REV. W. D. MACLAGAN, D. D. The Rev. William Dalrymple Maclagan, D. D., has just lately, 1891, been elevated to the Archbishopric of York. He was born in Edinburgh, June 18, 1826, was graduated at St. Peter's College in Cambridge, 1856, was ordained to the ministry in 1856, becoming the curate of St. Saviour's, Paddington, and afterward of St. Stephen's, Marylebone, both in London. In 1869 he was placed as rector of St. Mary's, Newington. In 1878 he was made the Bishop of Lichfield, and in the beginning of 1891 was chosen to the station he now occupies. He has published some few sermons and written some hymns, but no very conspicuous mark has been made by him in the line of literary achievement. The piece now before us was contributed to the edition of Hymns, Ancient and Modern, issued in 1875. One of the late newspapers has given us these interesting particulars of his history: "Archbishop Maclagan is affectionately remembered at Newington Butts, where he found a deserted church and a parish overrun with and dominated by the outposts of Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle, and left behind him one of the largest congregations in London. Dr. Maclagan always maintained the most amicable relations with Mr. Spurgeon, who has now become a consistent Unionist; and the new Archbishop of York would find as much pleasure as the Archbishop of Canterbury in taking tea with the most eminent member of the Baptist persuasion. The only complaints alleged against him are that he has overorganized his diocese and is too much of a gentleman for the Black Country. It is impossible to consider the elevation of the Bishop of Lichfield without considering what a helpmate he has in Mrs. Maclagan, the sister of Lord Barrington, who is practically a suffragan. She has exceptional intellectual endowments, while she is an excellent speaker, never forgetting that she is a woman, and an admirable organizer." LORD, when with dying lips my prayer is said, 2 Remember me, but not my shame or sin; Thy cleansing blood hath washed them all away; Thy precious death for me did pardon win; Thy blood redeemed me in that awful day. 3 Remember me; yet how canst thou forget What pain and anguish I have caused to thee, The cross, the agony, the bloody sweat, And all the sorrow thou didst bear for me? 4 Remember me; and, ere I pass away, story in the passage is an excellent illustration of the sentiment of the hymn. 618 "Jesus, our Salvation." O JESUS, our salvation, 2 O gracious Intercessor, O Priest within the vail, Plead for each lost transgressor The blood that cannot fail. We spread our sins before thee, We tell them one by one; Oh, for thy name's great glory, Forgive all we have done. 3 Oh, by thy cross and passion, And crown of cruel fashion, O Priest, O spotless offering, 7s, 6s. D. 4 And in these hearts now broken, Re-enter thou and reign, And say, by that dear token, And build us up, and guide us, Rev. James Hamilton, M. A., author of the hymn quoted, was born at Glendollar, Scotland, April 18, 1819. He received his education at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; was ordained in 1845, and had charge of a succession of churches until 1866, when he became incumbent of St. Barnabas', Bristol. A year afterward he was appointed vicar of Doulting, Somersetshire, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, and according to our present information he still holds that position. Of the hymns he has written, only three are in general use; one of these is the piece before us. It was contributed to the People's Hymnal, in 1867, and the first line originally read, “O Jesu! Lord most merciful.” 619 Hope at the Cross. 2 On that my gaze I fasten, 7s, 6s. D. Very welcome to us all the appearance of Miss Charlotte Elliott's name once more as the author of the hymn before us. It is not one of her conspicuous compositions, for we fail to find a mention of it in either English Hymns, or Dictionary of Hymnology; but we have been printing it and using it as a very evangelical and comforting help for many years. It was published in The Invalid's Hymn-Book in 1834. The simplicity with which this devoted woman, herself racked and tried with pain, urged her way straight towards the cross of her suffering Redeemer, there to find her rest, is remarkable. O JESUS, thou art standing To pass the threshold o'er: 2 O Jesus, thou art knocking: And lo! that hand is scarred, And thorns thy brow encircle, And tears thy face have marred: 3 O Jesus, thou art pleading And leave us nevermore! 7s, 6s. D. Bishop William Walsham How first published this, the most popular and perhaps the most useful of all his excellent compositions, in the Supplement to Psalms and Hymns issued 1867. It refers to Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." One of the best paintings of our time has been given to the world of art by Holman Hunt, entitled "The Light of the World." It represents the scene which the hymn portrays with a fidelity as pathetic as it is forceful. Some of the incidental forms of Oriental imagery seem likewise to have been taken by the artist from the similar scene suggested by the Bride's words concerning her Lord in Canticles 5:2: "I sleep, but my heart waketh it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." The Figure stands as if in the act of waiting and listening. He is in the garden, "THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." for the vines trail across the door still shut to him; he is under the shadows of night, for he bears a lantern which flings its beams upon the fruit that lies in the path by his feet. The story is told with a delicacy that rivals description; the painting is an exquisite illustration of the spirit of the hymn. But thou to spirits contrite 3 Our souls-on thee we cast them, Thy cheering words revive us, And givest all thy ransomed Dr. Ray Palmer said once concerning this hymn that he wrote it a long while ago, so far back as in 1834 some time; and that he was under the impression of having made it as a translation of a German piece, the name and place of which he had forgotten. He was not a fluent scholar in that language then, and the volume he was reading did not otherwise attract his attention. The curiosity of some hymnologists, familiar with the religious poetry of the Fatherland, has been exercised in the matter; but the work of Dr. Palmer is too thoroughly original to represent any poem they can find. It was first published in the Presbyterian Parish Hymns, 1843. The Miss Charlotte Elliott included this hymn in her Hours of Sorrow, 1836, entitling it, as it appears here, "The Contrite Heart." word which makes the burden of the quaint little refrain at the end of each stanza in this 7s, 6s. D. pathetic prayer is possessed of a very suggestive meaning as one traces it out etymologically. It signifies bruised, rubbed, as grain is beaten or threshed from its chaff and ground down into meal. Spiritually, it refers to a certain brokenness of heart, peculiar to an experience of penitence for sin and shame because of wrong-doing. Good old Bishop Atterbury says: Contrition is an holy grief, excited by a lively sense, not only of the pun ishment due to our guilt (that the schools call attrition) but likewise of the infinite goodness of God, against which we have offended." Hence comes the old answer in the Catechism: "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience." 623 The Heart Surrendered. GOD of my life! thy boundless grace 2 Jesus, my hope, my rock, my shield! 3 Spirit of glory and of God! Long hast thou deigned my guide to be; 4 I come to join that countless host 8s, 4s. The Invalid's Hymn-Book, published in 1841, contained among many other poems by Miss Charlotte Elliott the one quoted here. It is based upon the fifth verse of the thirtyfirst Psalm, Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." The poem emphasizes the fact that all the steps in the process of redemption are the direct result of God's mercy which chooses, pardons, and adopts us. Not from ourselves, but from above, comes the saving impulse. (See Isaiah 6:6.) Isaiah, crying there, in all the abasement and abandonment of his shame, had no need to thank even the seraph with the coal of fire in his hands. The coal came from the King. The altar was the King's. The seraphim were only the King's messengers. Every step in the scheme of human salvation, from its earliest beginning at the new birth, to its latest triumph in the new song, is God's. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord." When the redeemed in heaven sing their highest songs of ascription, they can say no more, no less, than this. John tells us in the Revelation what he heard behind the vail: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." The author of the hymn before us is Mrs. Alessie Bond Faussett. She was born at Ballee Rectory, County Down, Ireland, January 8, 1841; and was married to the Rev. Henry Faussett, curate of Edenderry, Omagh, in 1875. She has contributed a few songs to Lyra Hibernica and to the Church Hymnal, which was issued in Dublin in 1881. The piece here given was written in 1865, but was not published until 1870, when it appeared in a volume entitled The Triumph of Faith. "Thou art my all." 625 JESUS, my Saviour! look on me, I come to cast myself on thee; 2 Look down on me, for I am weak, Thou art my Strength. 3 J am bewildered on my way, 4 When Satan flings his fiery darts, 5 Standing alone on Jordan's brink, Thou art my Life. 6 Thou wilt my every want supply, Ev'n to the end, whate'er befall; Through life, in death, eternally, Thou art my All. 8s, 4s. For many years this hymn has been credited, on the highest authority, to Rev. John 1853" Ross Macduff, D. D., with the date of attached to it. Thus it appears in The Evangelical Hymnal, and thus it appears in others with the annotation of Rev. F. M. Bird. But we learn at last from the Dictionary of Hym 4 Leaning on thee, though faint and weak, Once more we choose our song of trust from Miss Charlotte Elliott's hymns. It is taken from her Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted, 1836. It bears a title that might suggest a renewed season of illness in her fragile life, "Death Anticipated." She uses again that pleasing meter in her verse which has become to us now almost her characteristic sign. The great theologian, Tholuck, once said to an American tourist: "Your people in the United States have in your language one expression which we do not have in the German. You speak of a subdued spirit.' It is very beautiful.” My heart lies dead; and no increase 2 Thy dew doth every morning fall: 3 The world is tempting still my heart Let heavenly grace, to cross its art, 4 Oh, come; for thou dost know the way! 8s, 4s. Rev. George Herbert, M. A., was born at his father's home, Montgomery Castle, April 3, 1593, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1611. His prospects in life seemed brilliant, as he was an intimate friend of Lord Bacon, Bishop Andrewes, and other influential men, and was favored by James the First; but the death of the king and of the Duke of Richmond destroyed his hopes of Court preferment. He withdrew to Kent, where he decided to enter the Church; and in 1626 he was appointed to the living of Leighton Bromswold, Hunts. He remained there only three years when his health gave way, and he removed to Dantsey in Wiltshire, after a short stay at his brother's house at Woodford, Essex. In 1630 he was appointed rector at Bemerton, but his work there was brief, his death occurring in February, 1632. Mr. Herbert published a number of works both in prose and poetry, and many of the latter have become endeared to Christians everywhere; but the quaintness of his lyrics and the peculiarity of their meters have rendered most of them unavailable for congregational uses. The poem here quoted appeared in his posthumous work, The Temple, 1633, and is full of sweetness and pathos. It is a fervent prayer for divine grace to renew and inspire a heart which is sore tried by the coldness and worldliness which threaten to overwhelm it. LORD, I hear of showers of blessing 2 Pass me not, O gracious Father; 3 Pass me not, O gracious Saviour; Let me love and cling to thee; I am longing for thy favor, Whilst thou'rt calling, oh, call me-Even me. 4 Pass me not, O mighty Spirit ; Thou canst make the blind to see; Witnesser of Jesus' merit, Speak the word of power to me-Even me. 5 Have I long in sin been sleeping- 6 Love of God, so pure and changeless; 7 Pass me not, but, pardon bringing, Brought into being by the news of a great revival in Ireland in 1860-61, this hymn has always been connected with seasons of religious awakening. Its author, Mrs. Elizabeth Codner, published it as a leaflet in 1861, and it has been in constant use ever since. She is the wife of a clergyman of Islington, London, and has been identified with the Mildmay Mission in that city for a number of years. It |