THE ROMANCE OF A HYMN.

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 21, 16 October 1930, Page 3

THE ROMANCE OF A HYMN.

To women.one* of the most interesting centenaries ccleibitvted in England last year was that of the publication 'of the hyaiin commencing:— x Otur Blest Redeemer, ere Ho breathed . His tender, last farewell, ■ A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed With us to dwell. " The authoress whs Miss Harriet Amber, the daughter of a Church of England clergyman, and the hymn made its first, appearance in a small volmne of sacred verse. "The Spirit of the Psalms," published in 1829. , A romantic story is told of the waiting irf the hymn, which is now included in most hy.ranaries and has been translated into several languages. On Whit Sunday, .1829, Miss Auber was sitting in her room thinking over the sermon she bad heard that morning. She had in her desk a number of hymns -intend-' od for publication,-and as she sat meditating the lines of a new hyann began to form in her mind. Neither pencil nor paper was within ■ reach, so on the spur of the moment sho wrote the verses with 'her dianxond ring on the window-pane. It is recorded that .seventeen years after her death. (1862) ( efforts were made by persons who appreciated the beauty of tho hymn to secure the .pane, not as a curiosity, but so that it might be preserved as a j memorial. However, the then owner of tho house l^efusea to allow the glass to bo removed. Between that time and 1894 it mysteriously disappearetl, and where it is now—if it is still in exist- ( ence —'is unknown. In a •copy of T.P.s Weekly a lititle wiile ago the poetess's grand-niece, an old lady of ninety, threw some doubt on the story of the inscription on the glass, but later investigations appear to substantiate the trrjth'of it, and the ■centenary of the first appearance of the hyrtnn was celebrated in Miss Aulber's native village by the installations of a stain<ed jglass window in tho church.