HYMNS OCCASIONED BY INCIDENTS
Lost at Sea
In 1874 a large French steamer, the "Ville de Havre," was on her homeward voyage from America, when in mid-ocean a collision with a sailing vessel took place, the steamer sinking in half an hour, with the loss of almost all on board. A Mrs. Spafford, the wife of a lawyer in Chicago, was a passenger, accompanied by her four children. On being told that the vessel was rapidly foundering, she knelt with her children in prayer, asking God that if possible they might be saved, or be made willing to die, if such was His Will.
A few minutes later the ship went down, and the children were lost. Mrs. Spafford, however, was rescued by a sailor, who, rowing over the spot where the vessel had disappeared, found her floating in the water, and ten days later she was landed at Cardiff. From there she cabled to her husband the message, "Saved alone," a message which Mr. Spafford, himself an earnest Christian, had framed and hung in his office.
Two years later Messrs. Moody and Sankey were staying with Mr. and Mrs. Spafford for some weeks, and during that visit Mr. Spafford wrote, in commemoration of the death of his children, that hymn, with its triumphant chorus, which has become such a favorite the world over, and in the first lines of which the reference to the great grief of his life is clearly discernible:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea billows, roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well with my soul.
It was the greatest comfort to the bereaved parents to know that all four children had been converted to God at one of Mr. Moody's meetings, shortly before the fatal voyage.
The Preacher's Last Wish
A well-known hymn of Montgomery's was inspired by the circumstances attending the death of a Methodist preacher, the Rev. Thomas Taylor, who, preaching on Sunday evening, October 14, 1816, expressed the hope that he would die as an old soldier of Jesus Christ, with his sword in his hand. The following morning he was found dead in his bed. With reference to this, Montgomery wrote the hymn headed "The Christian Soldier," and beginning thus:
“Servant of God, well done
Rest from thy loved employ;
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."
The voice at midnight came;
He started up to hear;
A mortal arrow pierced his frame;
He fell, but felt no fear.
Although this hymn appears in some hymn books in this, or some amended form, yet the reference to the special circumstances of Mr. Taylor's death is too marked for the hymn to be suitable for ordinary use.
The Missing Member
The president of a certain Young People's Society once chanced to meet a girl of fourteen, poorly dressed and a drunkard's daughter, whom he invited to join the Society and to attend Sunday School. She did this, and attended for a time, but one evening at a consecration meeting, when the Society's roll of members was called, each member responding with a text, there was no response from this girl. Remarking on her absence, the president, Mr. J. M. Black, spoke of the sadness of anyone being absent when the names were called of those written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and then added the prayer, "O God, when my own name is called up yonder, may I be there to respond!”
Wanting something suitable to sing on this occasion, Mr. Black searched the hymn book, but could find nothing, and, after the meeting was ended, on his way home he still kept wishing for such a hymn, when the thought came to him, "Why not write one yourself?" The idea was at once dismissed as impracticable. On reaching home Mrs. Black was questioning her husband as to the cause of his evident trouble, without receiving a reply, when the words of the first stanza of a new hymn came to his mind in full:—When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more, When the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair; When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore, And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there!
Within fifteen minutes the two following verses were also written down, and then Mr. Black turned to the piano. "I played the music," he says, "just as it is found to-day in the hymnbooks, note for note, and I have never dared to change a single word or a note of the song.”
The General's Signal
In October, 1864, during the American Civil War, General Hood, by a skilful maneuver, gained the rear of General Sherman's army, and commenced the destruction of the railway to the north. Sherman put his forces in hot pursuit, being especially anxious to save the supplies and principal posts, the largest of which was at Altoona Pass, where General Corse was stationed with fifteen hundred men, and where no less than one and a half million of rations were stored.
Hood sent six thousand men under General French to capture the position. The post was completely surrounded and summoned to surrender; on Corse refusing, a sharp fight began, the defenders being slowly driven into a small fort on the crest of the hill.
Just as the situation seemed to have become hopeless an officer caught sight of a white flag on the top of a mountain some twenty miles away, and quickly the message was signaled from the one crest to the other, "Hold the fort; I am coming. Sherman." Inspired by this signal of hope and encouragement, the defenders held the place for another three hours, until Sherman's troops appeared and French was obliged to retreat.
Six years later, at a Sunday School meeting at Rockford, in the State of Illinois, Major Whittle related this incident, and immediately the lines of Mr. P. P. Bliss's well-known hymn flashed into the author's mind as he sat among the hearers. The next day, at a meeting conducted by Messrs. Whittle and Bliss in the Y.M.C.A. rooms at Chicago, Mr. Bliss mounted the platform and wrote the chorus of his new hymn on a blackboard:
“Hold the fort, for I am coming,"
Jesus signals still;
Wave the answer back to heaven,
"By Thy grace we will!”
Mr. Bliss then sung the verses of the hymn for the first time, and the audience joined in the chorus.
The popularity of this hymn and stirring refrain was unbounded. The late Lord Shaftesbury said at Moody and Sankey's farewell meeting in London in 1874, that if Mr. Sankey had done no more than teach the people to sing "Hold the fort," he had conferred an inestimable blessing on the British Empire. Mr. Bliss himself, however, had not a high opinion of his composition, and said, shortly before his death, that he hoped posterity would not remember him only as the writer of "Hold the fort," since he believed he had done much better work. Nevertheless, on the monument erected to his memory at Rome, Pennsylvania, appears the inscription
P. P. BLISS.
AUTHOR OF "HOLD THE FORT.”
The Dying Rector's Message
Some sixty years ago the young Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, had incurred the resentment of his congregation on account of his bold declarations from the pulpit that to hold a fellow-creature in slavery was a sin. Most of his congregation owned slaves, a common practice in those days, and their indignation was such that the young Rector was obliged to resign his charge.
A large hall in the city was then taken for him by some of his friends, in which he continued his ministry with marked success. One Sunday he preached to a huge gathering of five thousand men from the words in Ex. 10:1111Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. (Exodus 10:11), "Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord," and it is said that after the service a thousand of his hearers signed a pledge to yield their lives to God.
On the following Wednesday he was in a barn, where a mule was working a piece of farm machinery; Mr. Tyng went to pat the animal, when a cogwheel caught his sleeve, his arm being dragged into the machine and torn off. On the following Sunday, immediately before his death, he was asked if he desired to send any message to his congregation. He then uttered the memorable words, the last that fell from his lips, "Tell them to stand up for Jesus.”
One of his friends, Dr. Duffield, was inspired by this last message from the dying man to write the well-known hymn, "Stand up, stand up for Jesus I" which he read to the congregation after preaching his friend's funeral sermon the next Sunday. One verse of the original hymn, now invariably omitted, had special reference to Mr. Tyng's tragic death:
Stand up, stand up for Jesus!—
Each soldier to his post;
Close up the broken column
And shout throughout the host:
Make up the loss so heavy
In those that still remain;
And prove to all around you
That death itself is gain.
The Dying Child's Message
Miss Elizabeth Clyde's hymn, "Be with me in the valley," was written under the following circumstances. In the year 1844 the authoress, whose home was at Exeter, her father being a merchant in that city, went to Malvern for the benefit of her health, which was in a critical condition. The doctors there, however, held out no hope of her recovery, and she soon returned home with their sentence of death resting upon her.
On the Sunday after her return Miss Clyde's sister told her of a dying child of fourteen years of age who had sent this message to her teacher: "Tell her that when I came to the valley of the shadow of death Jesus was there to meet me." Inspired by these words of the dying child, the dying woman wrote this hymn, sometimes printed as "Oh, meet me in the valley.”
She died on February 15th in the following year, and the hymn was recited by the Rev John Bristow, when preaching her funeral sermon in Castle Street Chapel, Exeter.
Be with me in the valley,
When heart and flesh shall fail
And softly, safely lead me on,
Until within the veil:
Then faith shall turn to gladness
To find myself with Thee,
And trembling hope shall realize
Her full felicity.
The Lights That Failed
At one of Mr. Moody's meetings in America he related the story of a shipwreck on a dark and tempestuous night, when not even a star was visible. A ship was approaching the harbor of Cleveland, with a pilot on board. The captain, noticing only one light as they drew near—that from the lighthouse—asked the pilot if he was quite sure that it was Cleveland harbor, as other lights should have been burning at the harbor mouth. The pilot replied that he was quite sure, whereupon the captain inquired: “Where are the lower lights?
“Gone out, sir," replied the pilot.
“Can you make the harbor, then?" asked the captain; to which the pilot answered:
“We must, sir, or perish.”
Bravely the old man steered the vessel upon her course towards safety. But alas! in the darkness of the harbor mouth he missed the channel, the ship struck upon the rocks, and in the stormy waters many lives were lost.
Then Moody made his appeal to his audience: "Brothers, the Master will take care of the great lighthouse! Let us keep the lower lights burning!”
Among Mr. Moody's hearers that night was Mr. P. P. Bliss, the well-known hymn writer, and the striking story at once suggested to him one of his most popular hymns:
Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From His lighthouse evermore;
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor, fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save
The Homesick Wife
Nearly a century ago a young Scotchman and his bride left their native land to seek their fortunes in America. In this they were successful, but while they became richer the wife's health began to give way, and it was soon evident that the cause of the trouble was homesickness. "John," she would say to her husband, "I'm wearying for my ain countree," and begged that she might be taken to the coast, so that she could see the ships sailing to her homeland. Her husband acceded to her request, and, disposing of their home in the West, moved to a little cottage on the East Coast. There the homesick wife would sit and watch the ships as they sailed eastward across the ocean to her native land.
But it soon became plain that she was pining away, and her husband, fearing that her death would ensue, sold the new home also, and took her back across the sea to Scotland once more, where she immediately began to improve in health as by a charm, and eventually completely recovered.
This touching story became known to a young American lady, who, although born in America, was of Scottish ancestry, and who had learned something of the Scotch dialect from her old nurse and from her grandfather. Mary Lee was not only a talented woman, but an earnest Christian, and when, at the age of twenty-three, she heard the story of the homesick wife, she founded upon it the expression of spiritual longing for the heavenly home, enshrined in the lines which are almost more poem than hymn:
I am far frae my hame, and I'm weary aftenwhiles,
For the langed-for hame-bringin' an' my Father's welcome
smiles,
An' ne'er be fu' content until my een do see
The Bowden gates o' heaven an' my ain countree.
The earth is flecked wi' flooers, mony-tinted, fresh and
gay;
The birdies warble blithely, for my Father made them se;
But these sichts an' these souns will as naething be to me,
When I hear the angels singin' in my ain countree.
The Story of the Last Hours
Montgomery's short, but beautiful hymn, "Father Thy will, not Mine, be done," was occasioned by the death, at the early age of twenty-eight, of Mr. William B. Rawson, of Wincobank Hall, Sheffield. His widow gave this account of the writing of the hymn: "My beloved husband went to Paradise on July 19, 1829. When Montgomery was here some time afterward, he asked my dear mother about his last hours, and seemed much affected by hearing of his wonderful peace and resignation, for he had everything to make life desirable. My mother put into our friend's hand a short statement of the closing scene, which he took up with him when he retired for the night, and the next day we found these lines written in pencil on a fly-leaf of the manuscript.”
As the hymn, which bears the title "Resignation," is not very well known, it may be quoted here: “Father I Thy will, not Mine, be done":
So prayed on earth Thy suffering Son;
So, in His Name, I pray;
The spirit faints, the flesh is weak,
Thy help in agony I seek,
O take this cup away!
If such be not Thy sovereign
Will, Thy wiser purpose then fulfill;
My wishes I resign;
Into Thy Hands my soul commend,
On Thee for life or death depend;
Thy Will be done, not mine.
The Legacy
The origin of Mr. P. P. Bliss's hymn beginning,
Have you on the Lord believed?
Still there's more to follow,
was rather curious. The author had heard Mr. Moody relating the story of a very poor man, who was the inheritor of a great fortune, but the legacy was committed to the trust of the minister of the inheritor's parish, to be given to the man at the minister's discretion.
Knowing the peril which always attends the sudden acquisition of wealth, and fearing that if the man came into the immediate possession of the whole fortune it might easily be squandered, the minister sent him only a comparatively small amount at a time, accompanying each payment with a note to this effect: " This is thine; use it wisely; there is more to follow.'!
The Girl's Cry
During some revival meetings in a Scottish town a young girl became anxious about her soul, and going to her own minister inquired how she could be sure of salvation. The minister failed, however, to appreciate the poor girl's deep spiritual anxiety, and, after talking to her, bade her go home and read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah.
O But the girl's distress of soul was too great to be allayed by such indefinite advice. Uneducated as she was, she cried out, ' Oh, sir, I cannot read; I cannot pray! "and then, throwing up her hands, exclaimed," Lord Jesus, take me as I am!”
As Mr. Moody used to say in his expressive way, when relating this story, "She had got it!”
A lady, who heard of this girl's experience, and of her cry to Christ, embodied them in a hymn which has become very widely known and loved:—
Jesus, my Lord, to Thee I cry;
Unless Thou help me, I must die;
Oh, bring Thy free salvation nigh,
And take me as I am!
How little could the despairing girl have thought that her cry to Christ that day would be re-echoed all round the world, and bring its blessing to numberless other souls!
The Young Man's Testimony
Professor D. B. Towner, who was musical director of the Moody Bible Institute, was singing at a series of meetings conducted by Mr. Moody at Brockton, in Massachusetts. On one of the nights a young man rose in the meeting to give his testimony, which ran thus: “I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.'
Professor Towner wrote down the sentence, and sent it, with its story, to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister, who wrote the well-known chorus enshrining the young man's testimony:—
Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.
The hymn itself, beginning, "When we walk with the Lord," and also the tune, were written afterward.
In the Jewish Synagogue
Thomas Olivers, one of Whitefield's converts, had led a very profligate life as a shoemaker until his conversion took place, being afterward accepted by Mr. Wesley as a preacher of the Gospel at the age of twenty-eight. Nearly twenty years later Olivers was on a visit to another Methodist lay preacher, John Bakewell, of Westminster, and while a guest at his house visited the Jewish Synagogue, where he heard a beautiful melody sung by a Rabbi, Signor Leoni.
Olivers was so struck by the music that he immediately decided to write a Christian hymn which would fit the same melody, and enable it to be sung by Methodists; so under Mr. Bakewell's hospitable roof the magnificent hymn was composed which begins with lines possibly suggested by the place in which he had listened to the tune:—
The God of Abraham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days,
And God of love
The hymn became so immensely popular that in it second year no less than eight editions were needed, while the tune to which it is set is known by the name of the singer from whose lips it first reached the ears of Olivers.
Out of a Christmas Story
The Christmas number of Household Words for 1836, a magazine of which Charles Dickens was the editor, consisted of a story entitled "The Wreck of the ' Golden Mary,'" by Miss Harriet Parr. The story describes the striking of the "Golden Mary" on an iceberg, and how the passengers, taking to the boats, suffered privations for several days. To while away the time they took it in turn to repeat stories. One of them, a wild youth, named Dick Tarrant, related some of his experiences, in the course of which he said: “What can it be that brings all these old things over my mind? There's a child's hymn Tom and I used to say at my mother's knee, when we were little ones, keeps running through my thoughts. It's the stars, maybe; there was a little window by my bed that I used to watch them at, a window in my room at home in Cheshire; and if I were ever afraid, as boys will be after reading a good ghost-story, I would keep on saying it till I fell asleep.”
“That was a good mother of yours, Dick," replied one of the passengers. "Could you say that hymn now, do you think Some of us might like to hear it.” “It is as clear in my mind at this minute as if my mother were here listening to me," said Dick.
And he repeated,
Hear my prayer, O Heavenly Father,
Ere we lay us down to sleep;
Bid Thine angels, pure and holy,
Round our bed their vigils keep
And so through all the verses of this beautiful hymn, which, taken out of this story, first appeared in the New Congregational Hymn Book in 1859 and has found a place in many collections since. Not only is its origin so curious, but it is the only hymn ever written by Miss Parr.