Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/181

 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 169

It was repeated in his Passion of Jesus, 1852, Third Sorrowful Mystery, Songs of the Seraphs. Apoc. xix. 12. The rest of the hymn, save the last line, is by Godfrey Thring. His own hymn began, Crown Him with crowns of gold, but in 1880, in Mr. Thring s Collection, Bridges first stanza was substituted for his own to secure those fine lines

Hark ! how the heavenly anthem drowns All music but its own.

Mr. Bridges was born at Maldon, Essex, in 1800 ; educated in the Church of England, joined the Church of Rome in early life, and went to Quebec, where he died in 1893.

At the Bible Society s Centenary Thanksgiving in the Royal Albert Hall (November, 1905), after congratulatory messages had been read from all the Protestant rulers of Christendom, the Marquis of Northampton, who presided over the meeting, said : Now that we have read these addresses from earthly rulers, let us turn our minds to the King of kings. We will sing, &quot; Crown Him with many crowns.&quot;

Hymn 209. The head that once was crowned with thorns.

THOMAS KELLY, M.A. In the 1820 edition of his Hymns ; based on Heb. ii. 9, 10.

Kelly was the son of an Irish judge, Chief Baron Kelly, and was born in Dublin in 1769, and educated for the bar at Trinity College. He took holy orders in 1792, but his earnest evangelical preaching in Dublin led Archbishop Fowler to inhibit him. He left the Established Church, and built places of worship in Wexford and other towns, where he preached. He was an excellent biblical scholar and a magnetic preacher, and was greatly admired for his zeal and liberality to the poor during the famine year. He was much beloved by the poor of Dublin ; and one man is said to have cheered his wife in a time of great trouble by saying, Hould up, Bridget, bedad ; there s always Misther Kelly to pull us out of the bog afther we ve sunk for the last time. He died in 1854.

He published in 1802 a Collection of Psalms and Hymns, with an appendix of thirty-three hymns by himself. He also issued volumes of hymns and a selection of tunes for every variety of metre, which was well received. Some of them are

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