Thought Moments OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE (Supplied by the Whakatane Ministers' Association).

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 32, 14 December 1945, Page 2

Thought Moments OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE (Supplied by the Whakatane Ministers' Association).

THE STRANGE STORY OF A STANZA By Canon Dyson Hague. The following -glory was. told one Sunday evening by Canon Hague in his Church in London Ontario Can- * * ada:— One Sunday evening I was preaching in my old Churchy St. Paul's, Halifax, the "Westminster Abbey of Canada," as the Governor of Nova Scotia used to call it, and towards the close of ray .sermon I told the following story : "Many years ago the great Dr. Valpy an eminen't English scholar, wrote a Utile verse of four lines as the longing of his heart and the confession of his faith. This was the simple stanza: " 'In peace let me. resign my breath, And Thy salvation see; My sins deserve eternal -death But Jesus died for me.' "Sime time afterwards he gave this verse to his friend, Dr. Marsh, a well known Church of England clergyman, and 'the lather of Miss 3\larsh the author of 'Life of Captain Hedley Vicars' and the verse became a great blessing to him. Dr. Marsh gave the lines to his friend, the Earl of Roden, who was so impressed with them that he had 'them written out and placed over the inantlepiece in his study. An old friend of his, General Taylor, one of the heroes of Waterloo, came to visit him at Tolly more Park, Ireland, and day after day the Earl found ; the old warrior standing by the mantlepiece with his eyes fixed upon the motto. 'Why General,', said Lord Roden, 'you will soon) know the verse by heart.' 'I know it now by heart,' replied the General with great - feeling, and the simple words were the means of bringing him to know ; the way of salvation. Some two years afterwards the physician, who had been with the old General while he. lay a-dying, wrote to Lord Roden to say that his. friend had departed in peace, and that the last words which fell from the old General's lips were the words which he had learned to love in his lifetime: " 'In peace let me resign breath, And Thy slavation see; My sins deserve eternal death, But Jesus died for me.' "Years afterwards, at the house of a neighbour, Lord Roden happened to tell the. 'story of the old General and. these lines, and among 'ihose who heard it was a young officer in the British Army who had recently returned from the Crimea; he carelessly heard this tale. Nothing was known about it at the time but a few months later Lord Roden received a message from 'the officer, telling him that he wanted to see. him as he was in a rapid decline. As the Earl entered the sick room the dying man extended

both his hands to Avelcome him,' repeating the lines: " 'in i)eace let me resign my breath J And Thy salvation see: My sins deserve eternal death, But Jesus died for me. "He then added: 'They have been God's message of peace and comfort to my heart in this, illness, when brought to my memory after days of -darkness and distress, by the Holy Ghost the Comforter.' "As I said I was telling this story in my sermon in old S't. Paul's, and as 1 began to tell it 1 noticed that an old gentleman, who was sitting in a pew not far from the pulpit just iii front of me, a representative of one. of the oldest families in Nova Scotia was being overcome with an extraordinary emotion. His whole frame seemed to quiver with some unwonted, excitement, and his eyes looked bright with a strange light. I thought, for the moment, that it was a transient attack of some pby- j sical affection. But, as I went on j telling the story there was no doubt thai it had in some way seized upon the very soul of the listener, and touched his feelings -with some strange and indescribable suggestion. And when at last I told of the Crimean officer, 1 thought that the old gentleman would have almost cried out in the church, so deeply was he affected. The story ended the sermon and after the singing of the hymn I went into .the vestry. I had scarcely got there when a knock was heard at. the door, and the old. gentleman, with emotion still evident came and asked me: 'Where did you get that story?' I j told him I had read it in the work of a modern author, whose works are world-lamed. He said: 'I do not know whether you saw that I was j very much touched by it, but it almost overcame me.' And then he told me this story. Years ago,'when he was a young man. careless and indifferent in matters, of religion, he sauntered one day 'in his walk into an old churchyard near Wolfville Nova Scotia in the land of Evangeline, and seeing 5 fallen gravestone he overturned i't in pure curiosity. And there lie read at the foot engraved in the stone, a verse of four lines that took such hold upon him and soclearly explained to him the Avay of salvation that 'they were the means of his conversion. And from that clay, nearly fifty years before, he had, by God's grace as a result of those four lines, led consecrated life for Christ. The lines wqre.: " 'In peace let me resign my breath, And Thy salvation see: My sins deserve eternal death, But Jesus died for me. " 'You can imagine,' said he, 'my amazement as well as my delight when I heard you tell the story about the lines. You brought back to me the wonderful way in which God was pleased to save my soul.'