The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-10-31

MARY 5.
The Jour hymns Rev. DR.. Cuyler re-
CARDS as great" are Rock of Ages
Jesus Lover of My Soul my Faith
Looks UP to Thee" and he says these
are absolutely perfect productions
The fourth is "Just as I am without
one plea" AS to the first it is no
doubt the best of Toplady's. The
second is not the best or greatest OF
that prodigious producer of hymns,
Charles Wesley-(he wrote more than
6.OOO) for there are men of excellent
parts and lovers Of thebest hymnolOgy
who regard his "Wrestling Jacob as
the foremost. We recall that n critic
said he would rather have written that
superb hymn han to have written all
OF Watts's hymns and there are many
such. You see doctors differ and
preachers differ as to which is best.
CuyIer likes the hymns "Of our blind
songstress, Fanny Crosby Vanalstyne,
h productions have not a high
poetic merit, and yet are sung by mil
lions all round the globe" We cannot
sing and have but little acquaintance
with the vast field Of hymn production,
but to us there is nothing that so moves
us as one of Fanny Crosby hymns, name
forgotten, that was sung in every meet
ing Of Rev. DIR. Pearson, the prince of
~revivalists and one of the best of
preachers, held in this town in 1888, we
think it was, and which the great
preacher sid was his own favorite
above all others. Toplady was a bitter
controversialist, as John Wesley found
him to be. and their discussion over
Calvanism was warmly pressed. DR..
CuyIer says in the time of this shock
ing controversy "one day in March
1916, he published in the Gospel Maya
zine four stanzas entitled, "a living and
dying Prayer for the hottest believer in
the world These four verses are the
immortal Rock of Ages which Prince
Albert repeated on his dying bed, which
Gladstone translated into Latin, which
are in every evangelical hymn book, and
which has laid a broader and firmer
grasp on the English speaking world
tina any other hymn in our language"
Of Charles Wesley's worldwide sung
hymn. Jesus Lover of My Soul" that
has brought comfort and hope and in
spiration and blessings to thousands
of souls, and has been sung for more
than 125 years by many a dying saint
n weeping family, DR.. Cuyler
eff ever there was a born singer, it
was Charles Wesley; he ate, drank,
slept dreamed of little else but
making hymns. Of all his six thousand
hymns the unquestioned masterpiece is
Jesus Lover of My Soul" 1t is the
queen of all the lays of holy love, the
passionate yearning of a redeemed soul
for it's Redeemer. It's figures of speech
vary; in~one line we see a storm-tossed
voyager crying out for shelter from the
tempest; in another line we see a child
nesting in it's mothers rms; but the
central thought of rescue and repose in
Jesus never changes. Oh, how many
of us in dark hours of trial, have pour
ed out our troubled hearts in those two
b~eseeching lines,
Leave, oh, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort mel"
Wesley composed this superb hymn in
early life, within a few months of the
date of the beginning of Methodism."
Ray Palmer, a teacher, wrote the
third hymn. He was a young mani
not then in the ministry, when he twas
met by Lowell Mason in Boston, anC
asked to furnish a hymn for a new
music book soon to be issued. Palmer
drew out of his pocket the four verse:
haUinnino with fhn words NV foit1
looks up to Thee He handed them t.
Mason for publication and thus secured
his own Immortality"
DR.. Cuyler writes lovingly of his dea
friend, but we AVE not space to cop!
what is so pleasantly aid The fourtl
hymn was written by Charlotte Elliot
while in frail health-at her brother
the Rev. Henry E. Elliott's house il
Brighton England" DIR. Cuyler give
this account:
although written by an invali
they have by Gods blessing made man,
a sick soul we'll. / we'll remember how
nearly fifty years ago., the eloquen
Rev. Thomas H. Sargent or Baltimore
at the close of a sermon to the 1mpenl
ten drew out these lines which he ha
clipped from a n rea
them with prodigious effect. Soon al
forwards they found their way into tn
hymn books. No hymn is more admir-
ably adapted to revival meetings.; non
more appropriate to follow a dlscours
to awakened sinners"
There are a few other hymns tina
have 81 history and are very preclou
that it would be agreeable to writ
about if we had the space today.
Turning to Romans, second chapter