A FAMOUS HYMN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2233, 1 February 1921, Page 4

A FAMOUS HYMN.

WRITTEN AT ROTHESAY,

Some of I lie most beautiful and popular of our hymns were the offspring of sadness and tragedy. Charlotte Elliott wrote “Just, as I Am" when she was ill and discouraged. The Rev. Henry Francis Lyle wrote “Abide With Me" when “the darkness of death" was creeping over him. Cowper tried to commit suicide twice and failed, after which he wrote, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way." „ Apart from the great beauty oi “Our Blest Redeemer ere He breathed His tender last farewell,", the hymn is remarkable from the fact that the authoress, Harriet Auber, first wrote it on a pane of glass in a window of bei’ house at Iloddcisdon. “Christians, awake, salute the happy morn," has been a favourite Christmas hymn for more than 150 years. John Byrom, the author, wrote it for his favourite little daughter, Dollv, who found it oik Christmas morning awaiting her with other presents.

“There is a Happy Land" was written by Andrew Young in 1838. He happened, during that year, to he spending his holiday at Rothesay, and one day passed the afternoon in the house of a friend. A little girl began to"play a pretty little Indian melody on the piano, and Mr Young, who was passionately fond of music, begged her to play it again, remarking that it would make a capital tune for a children s hymn.

Tlrnt night the tunc still haunted him, and early-in the morning ho rose and, while walking in the garden, wrote the hymn. Perhaps the most quickly-written hymn was “From Greenland's Icy Mountains," composed by Bishop Holier in little more than fifteen minutes!