The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-05-21

The great hymns of the world that
have touched the hearts OF many
thousands have usually been the es-
preston of a vital individual expe-
rience. They have not been writ
ten as mere pieces of literary COM
position they have been the crys-
talizing OF personal sorrow, personal
faith, or personal realization. They
have been the summing up of years
of hope and struggle, focused in an
instant of expression, as the century
plant stores up vitality for decades
to be evidenced at last in a sudden
Towering.
The circumstances that inspired
some of our great devotional hymns
must deepen the interest in both the
SOM and the singer and reveal that
mighty kinship of human souls, that
divine sympathy, that confers death
less fame on a few simple verses,
soul biographies living in song.
ROCK OF AGES, CLEFT FOR Me!
This greatest of hymns was writ
ten in 1775 by Rev. Augustus Top
lady, a very learned English divine,
who died at the early age Of thirty
eight. The hymn has the rare,
wondrous spiritual ecstasy he re-
vealed in his daily life. In his last
illness he said 81 cannot tell the
comforts that feel in my soul they
r past expression. 1t will not be long
before God takes me for no mortal
man can live after the glories which
God has manifested to my SOUL
The marble tablet over his grave
says: He Wrote Crock of Ages,
Cleft for Me"
ABIDE WITH ME FAST FALLS THE EVEN
TIDE
Rev. Henry Francis Lyle, a Scotch
curate in Lower Brixham, Devon
shire, in 1847, found himself with
his ambition gone, his heart heavy
with a failure in love, and his health
broken down. He decided to take a
trip to Rome, and accordingly babe
farewell to his flock after he had ad-
ministered the communion service.
He was scarcely able to crawl, -
but nerved himself for the ordeal.
After resting a little, he came forth
YEARLY from his chamber, as the
Sabbath sun was setting, and placed
this hymn into the hands of one of his
relatives. 1t is founded on the Bible
story of the walk to Emmaus.
THERE WERE NINETY AND NINE THAT
SAFELY LAY.
This hymn, made famous by Ira
D. Sankey, was written years ago
for a little paper called The Chill
dren's Hour" by Miss Elizabeth G.
Clephane, d Scotch woman, whose
heart was troubled by the parable of
the lost sheep and who sought to
put her feeling into verse. They
were copied into thousands of papers,
with no mention of the writer's
name. While on d railway train
near Glasgow, Mr.. Sankey tore the
verses from Il paper he found in the
a and put them in his pocket. That
night he addressed a meeting com
posed largely of Highland shepherd
lads and lasses. The thought of
the poem suddenly came to him, and
he began singing it from memory.
Z AS I AM, WITHOUT ONE PLEA
In 1922 DR.. Cesar Malon, of Gen
eva, visiting the home Of Mr.. Elliott
entered into conversation with Char
lOtte Elliot, the invalid daughter OF
his host, on the subject of her spiri.
tual welfare. His words touched
her and she said, But I do not
know how to find Chist 1 want you
to help me-" His answer. Come to
him just as you are, inspired this
hymn, first published anonymously
fourteen years later. It first ap-
peared in ''The Yearly Remem-
brancer' for 1886, an annual which
she was then editing. Some time
after its publication, a philanthropic
lady had it printed on a Ieafet and
gave it a great circulation through