The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-10-14

That was the sad telegram that came
to US from far away where one OF our
boys is living.
1t ssddened 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 80 happy.
There is trouble that is trouble grief that
is grief. The first child, and old enough
to have twired around the young moth
er's heart and absorbed her very life. The
father can love, too, and caress and feel a
fathers pride, and he can weep and feel
desolate. Time will temper his grief, but
q 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 garments that
he wore are hidden away somewhere, and
sometimes sec 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 80 in time
the young mothers grief will be sweeter
than it is sad, and she will rise from it
with hope anda trust she never knew
before. A child in heaven is bond that
cannot be broken-it is not lost-it is
saved. But still the paug of separation
is very crushing to the parents heart.
How the world shrinks up; how mean
and insignificant are all its pleasures. 1
have felt that way, and been comforted
with the feeling, and so know has eve
ry parent who has lost child.
Well, I suppose must answer my
friend, Colonel Dawson, for he is friend
and a Georgian, and was kind to me
when last visited New York, where he
lives. He complains in the last number
of the Sunny South that I have given
Montgomery as the author of that beau.
full hymn:
Prayer is the souls sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed.
And writes two columns in proof that
his mother wrote it. He says that he
published this same declaration in the
Chicago Current in 1884. I did not see
that; nobody down south saw it. What
is current in Chicago IS not very current
here, and 80 I think that is excuse
enough. The hymn has been set down
to Montgomery for fifty years or more
without question. 1t is in every hymn
book of every Christian denomination.
1t is in every edition of Montgomery's
poetical works that have ever seen. I
have copy before me, published in Ed.
inburgh in 1869, which gives eight verses
to the hymn: John Bartlett's standard
work on Familiar Quotations" is now in
the sixth edition, and quotes the hymn
from Montgomery. W. Davenport Ad'
ANS, another standard author on English
literature, gives the same authorship.
And 80 Colonel Dawson has no good rea.
son for requesting me "to be more careful
in the future about aiding and abettipg
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. Dawson's au-
thorship established. 1t seems that Mrs.
Dawson died in 1919, in Cynthians, KY,
and left her poetical manuscripts in pos
session of a friend. Among them was
found this hymn of ten verses in her own
handwriting. 1t seems further that in
1919 Montgomery published volume of
his own poems, and included this one,
which he marked "Anon." How it got
into Mr.. Montgomery's possession is not
explained.
But enough of this. 1t is sufficient for
me to know that it is most beautiful
hymn and to believe that Mrs. Dawson
and Mr.. Montgomery are both in heav-
en-.
And now comes another friend and
gently chides me for setting down John
Wesley as Methodist. he asserts that
John and Charles Wesley maintained to
the last their connection with and allegi.
ance to the Church of England, and that
they never deposed from it. No doubt
that is true-but still they we're. the
founders of Methodism. The established
Church of England was closed against
them. They and their followers formed
a society, and it was called the Methodist
Society. They appointed laymen to