The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-03-11
From the N Y Observer.
Our Female Hymnists and Their Hymns.
A LECTURE: BY REV. THOMAS ARMITAGE, D. D.
AT THE BAPTIST CHURCH, FORTY-sIXTH
STREET, NEAR FIFTH AVENUE,
NEW YORK


Hymnology has ever been sort of
soul thermometer in the Church, by
which you may follow its rise and fall in
spirituality. We are indebted for some
of our finest hymns to the sanctited and
inspired genius of Christian women.
Who has had not heard of Anne Steele
and her sweet, tender heavenlIness OF
mind, mingled with touching sadness
She was the daughter of Rev. William
Steele, devout, simple Baptist pastor IN
the village of Broughton, Hampshire,
England, more than a hundred years
ago. She was member of her fathers S
church for forty-six years, and died in
1178, in her sixty-second year Her body
was extremely feeble and her spirit
extremely childlike, but she loved her
Redeemer with supreme love. She
cherished a warm heart full of quiet JOY
and communion with God, who hallowed
all her Affections and chastened her to
wonderful Christ-likeness. When her
book was printed and praised, her father
said, 81 pray God to make it useful and.
to keep her humble. This was the wo-
man who sang
''Father, whate'er of earthly bliss
Thy sovereign will denies.''
Also
"Almighty Maker of my frame,
Teach me the measure of my days;
Teach me to know how frail L am,
And spend the remnant to thy praise"
These she wrote, besides many others.
Mrs. Anne Letitia Barbauld was the
daughter of Dr. Aiken, a minister at
Warrington, England, and the wife of a
French pastor. Her hymns were great
favorites with the statesman, Charles
James Fox. One of her hymns has often
soothed the broken hearts of bereaved
ones
Another is
''Praise to God, immortal praise"
Charlotte Elliott was another sweet
singer in Israel She sang her enchant-
ing hymns in Torquay, Devenshire, and
she seems to have been much given to
solitude and prayer. Those words are
hers
''My God, my Father, while stray"
Again. she strikes a chord in every pray
ing soul, in the words
"Just as I am, without one plea"
Sarah Flower Adams, of Dorsetshire,
England, seems to carry us with her in
the arms of her faith, when she ascends
to her God in bold. confding, cour-
ageous love, singing
Nearer my God toSThee."
In 1949 she died, and in her last breath
gasped out a song of love to God.
Mrs. Helen Maria Williams left US one
of the most precious hymns in our Ian
guage, when she died in 1927 after
brief imprisonment in Paris in the days
of Robespierre. Her hymn becomes
more precious to her every year.
"while Thee seek, protecting power"
Coquerel, the great French preacher, was
her nephew, and he is said to have been
religiously educated by her.
never can think of Mrs. Felicia He
mems without keen sympathy and wish
that l might have stood by her side, to
have taken blow with her now and then
in the battle of life, for the strife to her
was terrific. She died in 1885, and her
monument in St. AIMS Church, Dublin,
has chisseled upon it her own words
which she sang of another
Calm on the bosom of thy God,
Fair spirit rest thee now;
HIS seal was on thy brow.
"Dust to it's narrow house beneath,
Soul to its place on high,
They that have seen thy look, in death,
No more may fear to die"
Mrs. Phebe II. Brown wrote
''I love to steal awhile away,
From every cumbering care"
Mrs. D. H. Sigourney.-
"Laborers of Christ arise,'
and many other hymns of noble inspira-
ton.
We owe much to Phebe Cary for her
precious words =
''One sweetIy solemn thought
And to Caroline Southey, the wife of
the poet laureate. for her appeals to
Christian hope
rLaunch thy bark, Mariner
and,--