The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-10-08
THE HOME CIRCLE.
Bill Arp Tells How it lie Saddened and Con
secrated-Who Wrote the Hymn:
"The baby is dead"

That was the sad telegram that came
to us from for away where one of our
bovs is living.
It saddened the household, for we
had never seen the child nor the
mother, and they were to come and
visit US next month, and expected to
be 50 happy. There is trouble that IS
trouble-grief that is grief. The first
child, and old enough to have twlned
around her mothers heart and absorbed
her very life. The father can love, too,
and caress and feel a fathers pride, and
he can weep and feel desoiate. Time
will temper his grief, but mother
never ceases to lament the death OF her
first born child.
1t has been more than thirty years
since we lost one, but the little gar
ments that he wore are hidden away
somewhere, and sometimes l see the
mother fondling them as they lie in the
old trunk-the trunk that holds her
hearts best treasures. 1t was Sterne
who said "God tempers the wind to the
shorn lamb" and so in time the young
mothers grief will be sweeter than 1t IS
sad. and she will rise from it with
hope and trust that she never knew
before. A child in heaven is bond
that cannot be taken-it is not lost-lt
is saved. But still the pang of separa-
ton is very crushing to the parents
heart. How The world shrinks up; how
mean and insignificant are all its pleas
ures. I have felt that way, and been
comforted with the feeling, and so
know has every parent who has lost
child.
Well, suppose must answer my
friend. Colonel Dawson, for be is a
friend and Georgian, and was kind
to NE when last visited New York,
where he lives. He complains in the
last number Of the Sunny South that l
had given Montgomery as the authorof
that beautiful hymn:
Prayer is the souls sincere desire,
- q Uttered or uneXpressed.
And writes two columns in proof that
his mother wrote it. He says that be
published this same declaration IN the
Chicago Current in 1854. 1did not see
that; nobody down south saw,it. What
is current" in Chicago is not very cur
rent here, and so I think that is excuse
enough. The hymn has been seen set
down to Montgomery for fifty years or
more without question. 1t is in every
hymn book of every Christian deromi-
nation. It is in every edition of Mont
gomery's poetical works that L have
ever seen. I have a copy before me,
published in Edinburgh in 1869, which
gives eight verses to the hymn. John
Bartletts standard work on Familiar
Quotations" is now in the sixth edi-
ton, and quotes the hymn from Mont
gomery. w. Davenport Adams, an
other standard author of English litera-
ture, gives the same authorship. And
so Colonel Dawson has no good reason
for requesting me "to be more careful
in the future about aiding and abetting
British marauders of the property Of
American genius" I am sure that no
American, and certainly no southerner,
desires to champion the claim of Mont
gomery; but rather would take both
pride and comfort in seeing Mrs. Daw-
sons auth orship established. 1tseems
that Mrs. Dawson died in 1919, in Gym
thiana, KY, and left poetical manu-
scripts in possession OF friend. Among
them was found the hymn of ten verses
in her own handwriting. 1t seems
further that in 1919 Montgomery pub
lished volume of his own poems and
included this one, which he marked
canon" How it got into Mr.. Mont
gomery's possession is not explained.
But enough of this 1t is sufficient
for me to know that it is most beau
tiful hymn and to believe that Mrs.
Dawson and Mr.. Montgomery are both
in heaven. p. Z
And now comes another friend and
gently chides me for setting down John
Wesley as a Methodist: He asserts
that John and Charles Wesley main
tained to the last their connection with
and allegiance to the Church of En-
gland, and that they were never de-
posed from it. No doubt that is true
but still they were the founders Of
Methodism. The established church Of
England was closed against them.
They and their followers formed So
ciety, apd it was called the Methodist
society. They appointed laymen to
preach and assigned them circuits. In
1885 John came to Georgia as mis-
sionary with General Oglethorpe, and
returned to England in 1883 and con-
nected himself with the Moravians.
He says in his autobiography that he
never was converted until aquarter be-
fore o'clock on Wednesday night,
24th of May, 1888. In 1744 he attempted
to preach at Taunton and was forbid |
den by the magistrates. In ITO he as
sumed the Office of bishop, and 1854 or !
dained Rev. Thomas Coke bishop of
America. Coke came over Immediately |
and established the Methodist Episco-
pal church, Mr.. Wesley abridged the
English liturgy-prepared his own dis
cipline. If, with all these departures
from church government and church |
contro1 Mr. WpsIav chose to call HIM