take up his cross daily and follow Me.'" This discipline and resignation became the subject of one of her most loved hymns: My God, my Father, while I stray Far from my home, on life 's rough way, Though dark my path, and sad my lot, What though in lonely grief I sigh "Thy will be done." If thou shouldst call me to resign Let but my fainting heart be blest Renew my will from day to day, All that now makes it hard to say, The larger number of her hymns were published under the following circumstances: In 1834, she became acquainted with Miss Kiernan, a benevolent woman of Dublin, who, in her last illness, began the preparation of a hymn-book for invalids. After her death, the work was put into the hands of Charlotte Elliott to finish. It was a work in which she was in sympathy, and peculiarly fitted to complete. She added a large number of hymns of her own composition, among them that beginning "Just as I am." The sale of this collection of hymns reached nearly 20,000 copies. The hymn "Just as I am" was printed, unknown to the writer, on leaflets, for gratuitous distribution, and her physician brought one of these to her, not knowing that she had written it. "I know," he said, "that this will please you." It did indeed please her to know that in her own helplessness her life was helpful to others. She lived to be an octogenarian. Her last manifestation of consciousness on her sick-bed was when her sister read to her the Scripture lesson on the morning of her death: "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty." She was observed to raise her eyes to heaven, and a sudden glow of joy seemed to illumine her countenance. SARAH FLOWER ADAMS. THE AUTHOR OF 'NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE.' PERHAPS no hymn, since the publication of Perronet's "All hail the power of Jesus' name," in 1785, has received. so wide and deserving a popularity as that beginning, "Nearer, my God, to thee." It finds a place in all collections of hymns in the English tongue, and is a favorite alike in Trinitarian and Unitarian churches. It has been translated into many languages, and has followed the triumphs of the Gospel in heathen lands. It is the best metrical expression of the desire for a more intimate spiritual ac quaintance with God, and the riches of his grace, that we have in modern psalmody. It is a fresh and touching expression of the same yearning aspirations toward God that we prize in Cowper's "Oh, for a closer walk with God," which it succeeds in popular favor. It expresses a willingness to know God through the discipline of affliction; to descend into the valleys in the ascent of that spiritual mountain whose summit is everlasting light. Its imagery embraces the associations of one of the most sublime and interesting religious experiences recorded in the early Hebrew Scriptures-Jacob's vision at Luz. "And he lighted upon a certain place," says the Scripture of Jacob's wanderings, "and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." The hymn almost literally reproduces this delightful passage: "Though like the wanderer, The sun gone down, My rest a stone, Nearer, my God, to thee, Nearer to thee." The scriptural account of the waking of Jacob on the morning after the vision is as vividly brought to mind in the figures used in the fourth stanza of the hymn: "Then with my waking thoughts Bright with thy praise, Bethel I 'll raise; Nearer, my God, to thee, Mrs Sarah Flower Adams, the author of the hymn, was the younger of two daughters of Benjamin Flower, an English wiriter and editor. She was born in 1805. Her mother, a lady of culture, refined feelings and sentiments, died early in life. Her elder sister's name was Eliza. The strongest attachment existed between the two sisters; both possessed the fine feelings of their mother, and were fond of books, music, poetry, and art. Their æsthetic tastes discovered themselves in childhood, and girlhood to them was a glowing season of aspiration and expectancy. Eliza turned her attention to music and musical composition, and her sister to religious poetry. They were Unitarian in their church relations, but their piety was gauged by devotional feeling and high religious attainments, rather than by denominational requirements or any sectarian views. "Eliza Flower," says a critic, "attained a higher rank in musical composition, than before her time had been reached by any of her sex. Sarah Flower made the composition of poetry her occupation, while her sister pursued her musical studies. In 1834, she married William Bridges Adams, an eminent engineer, and a contribu tor to the best periodical literature In 1841, she pub lished a dramatic poem in five acts, entitled, "Vivia Perpetua," in which she portrays the religious life, sufferings, strong faith, and endurance, of the early martyrs. The hymn "Nearer, my God, to thee," was a record of her own religious experience, and was written as a memorial of answered prayer, probably without any expectation that it would be of public service. It was furnished with thirteen other hymns to Charles Fox's collection of "Hymns and Anthems," published in London, in 1841. The cares of married life in nowise abated her early attachment to her equally gifted sister. Regarding "Vivia Perpetua" as the fruit of their joint aspirations and studies, she dedicates it to her sister in some lines in which occurs the following tender sentiment: "In thy content, I win a wreath more bright Than earth's wide garden ever could supply; Her sister's health beginning to decline and evidences of pulmonary consumption appearing, she devoted herself to the invalid's room with unceasing watchfulness and self-forgetful care. Eliza Flower died in 1847. Mrs. Adams never recovered from the shock of the separation. Her religious aspirations, always strong, seemed now to receive a heavenly impulse. Her health gradually de、 . clined, and, in 1849, two years after her sister's death, she too peacefully fell asleep. |