Possibly Anglican
Hymn #Appendix 14.
Margaret Mackay was the only daughter of Capt. Robert Mackay of Hedgefield, near Inverness, Scotland. She married Lt. Col. William Mackay (so did not change her name), of the Sixty-eighth Light Infantry. We know not how she was saved, how she was brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, but her hymn shall speak for her as to her faith in Him and His power over death. She has written in prose and verse, and her book, “Family at Heathersdale,” went to a third edition in 1854.
Her hymn in the Little Flock originated by a visit she paid to a burying ground in the west of England. Her own account follows:
“This simple inscription, ‘Sleeping in Jesus’, is carved on a tombstone in the retired rural burying ground of Pennycross Chapel, in Devonshire. Distant only a few miles from a bustling and crowded seaport town, reached through a succession of those lovely green lanes for which Devonshire is so remarkable, the quiet aspect of Pennycross comes soothingly over the mind. ‘Sleeping in Jesus’ seems in keeping with all around. Here was no elaborate ornament, no unsightly decay. The trim gravel walk led to the house of prayer, itself boasting of no architectural embellishment to distinguish it; and a few trees irregularly to mark some favored spots.”
At Cheltenham, on January 5, 1887, at the age of 85 she entered into the sleep from which no believer ever wakes to weep.
“Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep!
From which none ever wakes to weep;
A calm and undisturbed repose,
Where powerless is the last of foes.
Asleep in Jesus, peaceful rest!
Whence waking we’re supremely blest.
No fear, no woe, shall dim that hour
That manifests the Savior’s power.”