June 1929
275
T h e
K i n g ' s . B u s i n e s s
our God), that great hymn by Martin’Rinkart, much used during the Thirty Years War and called the “German Te Deum.” It is found in nearly every standard hymn book today. She has also translated Gustavus Adolphus’ great hymn, “Fear not, O Little Flock, the Foe,” and “Leave God to Order all our Ways.” Her principal works are found in “Lyra Germanica,” published in 1855 and 1858. “She was a person of remarkable intellectual and social gifts, and very unusual attainments; but what spe cially distinguished her was her combination of rare ability and great knowledge with a certain tender and sympathetic refinement which constitute the special charm of the true womanly character.” Julian places her at the head of those who have translated hymns from the German. A H ost o f O t h e r W om e n W r it e r s Cecil Frances Alexander was the wife of Archbishop Alexander of Armagh, Ireland, who dedicated to her his Bampton lectures on “The Witness of the Psalms to Christ” in the following words: “To Cecil Frances Alex ander in remembrance of twenty-seven years of helpful love and example, with full assurance that his own esti mate of her hymns and sacred songs is that of the Church and of English-speaking Christians generally.” Mrs. Alex ander is known as the author of the famous poem “The Burial of Moses,” which has been called the “finest sacred lyric in the language,” closing with these beautiful words: God hath His mysteries of grace, Ways that we cannot tell; He hides them deep like the hidden sleep Of him he loved so well. She wrote several volumes of poems, one of which is “Hymns for Little Children.” It will seem strange that her greatest hymn, “There is a Green Hill Far Away,” was written for children; but with its simple language and clear diction that a child may understand, there are truths of the most profound nature. Another of her hymns that is intensely spiritual and evangelistic, begins with this stanza: When, wounded sore, the stricken soul Lies bleeding and unbound, Two other hymns from her pen in common use are “Once in Royal David’s City” and “Jesus Calls Us o’er the Tumult.” Children’s hymns by three other writers should be mentioned here: “I Think, when I Read that Sweet Story of Old,” by Jemima Luke; “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” by Anna Warner; and “Jesus, Tender Shepherd, Hear Me,” by Mary Lundie Duncan. The songs for little children are of the greatest moment—touching as they do with lasting impressions the plastic lives of future men and women. A great host of other women writers, the hymns of any one of whom will repay study, cannot be included in the limits of this article—such names as Anna Waring, author of “Father, I Know that All my Life” ; Phoebe Cary, who wrote “One Sweetly Solemn Thought” ; Mary Shekelton with her “It Passeth Knowledge, that Dear Love of Thine” ; Anne Ross Cousin, singing over again the dying words of Samuel Rutherford, “Glory Dwelleth One only hand, a pierced hand, Can heal the sinner’s wound.
in Immanuel’s Land” ; Fanny Crosby with her great num ber of Gospel songs that are household words; Elizabeth Clephane, who put Sankey to singing “The Ninety and Nine” ; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, greatest poet of them all, who said, “We want the touch of Christ’s hand upon our literature as it touched other dead things.” Froude, the English historian, said of Newman: “He seemed to be addressing the most secret consciousness of each one of us, as the eyes of a portrait appear to look at every person in the room.” In like manner these gifted and spiritually minded women have touched a new chord in the music of the soul and brought us messages more directly from “the heart of. God” than the writings of men have done. Christianity has raised her from the position of bondage to which she is reduced in non-Christian lands, and her obligation to Christ is correspondingly great. She has met this challenge by a devotion without equal in human annals—as beautifully expressed by Mrs. Brown ing: Not she with trait’rous kiss her Saviour stung f Not she denied Him with unholy tongue; She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave. Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave Moslem and Atheist The London Christian suggests that the disestablish ment of Islam will be found to be synonymous with the enthronement of atheism in Moslem lands. It adds: “Those who are in a position to speak with the advantage of first-hand- knowledge of present-day conditions in Tur key, confirm |tjhis. An aggressive spirit of godlessness is rampant among the Turkish leaders under the Angora regime, and morality and right living are at a low ebb. With Bolshevik Russia, Turkey stands as a bulwark of atheism between the West and the East. But there re mains the view that, from the Christian missionary stand point, atheism is probably more vulnerable than is M ch - hammedanism in its hide-bound self-satisfaction and con servatism. Whatever view is taken of the present state of religious life in the Near East, it geems clear that there is a challenge to those who would carry the banner of Christ in the forefront of the fight against evil .”— The Alliance Weekly.
God Never Fails God never fails, though all things fail—: Tried heart, cast anchor there; When storms of doubt and fear assail, Trust Him who answers prayer; Thy barque will weather every gale; Faith reckons all winds fa ir ! God never fails, though all things fail— Unshaken ground of rest, Safe anchorage within the veil .For mariners distressed; Light of God’s love shall never pale, His will is always best.
— Selected.
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