The Democratic advocate., 1881-12-17

And what else has Augustus NJ Toplady
produced but this? yet this has done more
for Christ than Volumes of theology. 1t
is said that this hymn, like many illustrious
sayings, was the result of an unsettled con-
troversy. On one occasion when Charles
Wesley and Toplady, the one a Calvinist,
the other an Arminian, were together, they
entered into an earnest discussion, which,
in some way, led to the proposition that
each should write hymn for their next
meeting. Wesley brought "Jesus Lover
of My Soul" and Toplady brought Crock
of Ages But either this cannot be so or
there is an anachronism in standard litera-
ry works concerning these men.
DIR. Ray Palmer, sitting down one day
in pensive mood, took out his memOran-
dunn book and indited therein his thoughts
in four verses, intended for no human eye
but his own. He carried that same book
in his pocket for two years, little dreaming
it bore his passport to immortality. DR..
Lowell Mason meeting him one day upon
the street in Boston, asked him to contrib
ute song to the new book he was about
to publish. Palmer drew from his pocket
the book and read the lines beginning, "My
faith looks up to Thee, Thou, Lamb of
Calvary" Said DIR. Mason, prophetically,
"You may do many good things, but you
will be known to posterity for writing this
hymn" The prediction is fulfilled, and
many penitent heart, while singing it, has
looked to Calvary's Cross and found faith
in believing, and to many a respondent
heart it has come as a strain from heav-
enly land bearing the most glorious assur-
ance of hope.
Mrs. Sarah Florrers Adams mind seems
to have fowered out in one superb lily
when she sang Nearer My God to Thee. .
The direct circumstances under which it
was written have never been ascertained;
but it was probably during some season of
peculiar trial, when the bruised spirit emit
ted the odor of childlike submission to a
chastening Father Being written just be-
fore her death. it was to her as the song to
the dying swan.
Bishop Heber produced the Brompton
Lectures but they wane into insignifcance
beside his single matchless missionary hymn
which came about in this wise: He hap
pened to be on visit to his father-in-law
DR.. Shipley, the Vicar of Wrexham, on the
border of Wales, who was to deliver the
next day, a discourse in behalf of the So
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel il
Foreign Lands! Knowing his son-in laws
happy gift in rapid composition, he said tc
him: 'EWrite something for us to sing al
the missionary service, tomorrow morning.
Short notice for man to achieve hi
Immortality, but Heber attempted it and il
short time prepared three verses of ''Fron
Greenland's Icy Mountains
DR.. Shipley was delighted, but to Hebe
it seemed incomplete, nor was he satisfied
until he had added the fourth verse
"Waft, watt ye winds the story" &c.
making it the glorious bugle blast, whicl
rings like the reveille of the millenial morn
ing
And now we must conclude, but we can
not resist adding the origin of that mos
popular of all melodies 'Sweet By-and-By,
The author is Dr. S. Fillmore Bennett,
practising physician and druggist of Rich
mond, III. In the fall of 1874 he was ell
gagged with Jos. P. Webster in the produC
ton of a song-book called the Signet Rims
Webster was an extremely sensitive an
melancholy man, and was constantly drol
ping into the deepest dependency. Con
ing to Bennett one day looking uncommon
" blue, Bennett said to him: What tn
matter Webster?"
'Ah nothing much, said he It'll
alright, by and by
That's so, and why wouldn't that be
good subject for a song "By-and-By," sal
Bennett. He snatched up piece of papt
and in fifteen minutes handed it to Webste
with those lovely words it needs only tn
name of "Sweet By-and-By'' to recall. An
in thirty minutes more Webster compose
the tune OH his violin, to which it is no.
and forever welded Thus in forty-fv
minutes was the song written that was t
echo for ages. M.