245.-The Great Resolve. MARK X. 28. T would be interesting to learn what period of the author's spiritual history this Hymn commemorates. We know that Mr. Lyte was trained for the profession of medicine, which at an early period he gave up for the work of the ministry. Very probably the Hymn records the feelings with which he resolved upon this change in his career. Or perhaps it may belong to a later period, when he found and joyfully embraced the work of his life among the inhabitants of an obscure fishing village, and so spent his days, content for Christ's sake to be unknown. The lines first appeared in a little volume entitled Poems, Chiefly Religious, Brixham, 1833. Let the world despise and leave me, Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! I have called Thee Abba, Father; Man may trouble and distress me, 'Twill but drive me to Thy breast; Life with trials hard may press me, Heaven will bring me sweeter rest. O! 'tis not in grief to harm me, While Thy love is left to me : wrote. 247.-Wrestling Jacob. GENESIS Xxxii. 26-29. HE series of Hymns of self-dedication and trust may well be closed with this noble lyric, thought by many to be the finest that Charles Wesley ever Dr. Watts is reported to have said that The single poem 'Wrestling Jacob' was worth all the verses he himself had written." James Montgomery in the Christian Psalmist writes: "Among Charles Wesley's highest achievements may be recorded, 'Come, O thou Traveller unknown,' in which with consummate art he carries on the action of a lyrical drama; every turn in the conflict with the mysterious Being against whom he wrestles all night being marked with precision by the varying language of the speaker, accompanied by intense increasing interest, till the rapturous moment of the discovery, when he prevails, and exclaims, 'I know Thee, Saviour, Who Thou art!'" Dean Stanley writes: "The Hymn on ' Wrestling Jacob' is not only a Hymn, but a philosophical poem, disfigured indeed in parts by the anatomical allusions to the shrunk sinew, but filled on the whole with a depth and a pathos which might well" draw forth the testimonies just quoted from Watts and Montgomery. In the words of the Rev. J. Jackson (Life of C. Wesley), the Hymn "applies with admirable ingenuity and tact the patriarch's mysterious conflict and the happy result to which it led, to the process of an awakened sinner's salvation." I need not tell Thee who I am, Thyself hast called me by my name, Look on Thy hands and read it there; In vain Thou strugglest to get free, Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal Thy new, unutterable Name? Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell : To know it now, resolved I am : Wrestling, I will not let Thee go, Till I Thy Name, Thy Nature know. 'Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue, Or touch the hollow of my thigh; Though every sinew be unstrung, Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly : Wrestling, I will not let Thee go, Till I Thy Name, Thy Nature know. What though my shrinking flesh complain, And murmur to contend so long? I rise superior to my pain; When I am weak, then I am strong: And when my all of strength shall fail, I shall with the God-Man prevail. My strength is gone; my nature dies ; I fall, and yet by faith I stand : Yield to me now; for I am weak, Be conquered by my instant prayer; Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move, And tell me, if Thy Name is Love. 'Tis Love! 'tis Love! Thou diedst for me; I hear Thy whisper in my heart : The morning breaks, the shadows flee : Pure universal Love Thou art ! To me, to all, my bowels move; My prayer hath power with God; the grace Unspeakable I now receive; Through faith I see Thee face to face, I see Thee face to face, and live : In vain I have not wept and strove ; Thy Nature, and Thy Name, is Love. Book the Fourth. HYMNS ON CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, LIFE, AND SERVICE: HERE AND HEREAFTER. A LARGE variety of devotional lyrics will be necessarily included in the present division of our work. Many a meditative strain or outburst of holy feeling can scarcely be called a Hymn. Undoubtedly the outflowing of the soul to God is better, nobler, than that inward look which takes account of individual experiences-moods of reflectiveness, sorrow, resignation, trust, gladness, and hope. Yet there has always been felt to be room in our Psalmody for the lyrical expression of Christian feeling. David himself has set us the example. If one and another of the following pieces should seem hardly to claim the name of Hymns, call them Songs of the Heart, and their place among the rest will surely be uncontested. The first Hymns of the section, in close continuance of the preceding, are expressions of devotedness to God, and of joy in fellowship with Him; then follow various utterances of Christian faith and feeling, of a sense of imperfection and sin, with gratitude for spiritual blessings, holy submission to the will of God, resolution to continue faithful to Him, gladness and exultation in His love. Hymns on Christian service form an important part of the section. Finally, a series of Hymns on the life beyond the veil set forth the Christian's deepest longings and brightest hopes. 248.-Ebenezer. 1 SAMUEL vii. 12. HIS popular Hymn has been the subject of an interesting discussion as to its authorship, the late Mr. Daniel Sedgwick confidently ascribing it to the Countess of Huntingdon. It appears, however, that the only evidence of the Countess's authorship is that a friend of hers, Mrs. Diana Binden, had a copy of Wesley's Hymns (ed. 1747), on the blank leaves of which were copied some Hymns ascribed to Lady Huntingdon, this being among them. On the title-page Mrs. Binden's name is written, with the date 1759, so that the MS. Hymns were probably not copied until after that date. But an entry by Mr. Robinson in the records of the Baptist Church at Cambridge claims the Hymn as written by him when residing at Norwich, and printed by Mr. Wheatley of that city, in 1758. There is no ground, it would seem, for disturbing this testimony, especially as the Hymn has been generally received as Robinson's in the churches that have employed it in their Psalmody for more than a hundred years. There is a tradition that in his old age Mr. Robinson was heard more than once to say, "Oh that I could now |