The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-03-20


wrote the ballad and Brown modernized |
1t. As Burns wrote it, it includes the
liver plainly enough:
"Jeuny's a. wet, puir bodie.
Jenny's seldom dry;
She drag tt a. her petticoatie
Comm thro' the Rye"
Rye is spelled with capital R. The
air is nearly pentstonic--the only F
which occurs in the melody being very
characteristic and effective.
The following is the origin of Long
fellows " Hanging the Crane :"
A dozen years ago, shortly after the
marriage of Mr.. Z. B. Aldrich, Mr. Long
fellow visited the young couple and took
tea with them st their charming little
house in Boston. The supper was laid
on very small table, indeed, but the
peot, always vigilant 10 his search for
new ideas, took the smallness of the table
ss q theme for discussion, and Essociating
the IDEAS with an old Acadian custom,
then and there spun the thread of his
future poem.
@ As the family increases" said he to
Aldricb, " the size of the table must be
increased. When, alter long years, the
children have grown up to manhood and
wOmanhood and have left the fold, the
large table will again be replaced by the
small one FIR the two old folks who lin
ger at home. Here you have picture
CT life, of the growth of the family; as
you are now entering upon a literary
career, and have already written some
good essays, why not write an essay on
the subject in hand ?"
Mr.. Aldrich promised to think about
it. The years few by, but no essay had
appeared. Three years ago the elder and
the younger poet met again, Have you
thought OF that theme" asked Mr.. Long
fellow, which proposed to you long
| time sgo?" ''I have thought of 1t a
hundred times" replied Mr.. Aldrich,
but l can not make anything out of
it:' &c The subject reverts to me, then"
said the venerable poet, and he at once
began to write:
1.-THE lights are out and gone are all the
guests
He completed the poem and sent it to
/ Mr.. Bonner, receiving in return the
| princely compensation of a thousand
/ dollars. In the ensuing winter, after its
publication in the Ledger, the poem was
put into the elegant holiday volume in
which it may be said it then became
widely known
1t would be appropriate, in this COZ
nectiOn to refer 10 Bishop HebeT, whose
other poems, whose learned Bromptun
! lectures and able articles in the Quar-.
| teTly Review, are weighed down by q
single matchles5 missionary hymn. It
came about in this wise:
While he was rector at the Episcopal
church st Hodnet, in Shropshire, he paid
q visit to his tather~in~law, DR.. Shipley,
The vicar OF Wrexham, on the border Of
Wales. Ga the next day, which was
! Sabbath, DIR. Sbipley was to deliver a
| discourse in behalf of the g Society tor
the Propagation of the Gospel in Fore ign
Lands" Knowing his son-in-law's happy
gilt in rspid composition, he said to him
= Write something for US to sing at the
missionary service Tomorrow morning"
Short notice that, for man to achieve
his Immortality. Heber retired to an.
other part of the room and in a little
! time prepared three verses of the popu-
lar hymn commencing:
From Greenland's icy mountains"
DIR. Shipley was delighted with the
/ production, but Heber was not satisfied.
" The sense is not complete" he said.
In spite OF Dr.. ShipIey's earnest protest,
| Heber retired for few moments longer.
and then, coming back, read the follows
ing glorious bugle blast which rings Ii ke
the reveille of the millenial morning:
Watt, watt, ye winds the story,
And you, ye waters, roll
Till, ike sea of glory,
Il spreads from pole to pole!
| Till DER our ransOmed nature,
The Lamb for sinners slain,
RedeemeT, King, Creator,
! In bliss returns TO reign"
The next morning the people of Wrex-
ham church listened to the first rehearsal
OF a lyric which has since been echoed
by millions of voices around the globe.
No profane hymn tinker has ever dared
! to lay his bungling finger on a single
syllable OF those four stanzas, which the
Holy Spirit moved Heber to write.
On that Sabbath morning he caught
the first strain of his own Immortality.
He builded better than he knew" He
did more to watt the story of Calvary
around the earth than if he had preached
like Apollos, or had founded a board Of
missions. :" In The monthly concerts
/ held In the school houses of New Eng,
land, in frontier cabins, on the decks of
missionary ships bound to UeyIon's isle,
and in the vast assemblies of American
boards, Heber's trumpet hymn has been
sung with swelling voices and gushing
| tears"
] EAedS Ilu Oh IONluEDCS,
| too, had 8 history. He wrote it after
those two sweet devotional gems, 60,
] for a Closer Walk with God" and
There's Fountain Filled with Blood"
A ioreboding impression OF another at
tack Of insanity began to creep over him.
| The presentimsnt grew deeper; the
clouds gathered fast,
He even meditated self destruction.
and left his quiet cottage to drown him.
self in the neighbOring river. He was
under pail of overwhelming gloom.
/ Just while those black clouds of despair
~tre dsrting their vivid lightnings into
/ his soul, the gFandest inspiration of his
/ life broke upon him, and he began to
! sing out these wonderful words:
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform,
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the Storm"
For several years Cowper's splendid
intellect was to be under q total eclipse
The penumbTa was already darkening its
disc. But in full view of the impending
| calamity, the inspired son Of song chanted
forth those strains OF holy cheer:
"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for HIS grace;
Behind frowning providence
He hides smiling face"
Cowper never could have sung that
sublime anthem of victory except under
the Immediate inspiration of "p0wer
from on high" The storm was coming,
but CoWper's eye Of faith saw Jehovah
riding above the storm" This match
less hymn Of providence which God put
into the soul of his afflicted servant has
been song in the night" to millions