Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-04-19
sINo1Na nYMNs oE PRAIsE.
Interesting Service stthe First Presby-
terrain Church Last Night.

terrain AuAEBh Ah 80
In place of a regular sermon last night
Rev. j. W. Rogan, pastor OF tue flrsI
PRESBYTERIAN church, conducted what ne
termed a "pratse service" Leaves con-
tanning the words OF half a dozen hymns
were furnished the congregation, and the
pastor related some incident connected
with the hymn or the author. Contrary
TO the usual custom, the first hymn
sung was the one beginning, praise
God from whom all blessings hOW,'
the long meter dOXolOgy, which has done
service as the closing hymn in a good
many churches, even longer than the old
est member can recollect. The hymn was
written by Bishop Ken, who was a youth
IN CrOm Wells time and graduated from
oxford about the time of the restoration
of Charles IL. Mr.. ROgan sketched the
Bishops life briefly and. observed that he
did not know Of anything in literature of
which he would rather be the author than
OF the well known 6OxolO2y.
The next hymn was one of Mrs. p. H..
Browns. That lady was born in the State
Of New York late in the last century, and
lived far into this century. She had a
son who lived in Liberty county, his
state. The first stanza OF the hymn read:
Hove to steal awhile away
From every numbering care,
Anu spend The hours OF betjluE UAy
In humble, grateful prayer.
Until she was Is years of age Mrs.
Brown could neither read nor write. She
was very pious though, and after she &C
quired an education she became a yolumi-
nous writer.
~ gave my life for thee,
Ny precious blood she'd"
were the first TWO lines Of the next hymn
that was sung. 1t was written by Frances
r. HaVeTgal, who was also born in the
last quarter of the last century. A story
told Of the hymn is that Miss HaVergal
scrubbed of tue lines one day and after
finishing them tossed the paper into the
CRATE. 1t fell short Of the ire though and
a friend picked the scrap up unobserved
and LAID it away. Years afterwards the
friend showed it to the %authOress, and the
hymn was published a little later.
one Of +. =. Bliss hymns was next
sung. 1t began:
~ an so glad thatour Father in heaven"
Z. p. Bliss was born in Pennsylvania
and Ia 1893 persisted with bis wife in the
terrible disaster at Ashtabula, ONO, in
1876.
Other hymns sung were by Miss c.
Elliott, Emily $. Oakley and Or. H.. r..
Palmer, one of the most popular writer's
of hymns OF the present day.
IL iAOuCt , All IdAl Tue OWtI u
Jesus Name was the closing hymn.
Perronet was a cO-laborer with Charles
Wesley for "A time, but they drifted apart.
For some time Wesley tried to heal Per-
ronet preach. The latter for some reason
was as anxious that Wesley should not
hear him as Wesley was to hear him. On
one occasion Wesley from the pulpit
espied PeTrOnet in his congregation.
Before Diminishing the congregation MIR.
Wesley announced that PerrOnet would
preach to them the nextmOrning. PerrOnet
did not like to refuse and ne was certain
that if he did preach Wesley would be
somewhere within ear shot. The next
morning after the congregation assembled
Perronet assembled the pulpit and explain
ed that Mr.. Wesley had made the an
nouncement without permission or con-
sultatiOn, ''but 1 will give you the best
sermon you ever heard" Perr0net added,
and then he turned TO the New Testament
and read Christ's sermon on the mount.