2 There the great Monarch of the skies His saving power displays; 3 With his rich gifts the heavenly Dove While Christ reveals his wondrous love, 4 There, mighty God, thy words declare And still we seek thy mercy there, There is a great deal more in this plain hymn of Dr. Isaac Watts than most persons would suspect. Virtually it is a paraphrase rather than a version, although he has given it with nine stanzas as his rendering of Psalm 84, C. M. He has entitled it, "Delight in Ordinances of Worship; or, God Present in his Churches." The allusion to the Day of Pentecost and the descent of the dove, as well as the reference to the Mount of Transfiguration, are out of place in any proper translation of one of the songs of the temple; but they are excellent in suggestion when one is in the mood of catching similitudes of spiritual life in worship. The use of the means of grace is the condition of receiving what grace the good Lord means to send us. We go to the house of prayer in due performance of routine; but our Lord does not meet us in such a way. He prepares his surprises unseen; we come like children expecting what he will be sure to have in his hands for us. It is "the secrets" of his will that are disclosed. We enter the sanctuary with our sight in some way dimmed; in an exalted moment " light breaks in upon our eyes." Doctrines grow plain; disciplines are illumined; doubts vanish. Thus the Lord sends us "help from the sanctuary." SPEAK to me, Lord, thyself reveal, Speak to my heart, and let me feel 2 With thee conversing, I forget 3 Thou callest me to seek thy face; 4 Let this my every hour employ, And find my heaven in thee. C. M. Rev. Charles Wesley, son of Samuel and Susannah Wesley, was born at Epworth, in England, Dec. 18, 1708. He was the young REV. CHARLES WESLEY. est of at least eighteen children-some biographers say nineteen-of whom, however, nine died in their infancy. The boy was educated first by his own mother, then at Westminster School under his brother Samuel, and ultimately received his degree at Oxford. In 1735 he came to America, acting as the secretary of General Oglethorpe while here, but returned to England a year or two afterward. At that time he was not experimentally a Christian, though he was ordained, and kept himself busily engaged in missionary work among the Indians. His genuine conversion, dating the subsequent year, changed the whole course of his life; then he became a preacher by profession, but he never was settled in a cure of souls except at St. Mary's in Islington, and that for a short time. He was the rather an itinerant evangelist, serving as the companion or helper of his brother. For many seasons they traveled through England and Ireland, until, in 1749, Charles married Miss Sarah Gwynne, of Garth; then he settled with his family, first in Bristol for some years, then finally in Great Chesterfield Street, London, acting as resident clergyman to some Methodist societies in that city to the end of his days. He died, aged eighty-one years, March 29, 1788, and his body was interred in the graveyard of Old Marylebone Church, near his residence at the time. These facts, constituting what may be called the data of this remarkable man's life, are all that need to be stated in these annotations. But many striking incidents of his biography will appear in connection with individual hymns that he wrote during the course of fifty years of literary activity. This invocation, so appropriate as an opening or a closing hymn, first appeared in Rev. Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740. There has six stanzas; the one beginning "Saviour, who ready art to hear," is omitted, and the word "talk" is changed to the word "speak." It is always interesting to hear John Wesley in his preaching comment upon any of his poet-brother's songs. In connection with this one he remarks thus: When thou prayest, use all the privacy thou canst, only leave it not undone, whether thou hast any closet, any privacy or no. Pray to God, if it be possible, where none seeth but he; but, if otherwise, pray to God, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." In the 25th Psalm there is this verse: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." In the margin of the new revision that word " secret is rendered counsel or friendship. It really means a whisper; that is to say, it signifies a private communication addressed by one intimate friend to another, a confidential endearment or suggestion of affectionate advice, such as would often pass between loving companions. Then in both versions the closing clause has for a substitute in the margin: "And his covenant to make them know it." So here we have a very pathetic promise: the Lord has always a secret to give to those who are his intimate friends; he will express to them some personal token of love, if they are only "conversing" with him; there are "whispers of his grace" which, if they devoutly listen, he will"inly speak' to their "heart;" there can be no failure, for "his covenant is to make them "know it." A fresh instance of the marrying of a hymn and tune so that no man shall put them asunder. Dr. Isaac Watts' hymn, which is in his own Book II., No. 6, where it is entitled "A Morning Song," and has six stanzas, must always be sung to "Peterboro." That has been the rule for more years than most of modern singers will ever wish to live. How beautiful is the picture of a soul, loving and trustful, erecting itself to receive ftly a day which has risen to salute its waking eyes! And how glad such a soul is when its turn comes to offer its acknowledgments for mercies received in the solemn midnight. Perhaps it has been a night of heavy and awful experience; God has during all its glooms and horrors supported our mortal frame; then it is that the Christian soul brings its sweetest return of gratitude. The writer of these lines has in his possession an autograph letter of the explorer Stanley, probably never before brought to light. It was written and sent in 1879 when he had just emerged from his earliest perils. This was before he had grown into the veteran he is now. But even then, January, 1879, almost fourteen years ago, he was just as honestly grateful to God as he has ever been since. These are his words: "That I escaped from it I acknowledge is due only to the goodness of God. He it was who rescued me from the horrors which surrounded us many months. He it was who sustained us in our bitter trials. To him be all my gratitude. I earnestly hope that what I have been permitted to do will redound to the great glory of his name, and that Africa will send her millions to the fold of Christ." It was a "Dark Continent;" but the rising day saluted the brave man, and he returned the salute like a knight and a soldier: Great God, let all my hours be thine! Once more I tribute pay to him that rules the skies!" 27 "Worthy the Lamb!" SING we the song of those who stand Of every kindred, clime, and land, 2 Life's poor distinctions vanish here: Our Saviour and his flock appear, 3 Toil, trial, sufferings still await 4 "Worthy the Lamb for sinners slain," Cry the redeemed above, "Blessing and honor to obtain, And everlasting love!" Worthy the Lamb," on earth we sing, "Who died our souls to save! Henceforth, O Death, where is thy sting? Thy victory, O Grave!" C. M. JAMES MONTGOMERY. James Montgomery, the British poet, was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, November 4, 1771. His father was a Moravian preacher, and James, being intended for the same office, was sent in his seventh year to a Moravian settlement at Fulneck, near Leeds, to complete his education. Here he remained ten years, distinguished only by indolence and melancholy. The brethren at Fulneck then apprenticed him to a grocer at Mirfield. Before the age of fourteen he had written a mock heroic poem of one thousand lines, and had commenced an epic to be called "The World." He ran away in June, 1789, but after many wanderings engaged again as shop-boy in Wath, a village in Yorkshire. A year later he sent a volume of manuscript poetry to Mr. Harrison, a London publisher, and soon after went to London himself. Harrison refused his poems, but engaged him as his shop-man. Toward the end of 1792 he became clerk to Joseph Gales, editor and publisher of the Sheffield Register, a newspaper of revolutionary tendencies. Gales fled to America to avoid arrest for treason, and Montgomery started a new weekly journal called the Sheffield Iris, advocating peace and reform principles. The first number appeared July 4, 1794, and he edited it till July, 1825. Almost immediately after the first appearance of the Iris he was fined £20 and sentenced to three months' imprisonment for printing a doggerel ballad on "The Fall of the Bastile" for a poor hawker. Again, in 1796, he was found guilty of sedition, fined £30, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment, for publishing in his newspaper an account of a riot in Sheffield. He was confined in York Castle, where he wrote a small volume of poems entitled Prison Amusements, published in 1797. His gentle yet earnest character and his literary ability gradually won him the regard of his political opponents, and he began to take high rank as a sacred poet. In 1806 he published The Wanderer of Switzerland; in 1807, West Indies; in 1813, The World Before the Flood, which attained great popularity; and in 1819, Greenland. In 1833 a pension of £200 was bestowed upon him by the government. He was a liberal Whig and an ardent slavery abolitionist, and in his manhood reunited himself with the Moravians. Besides the works mentioned he published others of later dates, including Original Hymns. Many of these hymns find place in every modern church collection, and breathe an air of devout piety. Montgomery died near Sheffield, April 30, 1854. WITH joy we hail the sacred day 2 Thy chosen temple, Lord, how fair! Where willing votaries throng To breathe the humble, fervent prayer 3 Spirit of grace! oh, deign to dwell With pure devotion glow. 4 Let peace within her walls be found; Let all her sons unite To spread with grateful zeal around C. M. Miss Harriet Auber was a lady in the communion of the Church of England, who was born in London, October 4, 1773, and died at Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, January 20, 1862. She published only one book, which was issued anonymously, and this she entitled The Spirit of the Psalms; or, a Compressed Version of Select Portions of the Psalms of David. This was in 1829, and she lived to be eighty-nine years of age. Her life was a very quiet and secluded one, but she left behind her a host of friends to whom her gentleness and grace had endeared her. It is to be regretted that we are not able to secure any portrait of this devout lady, whose poems have been the stay and delight of many thousands of the tried children of Goa. But we have the picture of the house under the roof of which she was born and reared. She was the eldest daughter of Rev. William Steele, of Broughton, in Hampshire; and it is recorded that he was a clergyman of much piety and force, who for sixty years in succession ministered to a Baptist congregation in that village, where she was born in 1716, and where she lived all her life. What Isaac Watts was on the one side, Miss Anne Steele was on the other; differing in sex but both unmarried, they sang the sweetest songs of praise and experience for the Christian home, and gave to the church of Christ some of the noblest lyrics for divine services in the sanctuary. And they lived tranquilly in the south of England, only fifteen miles apart. This devout and spiritually-minded woman became a member of her father's church when she was only fourteen years old, and for all the rest of her life she was the faithful associate and worker with him in everything that was for the glory of the Master whom he loved. In her early life she was betrothed to a gentleman named Ellsworth; but on the day previous to their expected wedding he was suddenly drowned. Her heart was almost broken; she remained true to his memory; and for all the long subdued years afterwards she spent the little strength she possessed in doing affectionate and generous deeds of good among the neighbors with whom she was thrown. She wrote many hymns, some of which are among the most prized by God's people of every name. Her health was always feeble; her spirit was pensive, but not sad; aspiring, but never excited; for many seasons a great sufferer, she sang for the churches some of their most cheering songs; then in full faith died at the last in 1778, aged sixty-one. 2 Our contrite spirits pitying see; True penitence impart ; 3 When we disclose our wants in prayer, Nor let a thought our bosom share 4 Let faith each meek petition fill, And teach our heart 't is goodness still When Lord Elgin was appointed as ambassador to the Sublime Porte in 1799 he was accompanied by the Rev. Joseph Dacre Carlyle, the son of George Carlyle. This clergyman of the Church of England had been Professor of Arabic at Cambridge for five years, and the Vicar of Newcastle-on-Tyne afterward. He was one of the scholars who aided in the purposes of the expedition, specially seeking to ascertain what literary treasures survived in the public library of Constantinople. He was an accomplished man, well fitted for a position of that sort. His journey on the trip was extended to Asia Minor and the Greek archipelago, and on his travels he seems to have used a portion of his spare time in poetic composition. His fame has never at all rested upon his verses, much less upon his hymns; for only the one before us has found its way into the common collections or even appeared on this side of the ocean. He was a tall man in figure, thin and dark, with reserved manners and shy demeanor. The best work he was doing was that of an Orientalist; he was at the time of his decease editing the Arabic text of the Bible; but it was cut short very abruptly by his death at the vicarage in Newcastle. He was born at Carlisle June 4, 1758, and he died April 12, 1804. This one hymn was found at the end of a volume called Poems Suggested by Scenes in Asia Minor, Syria, and Greece, 1805. is entitled, "A Hymn Before Public Worship," and has been very much altered since his day. It C. M. Some little trouble has been found by those who have tried to locate and identify this hymn. The fact is, it is made up of two joined together, both of them written by Rev. Charles Wesley; these are taken from his "Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures," 1762. They are founded upon the priestly benediction recorded in Numbers 6:25, 26. Upon the first of these verses he composed one of them, and on the second the other; the four stanzas are then grouped as one hymn. 33 Psalm 118. THIS is the day the Lord hatlı made; 2 To-day he rose, and left the dead, 3 Hosanna to the anointed King, Help us, O Lord; descend, and bring 4 Blest be the Lord who comes to men With messages of grace: Who comes, in God his Father's name, To save our sinful race. 5 Hosanna in the highest strains The church on earth can raise ; The highest heavens, in which he reigns, Shall give him nobler praise. C. M. In the collection of Dr. Isaac Watts this piece stands as a version of Psalm 118, Fourth Part, C. M. He has evidently not had very amiable themes to deal with in this old poem until he came on along to the middle of it at least; for he has not offered us much poetry in even the three parts of fourteen stanzas in all. But here he has boldly swung away from the rather rough phraseology, gone straight out of the Old Testament into the New, chosen such verses as he liked the best, and made a beautiful hymn out of them, filled it with evangelical sentiment, entitled his work "Hosanna: the Lord's Day; or Christ's Resurrection and our Salvation," and sent it on down the ages with joyous expectation that the churches would greet it as worth their singing. |