to the conversion of its author amid the enclosure of an Irish barn. What a mighty stream of influence has swept through the world through the channel opened up by the singing of "Jesus, lover of my soul," yet it was born in a lowly spring-house, to which Wesley had fled for shelter from the infuriated mob. It was thus by the side of a little bubbling spring, he taught the world to sing of Christ, " Thou of life the fountain art, Freely let me take of thee." In the secluded shelter of some over-hanging trees and rocks that shaded a little brook, Mrs. Phoebe H. Brown was accustomed to resort in the summer of 1818, and co- mingle her voice in prayer and praise, with the soft mur- murs of the silver streamlet. That quiet nook gave birth to a hymn that has since been repeated the world over by the hosts of God's Israel, who with her can say, " I love to steal a while away. " The childrens' hymn, known and loved as far as the English language extends, " I think when I read that sweet story of old, " first echoed forth from an humble stage-coach in England, where it was written by a young lady in 1841. On the opposite page will be seen the little group in the Olney prayer-meeting, for which Cowper wrote his o 55 H o o H >• C « so Hi H w w "-3 as a O a B H o > 55 O o •X) M a Olney prayer-meeting. 105 immortal hymn, that has encircled the world with its hallowed influences. The Great House is especially designated as the place where the Olney prayer-circle was accustomed to gather for addresses, singing, and prayer. Little did Cowper imagine, when he first heard Newton announce, and this small praying band unite in singing, that "There is a fountain filled with blood," that there was starting a song that would afterwards be caught up by unnumbered millions, and that a century later, while his " poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave, " would still be repeated from the rising to the setting of the sun — and continue to echo round the globe "Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more. " We give the last of the seven verses of this precious hymn, as they are generally omitted : — "Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, Unworthy though I be. For me a blood-bought free reward, A golden harp for me. "'T is strung, and tuned for endless years, And formed by power divine, To sound in God the Father's ears No other name but Thine." These were days of sunshine in Cowper's spiritual firmament. Newton tells us how their voices came to blend, while singing of "the Lamb once slain." " I heard him and admired, for he could bring From his soft harp such strains as angels sing: Could tell of free salvation, grace, and love, Till angels listened from their home above; I woke my lyre to join his rapturous strain, We sang together ot the himb once slain. " V 108 Cowper's grave. *$=f A Visit to Cowper's Grave. " I went alone. 'Twas summer time ; And, standing there before the shrine Of that illustrious bard, I read his own familiar name, And thought of his extensive fame, And felt devotion's sacred flame, Which we do well to guard. " 'Far from the world, Lord, I flee.' How sweet the words appeared to me, Like voices in a dream ! 'The calm retreat, the silent shade,' Describe the spot where he was laid, And where surviving friendships paid Their tribute of esteem. "'There is a fountain.' As I stood I thought I saw the crimson ' flood,' And some 'beneath' the wave; I thought the stream still rolled along, And that I saw the ' ransomed ' throng, And that I heard the ' nobler song' Of Jesus' 'power to save.' '"When darkness long has veiled my mind,' And from these words 1 felt inclined In sympathy, to weep; But ' smiling day ' has dawned at last, And all his sorrows now are past; No tempter now, no midnight blast, To spoil the poet's sleep. " ' for a closer " — even so, For we who journey here below Have lived too far from God. Oh, for that holy life I said, Which Enoch, Noah, Cowper, led ! Oh, for that ' purer light ' to shed Its brightness on ' the road !' " ' God moves in a mysterious way ; ' But now the poet seemed to say, 'No mysteries remain. On earth I was a sufferer, In heaven I am a conquerer; God is his own interpreter, And he has made it plain.' " Cl^. . =B) Singing of Cowper's hymn. 109 The Hymn on which a Heart "Rose to God." IIILE Mr. Ralph Wells was hurrying to meet the cars, a Sunday school teacher hailed him, saying : I have just come from the hospital, where I found on one of the beds, one of my scholars, a lad who sent for me. I found that he had met with a terrible accident, that had nearly severed both his limbs from his body. " O teacher !" he said, " I have sent for you. I am glad you have come before I die. I have something to ask of you. I want you to tell me a little more about Jesus." " Well, my dear boy, have you a hope in Him ?" " Yes, teacher, thank God, I have had it for six months." " Why, you never said anything to me about it." "No, I did not, teacher, but I have had it, and I find it sustains me in this hour. I have only a few minutes to live, and I would like you to sing for me." "What shall I sing?" "Osing:— " There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains.' " The teacher began to sing. The dying lad joining in the song with a sweet smile on his countenance. "It was that hymn," said he, "among other things, on which my heart rose to Christ." He then put his arms up and said, "Teacher, bend your head." He bent it down. The dying boy kissed him. "That is all I have to give you," said he. "Good bye," and he was gone. c: bj HO Cowper's hymn continued. " There is a fountain filled with blood" Illustrated. ^OXTGOMERY thought the figure of a "fountain <£p filled " was faulty and ought to be represented as "springing up;" but the Christian world has not seen fit to adopt the substitute he proposed, which reads thus : — "From Calvary's cross a fountain flow3 Of water and of blood, More healing than Bethesda's pool, Or famed Siloa's flood. " A traveller, going over a mountainous region, through an accident, fell into a deep chasm, from which there seemed to be no way of escape. The sides were so steep that he could not climb up, and being so far away from the reach of human ears, he felt as if his cries were also in vain. While overwhelmed with the thought of im- pending ruin, he heard the murmur of a stream, that was stealing its way under the overhanging rocks. It seemed to be his only way of escape. As it was a matter of life and death, it did not take him long to decide to venture upon the stream of life. So he " plunged beneath that flood," and by its waters was carried out of "the horrible pit," into a place of safety. His life was thus saved; his fears were gone, and in the clear sunlight of free- dom, he went on his way rejoicing. " Lose all their guilty stains." A little girl expressed this thought very forcibly. She was asked: "Are you a sinner?" to which she promptly replied, "No, sir!" "Have you never done anything wrong?" " Oh, yes," she replied ; "a great many times." "How then can you say you are not a sinner?" "It is tooken away" said she, "I have trusted in Christ." c Cowpers hymn continued. Ill ■fljf Illustrated by a Death Scene. ^j T was our privilege to preach in the Tenth Baptist ^s Church, Philadelphia, during a season of revival in January, 1874. At the close of one of the evening meetings, Captain Timothy Rogers, long a member of the church, and one of the noblest and most faithful fol- lowers of Jesus, rose, and plead with sinners to come to the "fountain filled with blood." At the conclusion of his earnest address, the pastor, Rev. A. J. Rowland, an- nounced a hymn. Captain Rogers requested that this mi«;ht be changed to " There is a fountain filled with blood." "Yes," said the pastor, "let us sing Captain Rogers' favorite hymn, and while we sing, let us all rise. If there be any who would be cleansed in this precious "fountain," let them come forward to the front seats as we sing, and be remembered in a closing prayer. " All arose; among them Captain Rogers, who stood taller than all the rest, looking anxiously and tenderly over the room, to see who would accept the invitation. AVhile the words of the second verse' were being sung: — ■ " And there have I, as vile us he, Washed all my sins away," the captain suddenly sank, and fell on the floor. A number of the brethren, among them Dr. S. Brown, hastened to his side, and carried him into an adjoining room. Thinking he had fallen in a fit, that would soon subside, the audience kept on singing the hymn. As they were singing the last verse, '•Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing thy power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave," the pastor returned to the audience-room, and said: "Captain Rogers is dead." The scene that followed baffles description. A wail of sorrow burst from every c: 3 112 Cowper continued. ■€f lip, and, while some fainted, the sound of weeping was heard everywhere. In the subsequent meetings a num- ber referred to the death-scene, as the means of their awakening and conversion. It is a singular iact that Captain Rogers had frequently said to the chorister of the church : " When I lie on my death-bed, I want you to come and sing over me the hymn, " There is a fountain filled with blood." Although at the time, he asked for the singing of the hymn at this meeting, he had no idea of his death being at hand, yet it so happened, that under the sound of the singing of this hymn, led by this chorister, he passed away to mingle his praises with the singing hosts on high. Captain Rodgers was converted on his ship, while out at sea, and - so anxious was he to confess Christ at once, that, a Baptist minister being at hand, he had his yawl- boat lowered in the China sea, and using it as a baptistery, he was baptised in the presence of his crew, and of the British fleet that was anchored near by. He was truly a veteran of the cross, and died with the full armor on. How literally he illustrated the sentiment of the lines of the hymn on which he had been speaking, and to which he had referred as his last utterance on earth : — "E'er since by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die." A like occurrence took place w r ith Rev. Dr. Beaumont. He had just announced with quivering lips the verse: — "The lowest step above thy seat Rises too high for Gabriel's feet In vain, the tall archangel tries, To reach thine height with wondering eyes." AVhile it was being sung, he sank to the floor and died. r Bi Covrpers hymn. 113 •€T C "The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day ; And there have I, as vile as he, Washed all my sins away. " HILE preaching in Maryland, I was told of a thief L who was then and there rejoicing that the " fount- ain" was still open "in his day." The evening before the execution of a murderer, a de- voted Christian lady felt herself constrained to prolong her devotions on behalf of the culprit, before retiring. In her importunate prayer she mentioned thieves and similar characters as those for whom the atoning blood had been efficacious in apostolic times. Her soul was so stirred with sympathy, that she could not get asleep for a long time after going to bed. Toward midnight she thought she heard a noise be- neath her bed. At length she saw the head of a thief ap- pearing at the foot. Being alone and not near any of the family to whom she could call for help, she closed her eyes in silent prayer, and calmly trusted in divine aid for protection. The thief trod softly along the bed-side. To see if she was asleep, he bent over her pillow, coming so near that she felt his breath upon her face. He then quietly descended the stairway and endeavored to get out, but he could not find the key to the door, as that was kept in a secret place. While he was engaged in trying to escape, this Chris- tian heroine awoke a brother, and told him that there was a thief in the house who was striving to get out. Getting a lamp, they descended the stair-steps, when the light fell upon the face of the intruder, who was a man from the village whom they knew. He confessed that he came there to steal. Being unable to meet a note, due the next day, of three hundred dollars, he knew that 114 Cowpers hymn illustrated. C this lady had that amount. Supposing she kept it in her bed-chamber, he concealed himself under her bed, intending to search for it when she was asleep. But her prayer for thieves so completely disarmed him, and so convicted him of sin, that he resolved to seek pardon in the blood of the Lamb. After hearing his confession, the sister was so impressed with the genuineness of his contrition, that she told her brother to get the money and loan him the amount needed. He afterward not only repaid the money, but became an earnest Christian, and at the time of my visit was superintendent of the Sunday school of the village. J{EV. JOHN WESLEY was once stopped by a high- er wayman, who demanded his money. After he had given it to him, he called him back, and said : "Let me speak one word to you ; the time may come when you may regret the course of life in which you are engaged. Remember this: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." He said no more, and they parted. Many years afterwards, when he was leaving a church in which he had been preaching, a person came up and asked if he remembered being waylaid at such a time, referring to the above circumstances. Mr. Wesley replied that he recollected it. "I," said the individual, "was that man; that single verse on that occasion was the means of a total change in my life and habits. I have long since been attending the house of God and the Word of God, and I hope I am a Christian." ^FTER giving a black catalogue of criminals, among ) 122 Samuel Davics. Author of "Lord ! I am thine, entirely thine." QO fEV. SAMUEL DAVIES, D. D. was the author of a number of choice hymns. He was born in Dela- ware, November, 3, 1724. His devoted Christian moth- er, believing that he had been given in answer to her earnest prayers, named him Samuel. At fifteen he became an earnest Christian, and began his preparation for the work of the ministry. At twenty- two he was licensed to preach, and soon after entered upon a field of labor in Virginia, which extended over several counties.. Great success attended his arduous and self-denying labors, so that in three years time one of his feeblest churches increased to a membership of three hundred. He was described as a "model of the most impressive oratory. As his personal appearance was venerable, yet benevolent and mild, he could address his auditory, either with the most commanding authority, or with the most melting tenderness. He seldom preached without creating some visible emotion in great numbers present." In 1759, he was chosen president of the college at Princeton, New Jersey, as successor to the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. Six years previously, he had vis- ited England, and received large benefactions on behalf of this institution. His sermons abound in striking thoughts and richest imagery. They were issued in three volumes, to which was appended his poems." At the beginning of the year 1761, he preached on the words, "This year thou shalt die." A month latter, he himself was a corpse. He was but thirty-six when he was laid in his coffin. As his venerable mother gazed upon him, lying there, she said : "There is the son of my prayers, and my hopes — my only son — my only earthly support. But there is the will of God, and I am satisfied." r „.zzzr— g» Samuel Davies' hymn. 123 *tf Singing in Time of Peril. OW impressive was the singing of one of the hymns of Davies, as narrated in the Trophies of Song : — " A Christian captain, who had a Christian crew, was caught near a rocky shore in a driving storm. They were being driven rapidly toward the rocks, when he ordered them to 'cast anchor.' "They did so, but it broke. He or- dered them to cast the second. They did so, but it dragged. He then or- dered them to cast the third and last. " They cast it while the captain went down to his room to pray. He fell on his knees and said, ' O Lord, this vessel is thine, these noble men on deck are thine. If it be more for thy glory that our vessel be wrecked on the rocks, and we go down in the sea, 'thy will be done. ' But if it be more for thy glory that we live to work for thee, then hold the anchor.' Calmly he rose to return to the deck, and as he went, he* heard a chorus of voices singing : — " 'Lord, I am thine ! ' It seemed like an angel song. Reaching the deck, he found his brave men standing with their hands on the cable, that they might feel the first giving of the anchor, on which hung their lives, and looking calmly on the raging of the elements, as they sung ' with the spirit and with the understanding also: — ' " 'Lord, I am thine !' "The anchor held till the storm was past, and they anchored safe within the bay. " r 124 David Denhains hymn. Home, sweet, sweet home. " IjEV. DAVID DEXHAM a Baptist minister in Cg> England issued in 1837, the well known hymn of " Sweet Home/'commencing, " Mid scenes of confusion and creature complaints." He wrote this and much of his poetry for the religious magazines. His field of ministerial labor was Margate, London, and Cheltenham. Having in early life been called to his "sweet home" above he need no longer sin preachers fared roughly. A travelling minister was one evening reduced to the very verge of starvation. He had spent the preceding night in a swamp, and had taken no food for thirty -six hours, when he reached a plantation. He entered the house and asked for food and lodging. The mistress of the house, a widow with several daughters and negroes, refused him. He stood warming himself by the fire, a few minutes, and began singing a hymn commencing, — " Peace my soul, thou needest not fear ; The Great Provider still is near.'' He sang the whole hymn, and when he looked around they were all in tears. He was forthwith invited to stay not a single night, but a whole week, with them. Mr. Bushnell of Utica, JST. Y. had occasion to stop at a hotel in a neig-hborino; town. Some twenty men were in the bar room in which temperance was being de- nounced as the work of priests and politicians. Mr. Bushnell, finding it impossible to stem the current of abuse by an appeal to their reason, proposed singing a temperance song, and accordingly commenced the " Stanch Teetotaller. ' ; On glancing around the room after he had concluded, he observed the tear trickling down the cheek of almost every man. The song carried their thoughts back to their families and firesides, surrounded as they once were with plenty but now with poverty and disgrace. Those hardened men could but acknowledge its truth by tears. Soon after the landlord came in, and' he repeated it lor his special benefit. After Mr. Bushnell had concluded, he grasped him by the hand, and exclaimed, " / will never sell another glass of liquor as lone/ ets 1 live. " g> V- 128 Philip. Doddridge. 132 Humor of Doddridge. Doddridge is described as a man " above the middle stature, extremely thin and slender. His sprightliness and vivacity of countenance and manner commanded general attention in the pulpit and private circles. Mr. Hervey, speaking of spending a night with him at Northampton, says: "I never spent a more delightful evening, or saw one that seemed to make nearer ap- proaches to heaven. A gentleman of great worth and rank in the town, invited us to his house, and gave us an elegant treat; but how mean was his provision, how coarse his delicacies, compared with the fruit of my friend's lips! — they dropped as the honey-comb, and were a well of life." Doddridge possessed a vein of humor that would some- times reveal itself through his pen. His daughter having had a thorn pierce her foot one day, he gent her these lines: — " Oft I have heard the ancient sages say The path of virtue is a thorny way : If so, dear Celia, we may surely know Which path it is you tread, which way it is you go." This was the little daughter who was asked, how it was that everybody loved her, when she answered: "I know not," " unless it be that I love every body." To one of his pupils, whose weak imagination had led him to think that he had invented a machine by which he could fly to the moon, he sent these lines: — ■ " And will Volatio leave this world so soon To fly to his own native seat, the moon? 'Twill stand, however, in some little stead That he sets out with such an empty head." Dr. Johnson, who had been styled "the Old King of Critics," said that the following lines, written by Dod- dridge on his family arms, Dum vlvimus vivamus, was the finest epigram in the English language: — r & DOUDHIDCiE S MOTIIKli TEACHING HIM. Doddridge continued. 135 "'Live while you live,' the epicure would say, ' And seize the pleasures of the present day.' 'Live while you live,' the sacred preacher cries, 'And give to God each moment as it flies.' Lord, in my view let both united be: I live in pleasure when I live to thee. ' Of tin's "pleasure," he made frequent mention in his diary, and letters. After a season of sickness, he wrote: — " It is impossible to express the support and comfort, which God gave me on my sick-bed. His promises were my continual feast. They seemed, as it were, to be all united in one stream of glory, and poured into my breast. When I thought of dying, it sometimes made my very ' heart to leap within me." "Awake, my soul, to meet the day," was written by Doddridge, who arose every morning at 5 o'clock. It was entitled, "A Morning Hymn, to be Sung at Awaking and Rising." His custom was to spring out of bed, while using the words of the sixth verse, commencing, "As rising now," &c. His Com- munion Hymn, is much used ; the first stanza reads : — 'My God! and is thy table spread? And does thy cup with love overflow? Thither be all thy children led, And let them all its sweetness know." Of this "sweetness" he speaks on this wise, after drinking from the cup of affliction, occasioned by the death of a much-loved daughter : — " I recollected this day, at the Lord's table, that I had some time ago, taken the cup at that ordinance with these words, 'Lord, I take this cup as a public solemn token, that, having received so inestimable a blessing as this, I will refuse no other cup which thou shalt put into my hands.' God hath taken me at my word, but I will not retract it; I repeat it again with regard to every future cup, much sweetness is mingled with this potion." C i 13G Doddridye's hymns. When, through excessive labor, a deep seated con- sumption so enfeebled him, that he was hardly able to speak or move his dying body, the following incident oc- curred that illustrates the verse of one of his best hymns : — "When death o'er nature shall prevail, And all its power of language fail, Joy through my swimming eyes shall break, And mean the thanks I cannot speak." "What, in tears again, my dear doctor," said Lady Huntingdon, as she entered his room and found him weep- ing over the Bible lying before him. "I am weeping, madam," he faintly replied, "but they are tears of joy and comfort. I can give up my country, my friends, my rel- atives, into the hands of God; and as to myself, I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon, as from my own study at Northampton." This calm resignation he had beau- tifully expressed in his hymn: — '• While on the verge of life I stand, And view the scene on either hand, My spirit struggles with its clay, And longs to wing its flight away. Where Jesus dwells my soul would be; It faints my much-loved Lord to see; Farth ! twine no more about my heart, For 'tis far better to depart." " My profuse night-sweats " says he, a are weakening to my frame; but the most distressing nights to this frail body have been as the beginning of heaven to my soul. God hath, as it were, let heaven down upon me in those nights of weakness and waking. Blessed be his name." It was thus, from blissful experience, he could say, in the language of his hymn: — " When, at this distance, Lord! we trace The various glorii s of thy fac ', What transport pours o'er all our breast, And charms our cares and woes to rest!" Doddridge continued. 137 Doddridge yielded to the advice of his friends to go to the warmer climate of Lisbon, for the winter of 1751. "I see indeed no prospect of recovery," said the dying man, "yet my heart rejoiceth in my God and my Saviour, and I can call him, under this failure of every thing else, its strength and everlasting portion." "On the 30th of September," writes one of him, "ac- companied by his anxious wife and servant, he sailed from Falmouth ; and, revived by the soft breezes and the ship's stormless progress, he sat in his chair in the cabin enjoying the brightest thoughts of all his life. 'Such transporting views of the heavenly world is my Father now indulging me with, as no words can express,' was his frequent ex- clamation to the tender partner of his voyage." When the ship was gliding up the Tagus, and Lisbon, with its groves and gardens and sunny towers, loomed up in the distance before him, the enchanting scene brought vividly before his mind that city which hath foun- dations, of which he so sweetly wrote in one of his hymns : — "See! — Salem's golden spires, In beauteous prospect, rise, And brighter crowns than mortals wear, Which sparkle through the skies." Two weeks after the vessel landed at Lisbon, he ex- changed the shores of time for the sunny plains of the Canaan above. The " peace of God which passeth all un- derstanding" smoothed his dying pillow and spread such a halo of o;lorv around his death-couch, that his afflicted wife could sit down afterwards and write to her children, saying : "Oh, my dear children, help me to praise Him. Such supports, such consolations, such comforts has he granted, that my mind at times is astonished and is ready to burst into songs of praise under its most exquisite distress." 138 Philip Doddridge. r Origin of Doddridge s Hymns. jODDMDGE possessed great versatility of talent. As, in his day, there was not a great variety of hymns adapted to the different subjects of discourse, he was accustomed, while his heart was aglow with the com- position of his sermon, to arrange the leading thoughts in a hymn. This was sung at the close of his preaching, and served to give emphasis to his utterances, and to fix the truth more indelibly in the minds and upon the hearts of his hearers. For instance, after a sermon on the words, "Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious, " he gave out the sweet hymn he had prepared : — "Jesus, I love thy charming name; Tis music to mine ear: Fain would I sound it out so loud, That earth and heaven could hear." After preaching on the text, "There remaineth there- fore a rest to the people of God," he announced the fa- vorite Sunday hymn, beginning, "Lord of the Sabbath hear our vows." As now in use, the hymn is often made to commence with the second verse : — "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." The Rev. Dr. James Hamilton, referring to these hymns thus originated, says: — " If amber is the gum of fossil trees, fetched up and floated off by the ocean, hymns like these are a spiritual amber. Most of the sermons to which they originally pertained have disappeared forever; but, at once beautiful and buoyant, these sacred strains are destined to carry the devout emotions of Doddridge to every shore where his Master is loved and where his mother-tongue is spoken." Doddridge continued. 139 Doddrige led by a Special Providence. |lj REAT events often turn on a small pivot. The field of Doddridge's great usefulness was Northampton, yet he felt quite reluctant to go there, when the call was first extended, because of his sense of weakness and unfitness. Anions; the means, which Providence used to de- cide the question, he mentions the following: — On the last Sunday in November, 1729, he went to Northampton to decline the call, and, as he says, "to dispose them to submit to the will of God in events, which might be most contrary to their views and inclin- ations." To this end, he had arranged a sermon on the text, "And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, ' The will of the Lord be done." But he adds : — "On the morning of that day, an incident happened, which affected me greatly. Having been much urged on Saturday evening, and much impressed with the ten- der entreaties of my friends, I had, in my secret devotion, been spreading the affair before God, though as a thing almost determined in the negative; appealing to Him, that my chief reason for declining the call, was the ap- prehension of engaging in more business than I was ca- pable of performing, considering my age, the largeness of the congregation, and that I had no prospect of an assistant. As soon as ever this address ended, I passed through a room of the house in which I lodged, where a child was reading to his mother, and the only words I heard distinctly were these, ' And as thy days, so shall thy strength be" This seemed a voice from heaven, he afterwards accepted the call and wrote of hie charge : — "'T is not a cause of small import The pastor's care demands! But what might fill an angel's heart, And filled a Saviour's hands." *• c w 140 Doddridge* s hymns. *0 p foreign missionary field, where, two years later she sank into the grave, in the thirty-fourth year of her age. "Tell my friends," said she, "I would not for all the world lay my remains anywhere but here, on mis- sionary ground." Of her triumphant death, an eye- witness wrote: — " We sung the first verse of that beautiful hymn of Doddridge, on the eternal Sabbath: — '"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.' "To my surprise, her voice, which she had so long been unable to use for singing, "was occasionally heard minerling with ours. Her face beamed with a smile of ecstacy; and so intense was the feeling, expressed in her whole aspect, that we stopped after the first verse, lest she should even expire while drinking the cup of joy, we had presented to her. But she said to us ' Go on ; ' and, though all were bathed in tears, and hardly able to articulate, we proceeded to sing : — '"No more fatigue, no more distress, Nor sin, nor hell shall reach the place; No groans to mingle with the son^s. Which warble from immortal tongues,' "T was sitting with her hand in mine. While singing this second verse, she pressed it, and turned to me at the same time such a heavenly smile as stopped my utterance. Before we reached the end, she raised both her hands above her head, and gave vent to her feelings, in tears of pleasure, and almost in shouting. Afterwards she said, 'I have had a little glimpse of what I am going to see It seemed a glorious sight.'" I c: u An incident. 141 The Hymn-prayer at the Gate. ^T the close of an "Illustrated Sermon" inquirers and ( eb others were invited to retire to an adjoining room for prayer. As many rilled t lie room and were disposed to take the prodigal's first step homeward, for the encour- agement of such, a stranger, an old gentleman from the South, arose and said : "Over ibrty years ago, during a season of similar awakening in Virginia, a young prodi- gal felt it was time for him to start home, lie had never been accustomed to pray and felt afraid to venture near the Majestic Ruler of the universe. He was then attending an academv, a mile distant from his father's house. Taking a short cut through the fields to his home, he thought he could possibly find some suitable place to unburden his heavily-laden heart in prayer. " As he beheld a retired spot in the fence-corner, he con- cluded to open his lips there. But his courage failed him, and he said to himself, 'In the distance is a big, white oak tree; that will shield me.' But when under the tree his stubborn will would still not yield. A fork in the road and nearly a dozen other places he tried, but when he drew near to them, the tempter also drew near, and caused postponement, until at length he got to the gate at the head of the lane leading to the house. This was the last resort where he could pray unseen. It seemed to him as the turning point. As he sank at Jesus' feet, a hymn came to his lips as the language of his heart, and so he cried out: — ' : ' Show pity, Lord ! Lord, forgive ; Let a repenting sinner live. ' The six verses of that hymn-prayer decided his destiny. He became a minister, lias been preaching many years, and is now the old man you see before you." c 142 Doddridge's hymn. r " happy day that fixed my choice." OINING the church is often at- tended with the singing of this expressive hymn, written by Philip Doddridge. The fourth verse was once the means of bringing peace to an anxious soul, as thus described by an English writer; — " It was my happiness some time since to be a guest in a fam- ily. One morning I saw one of the servants in the deepest exercise of soul about her salvation. She had been singing that hymn, — " ' Now rest my long divided heart, Fixed on this blissful centre rest ; "With ashes, who would grudge to part, When called on angels' food to feast. '' " I saw her troubled. She felt she had not loved God enough, or prayed enough, or wept enough. I knew she was occupying her mind about herself, and that she did not see what Christ was. I remarked that self was mere ' ashes. ' I asked why not part with the condemned doomed ashes of self, and believe in Jesus ? It was dur- ing the family service I saw her countenance so change from its old sadness into happiness and joy; and I thought — What a revulsion is taking place in that mind ! and, wishing to know for myself, I called her aside into the drawing-room. I said, 'You seem happy now.' ' I am happy, ' was the reply. ' What has made you happy?' 'Oh, I did just what you told me to do. I put myself down to the third chapter of John. ' ' What do you mean ?' ' Why there where it says, ' God so loved the world. ' 'Yes, but was that a world of saints ii Doddridge's hymn continued. 143 r or of angels ? ' l No. ' ' What was it then ? ' < A world of sinners. Then I put myself down into that world and I found God loved me, and had given his Son for me. ' " THIS hymn is often used as fitly describing the birth- day into the kingdom, and is in this respect like the one Wesley wrote : — "0 for a thousand tongues to sing, " which he styled, " For the anniversary oj 'one's conversion.^ In 1871, there was an extensive revival in Wisconsin, and in one church they adopted the plan, whenever on an evening, a sinner decided to be Christ's, the audience united in singing : — "Oh, happy day that fixed my choice On Thee, my Saviour and my God. " " After the third night, there was the blessed privi- lege of singing it every evening for fifty days, for one or more, in whom this purpose was newly formed : and many were led to make the choice while it was sung. " The chorus and tune of " Happy day, " became wed- ded to this hymn, and was everywhere and frequent! v sung during the great revival in 1858. A Maine phys- ician was requested to certify to what is said in the sec- ond verse, — '"Tis done, the great transaction's done; I am my Lord's, and He is mine, " when he answered, " I can certify to all but the the last words. I can say 'lam the Lord's,' but cannot say 'He is mine. ' I have no consciousness of his accept- ance of me. " And yet his experience verified the Scrip- ture statement, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the month confession is made unto salvation. ' For the moment he opened his mouth and made this confession, he realized the sweet assurance, and afterwards could say, " He is mine. " V 144 Doddridge's hymn. r "/.wake, my soul, stretch every nerve, And press with vigor on : A heavenly race demands thy zeal, And an immortal crown. " MINISTERIAL brother says that when a child he *eP heard a sermon on the text, "So run that ye obtain," and hearing the members so urgently exhorted to engage in a race, he thought it was going to take place right after the service. Greatly did he feel disappointed, when, having hastened out of church to get a good posi- tion on the fence, from which he could get a good view of the racers, he found that they did not "run a bit." In Cunningham valley, Pa., we had literally such a race at the close of preaching. The church consisted of but. one audience-room, and that was wedged so full of hearers, that it was impossible in a prayer-meeting service to speak to those who desired to make known their anxieties, and to seek special advice. So we secured three rooms at a hotel a few squares distant. But these, proving inadequate to hold all, there was a regular race at the close of each service to gain admittance. As there was a thaw in mid-winter, and the roads un- paved, it was an amusing sight to see the audience splash- ing through the mud on a regular trot, — men, women and children running as for their lives. What still added to the impressiveness of the scene was the fact that the tavern sign, swinging on its rusty pivots over our heads as we entered the tavern, screeched most piteously, as if it were uttering the death groans of King Alcohol, and so they proved to be. Most of the inmates of the landlord's family becoming subjects of grace, the sign-post was cut down after the close of our meeting, and the building was afterwards used for other purposes. D Doddridge $ hymn illustrated. 145 r A Hymn of One Word. tN an article concerning the Bedouin Arabs, in the Christian Standard, Dr. Stephen Fish gives the origin of a hymn made up of one word. Says he : " Many Bedouin Arabs have embraced the Christian re- ligion. Mr. M. Roysce, of Jerusalem, gave me a very interesting account of the conversion of an Arab whom he knew to be a poet. Soon after he was converted Mr. Roysce was anxious to see if he would write relig- ious poetry. He requested Suleiman to court the Muses, and compose for him a poem on the duties of the Christ- ian missionary, and he did so, and wrote the following : — " Taiyib, taiyib, taiyib, taijib, Taiyib, taiyib, taiyib, Taiyib, taiyib- taiyib, taiyib, Taiyib, taiyib, taiyib." " Any trivial sentiment would not bear repeating quite so many times, but the translation of ' Taiyib ' is ' Go on, ' and the Arab, zealous in his new life, could think of nothing but going ahead in it and growing better and better. " fO a discouraged Christian who was about to give up some good work because he saw no results, a fellow laborer remarked, " I'll give out a hymn and you sing it. It is common metre. " The verse above translated in English was the one announced : — " Go on, go on, go on, go on, Go on, go on, go on, Go on, go on, go on, go on, Go on, go on, go on. " The advice thus given was heeded. The weary one did "go on, " and glorious results followed. W 146 Doddridge's hymn. A Revival Started by Singing- a Hymn. prayer-meeting of a country village was attended by but few during a season of coldness. The pastor Mas absent, his place being supplied, by one of his deacons, who, for months past, had been deeply mourn- ing in secret the sad decline. Dr. Belcher says : " The hymn he selected with which to commence the service was the one : — " ' Hear, gracious Faviour, from thy throne, And send thy various blessings down. ' Two or three verses were sung to an old tune, till the good deacon came to the last, which thus reads. The reader will observe especially the last two lines: — " ' In answer to our fervent cries, Give us to see thy church arise; Or, if that blessing seem too great, Give us to mourn its low estate. ' AVhile reading this verse, the good man paused: it evi- dently did not exactly accord with the feelings of his soul : it was not the expression of his prayer. He in- dulged a moment's thought, — swift and excellent : an alteration suggested itself, — his eye sparkled with joy, — and out it came: — " ' In answer to our fervent cries, Give us to see thy church arise ; That Massing, Lord, is not too great, Though now we mourn its low estate. ' Every heart was arrested, and sudden emotion so over- powered all in the little assembly that they could scarce- ly sing the words ; but each in silence gave to the senti- ment his own earnest amen. They happily proved it to be true. From that evening a revival began : the church arose from its slumber to new faith and works; and very soon the windows of heaven were opened and a plenitude of blessings was showered down, which con- tinued lor several years." ;& Doddridge's hymn. 147 *M' Heaven as Represented in Song. WRITER says in the Ladies' Repository : " Mr. Editor, in your notes on Sunday school songs you quote from one of our hymn-writers the lines — "'0 Golden Hereafter! Thine ever bright rafter Will shake in the thunder of sanctified song. ' "Can you kindly refer me^u the author and his place of residence, that I may write to him? "He seems to possess information which I have been unable to get from rny pocket Bible, and it is possible that he can relieve my anxiety about the ' Golden Here- after.' " What I want to know is, whether there is any danger of the plastering or timbers tumbling down when the rafters shake. Yours in affliction. " After a thirty years' residence in Jamaica, a missionary remarks, "One who knows what it is to be exposed to the sun of the torrid zone, shudders to read the lines of Doddridge, describing Heaven: — " ' No midnight shade, no clouded sun, But sacred, high, eternal noon. ' " The idea is intolerable. It terrifies one to think of it. The man who wrote the lines must have lived far north, where the glimpse of the sun was a rare favor, and his highest enjoyment to bask in its rays a live-long sum- mer day. "I met once in Jamaica with a black boy, under the shade of a cocoa-nut tree, where we both had taken shelt- er from the glare of the meridian sun, and the dazzling sea-side sandy road. I said, 'Well, my lad, did you ever hear of heaven? ' Me hear, Massa.' 'And what sort of a place do you think it will be?' ' Massa, it must be a very cool place. ' 5 V C =g>J 148 Duffield's hymn. *f' Origin of "Stand up! stand up for Jesus." jURIXG the revival period of 1858, the watchword of Christ's army seemed to be the message of one of her fallen heroes, the Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, who, when suddenly, in the vigor of early manhood, was stretched out upon a death-bed, said, as his parting words to his brethren, "Stand up for Jesus." Under their in- spiration the Rev. George Duffield composed the popular hymn : — "Stand up! stand up for Jesus," to be suns: after his sermon on the Sabbath mornino; fol- lowingthe sudden death of Mr. Tyng in thespringof 1858. Shortly before his departure he delivered a memorable sermon in Jayne's Hall, Philadelphia, on the text, "Ye that are men now serve Him," in which the slain of the Lord were many. Mr. Duffield has embraced these words in quotation marks in the verse: — " Stand up ! stand up for Jesus ! The trumpet call obey. " Forth to the mighty conflict In this his glorious day: 'Ye that are men, now serve him' Against unnumbered foes; Tour courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose." During our meetings in the Union Tabernacle at Quakertown, in the fall of that year, we sang and often referred to those words. One morning the parents of a little girl Avere awakened by the repeated call of their little girl in the cradle, whose pleading voice kept saying, "Papa! mama! Pa-pa! ma-ma! Mis-ser Long say 'Tan up — tan up for Y-e-s-u-s. " This little stammering voice went so deep down in the hearts of the parents that in the evening of the same day c M Duffield's hymn illustrated. 149 C my Jesus." When the swearer heard the reproof, it pierced his heart, and was the means of his reformation. Some commentators say that the verse in Exodus, xvn. 9, should be translated to read, "To-morrow I will take my stand on the top of the hill, and the staff of God in hand." they did "Stand up for Jesus," and after soliciting an interest in the prayers of God's people, became at length earnest and decided soldiers of the cross. A gentleman gave a card to a little girl, one day, in a railroad car. Supposing that she could not read, he said : " This card says, ' Stand up for Jesus.' " " Docs it? " said she. And as if acting under heavenly impulses, she went along the row of seats, saying to each one, "Stand up for Jesus! Stand up for Jesus!" When she got down one side, she turned around, and coming up the other side, repeated the same words, "Stand up for Jesus! Stand up for Jesus!" The unusual sound of such words, in such a place, and their frequent repetition, produced a deep impression on many. Her mother leaned over and wept as a child, and thereby was induced to seek the pardon of her sins. Two weeks later, she united with the church, and afterward did " Stand up for Jesus." Another little one took a noble stand for Jesus, in the overflowings of her heart. A man, given to profanity, called at her father's house, one day, and in his conver- sation, dropped an oath. It fell like a hot coal of lire upon the tender conscience of the child, and so she burst out crying, as if severely hurt, and left the room. "When the cause was inquired into, she sobbed out, "He cursed my "Would that on all the hilltops of Zion, there were Moseses who would unfurl the banner of the cross, and take a stand for Jesus. " Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross.'' w 150 Timothy Dwight. Author of "I love Thy kingdom, Lord." 'HIS hymn was issued in 1800 by Timothy Dwight, D. D.. who was also the author of another hymn : — "While life prolongs its precious light, Mercy is found and peace is given. " He was born in Massachusetts in 1752. His father was a merchant, his mother a daughter of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. She began in early infancy to en- lighten his conscience and make him afraid of sin. These impressions became permanent. Such was his eagerness and capacity, that he learned the alphabet at a single lesson, and already "at the age of four could read the Bible with ease find correctness." At eight he was so far advanced in his studies that he would have been ready for admission into Yale college, and when he actually did enter at thirteen, he was already master of history, geography and the classics. At sev- enteen he graduated. Devoting fourteen hours daily to close study, his sight was irreparably impaired, and he was compelled to employ an amanuensis. At nineteen he was appointed tutor. At twenty he issued a work on the " History, Eloquence, and Poetry of the Bible," which procured him great honor. In 1777 he was chosen chaplain of the army, and in 1795, President of Yale college. In 1809 he issued his "Theology" in five volumes. After the severe studies of the day he would write poetry at night. Well could he say of the church: — " For her my tears shall fall ; For her ray prayers ascend ; To her my cares and toils be given, Till toils and cares shall end. " He expired in 1817, saying of some Bible promises that were being read to him, " O what triumphant truths !" r II RETT: TIMOTHY D WIGHT, S.T.D.ULJJ. I'llESlDEX T Oh' fALE COLLEGE FROM I 795 TO L8J J' 2^r^/^4 DwigMs hymn illustrated. 1 '>'■) Singing in a Forsaken Church. tN the "Holland Purchase" a log church was built by Methodist pioneers. It flourished well for years, but eventually some of the old members died, and others moved away, till only one was left, when preach- ing also ceased. This mother in Israel sighed over the desolations in Zion. She loved the old forsaken sanctuary, and still kept going there on the Sabbath to worship God and plead the promises. At length it was noised abroad that she was a witch, that the old church was haunted with evil spirits, and that she went there to commune with them. Two young men to satisfy their curiosity, secreted themselves in the loft to watch her. On her arrival she took her seat by the altar. After reading the Scriptures, she announced the hymn, " Jesus, I my cross have taken, " and sang it with a sweet but trembling voice, then kneeled down and poured out her heart in fervent prayer and supplication. She recounted the happy seasons of the past, plead for a revival, and for the many who had forgotten Zion. Her pleadings broke the hearts of the young men. They began to weep and cry for mercy. As the Saviour called Zaccheus to come down, so did she invite them down from their hiding-place. They obeyed, and there at the altar, where in other days she had seen many conversions, they too knelt, con- fessed their sins, sought and found the Saviour. From that hour the work of God revived, the meet- ings were resumed, a flourishing church grew up, and the old meeting house was made to resound with the happy voices of God's children. Dr. Strickland. r 154 Dwighfs hymn illustrated. C Singing heard in the Wilderness- §NE hundred years ago Georgia was a wild wilderness. Preaching places were "few and far between." In one of the settlements, six miles distant from each other, lived two pious women. They frit lost when moving there, away from their accustomed places of worship in Maryland, and especial- ly as the people in these settlements spent their Sundays in frolicking and hunting. These two women agreed to meet half way between their homes, and hold a prayer-meeting by them- selves. Sabbath after Sabbath they walked to their ap- pointment, and there in the depth of that southern for- est engaged in prayer and praise. The singing, echoing through the wild woods, attract- ed the attention of a hunter. As he drew near to a hiding place, he was overwhelm- ed by what he heard. Sabbath after Sabbath he would hide near enough to hear, till, at the close of one of their meetings, he could not conceal himself or his feelings any longer. He then invited them to meet at his cabin the next Sabbath, promising to collect in his neighbors. The call seemed providential. They accepted it. It was soon noised abroad. The whole neighborhood turned out. Their husbands went along to see these strange women. When lo! their own wives took charge of the meeting. The Holy Spirit moved and melted first the heart of the hunter, then of the two husbands. They broke out in cries of mercy. The meeting continued night and day tor some two weeks. After some forty were converted, Rev. B. Maxey heard of it. He took charge of the re- vival which continued to spread over a vast region of country, till many churches sprang up where preach- ing had never been heard before. c D wight's hymn illustrated. 155 A Prisoner Singing Himself into Liberty. HIS was the case with Deacon Epa Norris during the war between Great Britain and the United Slates, in 1812. He lived in the Northern Keck, Va. Being captured and taken to a British vessel, they in vain sought to obtain from him the position and num- bers of the American Army. Dr. Belcher says: "The commandant of the ship gave a dinner to the officers of the fleet, and did Mr. Norris the honor to select him from the American prisoners of war to be a guest. The deacon, in his homespun attire, took his seat at the table with the aristocracy of the British navy. The company sat long at the feast: they drank toasts, told stories, laughed and sang songs. At length Mr. Norris was called on for a song. He de- sired to excuse himself, but in vain: he must sing. He possessed a fine, strong, musical voice. In an ap- propriate and beautiful air, he commenced singing: — " ' Sweet is the "work, my God, my King, To praise thy name, give thanks, and sing. ' " Thoughts of home and of lost religious privileges, and of his captivity, imparted an unusual pathos and power to his singing. One stanza of the excellent psalm must have seemed peculiarly pertinent to the occasion : — " ' Fools never raise their thoughts so high : Like brutes they live, like brutes they di3 ; Like grass they flourish, till thy breath Blast them in everlasting death. ' "When the singing ceased, a solemn silence ensued. At length the commandant broke it by saying : ' Mr. Norris, you are a good man, and shall return immedi- ately to your family. ' The commodore kept his word; for in a few days Mr. Norris was sent ashore in a barge, with a handsome present of salt, — then more valuable in the country than gold." 156 Charlotte Elliott. C Author of " Just as I am, without one plea. " world-renowned hymn, issued in 1836 by Charlotte Elliott, is spoken of as " the divinest of heart-utterances in song that modern times have bestowed upon us. " It is one of those hymns that are suited to all ages, characters, and conditions in life. Mr. Saunders says: "The plaintive melody of the re- frain cannot but awaken a responsive echo in every devout soul, as the sad notes of some lone bird are caught up and repeated amid the stillness of the silvan solitude. " Rev. R. S. Cook, of New York, sent to Miss Elliott a companion and counterpart to her hymn, commencing: "Just as thou art, without one trace." Miss Elliott is grand-daughter of the Rev. John Venn, and sister of Rev. E. B. Elliott, author of the "Horse Apocalypticse, " and of Rev. Henry Venn Elliott, himself a writer of hvmns. Mr. Miller says (1869) "that she formerly resided at Torquay, where the neighborhood was greatly benefited by her piety and benefactions, and is now residing at an advanced age and infirm health at Brighton." She is represented as " a lover of nature, a lover of souls, and a lover of Christ. " Her heart and pen are kept so busy with writing for her Master, that it is said that even in her old age, she seldom appears at the breakfast table without more or less of poetical composition in manuscript. She lias issued the following publications: In 1842, "Morning and Evening: Hymns for a Week, by a Lady; in 1836, "Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted;" in 1863, "Poems by E. C. ;" yearly she has issued "The Christian Remembrance;" besides contributing one hundred hymns to the Invalids' Hymn-Book. 1 CHARLOTTE ELLTOTT. Charlotte Elliott continued. 159 "Just as I am" was an epitome of Miss Elliott's ex- perience. Her sister says that in 1821 "she became deeply conscious of the evil in her own hesfct, and hav- ing not yet fully realized the fulness and freeness of the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, she suffered much mental distress under the painful uncertainty whether it were possible that such a one as she felt herself to be could be saved." After groping her way through darkness for a year, Dr. Malan of Geneva paid her a visit at her father's house on the ninth of May, 1822. Seeing how she was held back from the Saviour by her own self-saving efforts, he said: "Dear Charlotte, cut the cable, it will take too long to unloose it; cut it, it is a small loss," and then bidding her give "one look, silent but continuous at the cross of Jesus," she was enabled at once freely to say; — "Just as I am — without one plea But that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bid'st me come to thee, Lamb of God, I come ! " "From that time," says her sister, "for forty years his constant correspondence was justly esteemed the greatest blessing of her life. The anniversary of that memorable date was always kept as a festal day; and on that day, so long as Dr. Malan lived, commemorative letters passed from the one to the other, as upon the birth- day of her soul to true spiritual life and peace." Dr. Malan as a skilful spiritual physician had carefully probed the wound, and led her to the true remedy for all her anxiety, — namely, simple faith in God's own word. It was thus from her own experience she could write : — " Just as I am — thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve ; Because thy promise I believe, Lamb of God, I come 1 " 1G0 Charlotte Elliott' 's hymn continued. c: "From that ever memorable day," it is said her "spir- itual horizon was for the most part cloudless," until, in the bright vision that attended her dying moments, she could say in the language of her last verse; — " Just as I am — of that free love, The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove, Here, for a season, then above, Lamb of God, I come." Clamly she closed her eyes in death, September 22, 1871. POOR little boy once came to a New York city missionary, and holding tip a dirty and worn-out bit of printed paper, said, "Please, sir, father pent me to get a clean paper like that." Taking it from his hand, the missionary unfolded it, and found that it was a page containing the precious hymn : — " Just as I am — without one plea." He looked down with deep interest into the face so earnestly upturned towards him, and asked the little boy where he got it, and why he wanted a clean one. a We found it, sir, said he, "in sister's pocket, after she died, and she used to sing it all the time she was sick, and she loved it so much that father wanted to get a clean one, and put it in a frame to hang it up. Wont you please to give us a clean one, sir?" The son-in-law of the poet Wordsworth sent to Miss Elliott a letter, telling of the great comfort afforded his wife when on her dying bed, by the hymn. Said he, when " I first read it, I had no sooner finished than she said very earnestly, 'that is the very thing for me.' At least ten times that day she asked me to repeat it, and every morning from that day till her decease, nearly two months later, the first thing she asked me for was her hymn. "Now my hymn," she would say — and she would of- ten repeat it after me, line for line, in the day and night." M Miss Elliott's hymn. 1G1 "OSir! I've come, I've come. & — : (|jHE Rev. Dr. McCook, while in his pastorate at St. ^ Louis, was sent for to see a young lady who was dy- ing of consumption. He soon found that she had imbibed infidelity through the influence of her teacher in the Normal School, and with her keen intellect was enabled to ward off all the claims of the gospel. After exhausting all the arguments he could think of during his visits, he was exceedingly puzzled to know what more to do, as she seemed unshaken in her doubts. She at length seemed so averse to the subject of religion that when calling one day, she turned her face to the wall and seemed to take no notice of him. Mr. McCook said : " Lucy, I have not called to argue with you another word, but before leaving you to meet the issues of eternity I wish to recite a hymn." He then repeated with much emphasis the hymn : — " Just as T am, without one plea, " and then bade her adieu. She made no response. lie was debating; for some time whether, after so much re- pugnance, he should call again. But realizing her near- ness to the eternal world he concluded to make one more visit. Taking his seat by her bedside she slowly turned around in bed. Her sunken eyes shone with un- wonted lustre, as she placed her thin, emaciated hands in his and said slowly, and with much emotion : — "'Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed tor me, And that thou bidst me come to thee, Lamb of God, I come, I come. ' "O Sir! I've come. I've come." That hymn told the story. It had decided her eternal destiny. It had done what all the logical arguments had failed to do. She soon afterwards peacefully crossed the river. m> Q 102 Hiss Elliott's hymn, continued. •0 "Just as I am" Uttered with a Dying Breath. t ESSIE, a young lady of eighteen, whose home is in Vermont, while attending seminary was taken very ill. It seemed only a slight illness, but to the sur- prise of all, when the doctor was summoned, he said: " You can have but a few hours to live. " A correspond- ent says: "Not one who was present will forget that look of awe and terror that covered Jessie's face. ' pray for me,' was her agonized request of all her friends. To her schoolmates she sent the message, 'Tell them to be Christians, for they know not at what moment they may be surprised as I have been.' She then began to say: — " 'Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, Lamb of God, I come. ' "The second verse was begun in a faint whisper: — " ' Just as I am, and waiting not, To rid my soul of one dark blot, To Thee—'' With the word, ' Thee' upon her lips, she breathed her last breath and passed away # to the spirit-land." 'AR out on the Western prairies dwelt a father who had not been to church for fifteen years. After death laid some of his family in the grave, God's "still small voice" came to him. "All alone, " said he, "out there on the prairie, with no religious teacher, no Christian friend, God spoke to me. I then gladly went to hear a missionary preach in a school-house. Was this salvation for me? Could I, so long a wanderer, come and be for- given? While agitated with these thoughts, they sang: " 'Just as I am, without one plea. ' It told my story, and before it was ended, I could say:- — "'0 Lamb of God, I come.''' C Miss Elliott's hymn continued. 1G3 "To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot.'' MISSIONARY in his travels, found a heathen expiring by the wayside. Inquiring of his hopes for the life to come, the dying man whispered: "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin -" and with this utterance he breathed his last breath. The mission- ary, perceiving a bit of paper in his closed hand, took it from his grasp, when, to his great joy, he found it to be a leaf of the Bible, containing the First chapter of 1st John, on which was printed the text that gave him his hold on eternal life. Ascending thus to the skies, he could truthfully say, in the language of Miss Elliott's hymn: — "To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, Lamb of God, I come.'' fNE day, a dying girl, twelve years old, rousing from her slumbers, said : " Aunty, how do you know you are a Christian?" To which the answer was given: "Darling, we love Jesus, and try to do what he tells us. Do you want to be a Christian?" "Oh, yes aunty !" The lines of the hymn were then quoted: — " Just as I am, without one plea. But that th} - blood was shed for me, And that thou bidst me come to thee, Lamb of God, I come ! I come ! " etc. when she continued, "Oh, aunty, isn't that lovely?" 7 7 J 7 •/ During the convulsions that followed, and closed her earthly career, she could be heard saying: "Abba, Father, Thou knowest that I love thee. Aunty will teach me." When her baby brother was brought in to see her in her coffin;, he truthfully said: "tatie seepix." This seemed to the weeping parents but the echo of the Master's words : " She is not dead, but sleepeth." r ~~$) 164 Charlotte Elliott's hymn, w(fjf The Young Chorister's Last Hymn. fVERYBODY knew Claude Davenel was dying; he knew it himself, and his mother knew it as she sat there watching him. All the villagers knew it, and many an eye was wet as the name of little Claude was whispered among them. Claude had taken his illness on a chilly autumn even- ing, when the choir was practising in church. One of his companions, Willie Dalton, complained of a sore throat, so that he could not sing, and he sat down cold and sick in his own place. Claude took off his comfort- er and wrapped it around his friend's neck, and when the practising was over he ran home with him, and then put on his comforter again as he went back to his own home. Willie was sickening for the scarlet fever* and poor Claude caught it too. Willie recovered ; but Claude had taken the disease in its worst form, and though the fever had left him, he had never been able to recover his strength, and he had grown weaker and wasted away. And so it was on this calm Sunday evening. He had been drawn up close to the window, to listen to the church bells slowly ringing out and calling people in. The bell stopped, and Claude's eyes grew more wistful as the sound of the organ fell upon his ear. That stopped too, and then all was still. He closed his eyes until he heard it again ; and then he opened them, listening in- tently. "They are coming out now, mother," he said, after a minute's pause. "Lift me up a little, mother dear; I want to see them. I can hear the boys' foot steps on the gravel — lift me up a little higher, mother — they are com- ing this way. I can't see them, but I can hear them — they are coming down our street. Mother, put your hand out, and wave my handkerchief to them. " 3Iiss Elliott's hymn continued. 165 The trampling of feet had stopped under his window, and there was a low murmur of voiees. Another mo- ment and there was a gentle tap at the door, and Willie Dalton slipped in. " Mrs. Davenel, we want to sing to Claude. " The question had been whispered, but Claude heard and caught at it eagerly. "Oh, do! do! Mother, let me hear them — -just once more. " The poor mother nodded her head sadly. "It can't hurt him, Willie, and he likes it:" The boy cast a loving glance upon his friend, and then went quietly out of the room. There were a few minutes of silence below, and then the choir-boys sang Claude's favorite hymn : — " My God, my Father, while I stray Far from my home in life's rough way, Oh, ti'ach me from my heart to say, ' Thy will be done ! ' : ' He clasped his hands together and gently began to join in when they sang the fourth verse : — " If thou should'st call me to resign What most I prize, it ne'er was mine, I only yield Thee what is Thine : 'Thy will be done!''' When the hymn was ended his mother bent down over her son. His head had fallen back upon the pillow and the color had fled from his cheeks. "Mother," he said, "write 'Thy will be done' over my grave when I am gone. " So the little chorister died. He is buried in a spot near the path to the choir vestry; and till those choir- boys had given place to others, they used to sing each year the same hymn, at Claude Davenel's grave, on the evening of the day on which he died. Children's Prize. 166 John Fawcelt. ^ Fawcett and his Hymns. 'LTHOUGH Whitefield did not perpetuate ids in- fluence through the composition of any hymns, yet lie was the means of the conversion of some hymn- writers, who are, after the march of a century, still shaping the eternal destiny of precious souls. Who can measure the circle of influence that has widened out through the singing of that oft-repeated hymn: — "Come, thou Fount of every blessing! '' Its au'thor, Robert Robinson, was among the thousands of Whitefield's converts. So was also the Rev. John Fawcett, D. D. Both, when lads of about sixteen years of age, were drawn into the stream of salvation by the tide of Whitefield's popularity. Fawcett was born at Lidget Green, England, January 6, 1739. His father having died when he was twelve years of age, he was apprenticed for six years at Bradford. While at this place he was tempted to follow the crowds that everywhere surrounded the eloquent Whitefield. The sermon, that was made effective to his conversion, was from the words, " And as Moses lifted up the ser- pent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." "As long as life remains," he says, "I shall remember both the text and the sermon." In 1758, he united with the newly-formed Baptist church at Bradford. After using his talents in exhor- tation for some time, he was urged by the church to pre- pare for the regular work of the ministry. To this advice he yielded. In May, 1765, he was ordained as pastor of the Baptist church at Wainsgate. Two years later, he issued his "Poetic Essays," and in 1782, he gathered together his hymns, one hundred and sixty-six in num- ber, in a volume, entitled, "Hymns adapted to the circumstances of Public Worship and Private Devotion." c: w JOHN FAWOETT Fawcett continued. 169 In 1788, he published an invaluable little volume on "Anger." George III. having been presented with a copy, was so much pleased, that he sent word to the author, that he would confer any favor upon him that he might desire. Fawcett, however, modestly declined availing himself of the royal munificence. Some time afterwards, however, the son of one of his most intimate friends committed forgery in an unguarded moment, and was sentenced to death. Fawcett interceded on his behalf, the king remembered his former offer, and granted the pardon. The young man afterwards became a devoted Christian, and was thus saved for time and eternity. Fawcett often said, "If the Lord has given to man the ability to raise such melodious sounds and voices on earth, what delightful harmony will there be in heaven?" One of his sweet hymns is entitled, "Praise on Earth and in Heaven," of which the first and fourth stanzas, are, "Joyfully on earth adore him Till in heaven our song we raise; There enraptured fall before him, Lost in wonder, love, and praise. "Praise to thee, thou great Creator, Praise be thine from every tongue; Join, my sonl, with every creature, Join the. universal song." "Among his other hymns that are still frequently sung, we may mention those commencing, • " Religion is the chief concern Of mortals here below." "Sinners, the voice of God regard." "Thy presence, gracious God, affords." "How precious is the book divine." "Thy way, God, is in the sea." U 170 •€?"" Origin of — Blest be the tie that binds. Blest be the Tie that Binds." HIS sweet hymn was written by Rev. John Fawcett D. D. in 1772. The following are given as the inter- asting facts that occasioned it. After he had been a few years in the ministry, his fam- ily increasing far more rapidly than his income, lie thought it was his duty to accept a call to settle as pastor of a Baptist church in London, to succeed the celebrated Dr. Gill. He preached his farewell sermon to his church in Yorkshire, and loaded six or seven wagons with his fur- niture, books, etc., to be carried to his new residence. All this time the members of his poor church were almost broken hearted, fervently did they pray that even now he might not leave them; and, as the time for departure arrived, men, women, and children clung around him and his family in perfect agony of soul. The last wagon was being loaded, when the good man and his wife sat down on one of his packing-cases to weep. Looking into his tearful face, while tears like rain fell down her own cheeks, his devoted wife said, " Oh, John, John, I cannot bear this ! I know not how to go ! '* " Nor I, either," said the good man; "nor will Ave go. Unload the wagons and put everything in the place where it was before." The people cried for joy. A letter was sent to the church in London to tell them that his coining to them was impossible; and the good man buckled on his armor for renewed labors on a salary of less than three hundred dollars a year. He then took his pen and wrote the words, ''Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love, " as expressive of the golden bond of union that knit pas- tor and people so closely and tenderly together. Dr. Belcher. r M *0- FawcetCs hymn illustrated. 171 Singing of "Blest be the tie that binds."