Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/203

 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS IQI

Silent the lyre, and dumb the tuneful tongue That sang on earth her great Redeemer s praise,

But now in heaven she tunes a noble song In more exalted, more melodious lays.

Trust and resignation breathe in all her hymns. In a letter to her father she says, If while I am sleeping in the silent grave my thoughts are of any real benefit to the meanest of the servants of my God, be the praise ascribed to the Almighty Giver of all grace.

Miss Steele loved her village house in Broughton, with its high roof and massive chimneys, its antique porch and rural garden palisades, overshadowed by trees. She said, I enjoy a calm evening on the terrace walk, and I wish, though in vain, for numbers sweet as the lovely prospect, and gentle as the vernal breeze, to describe the beauties of charming spring ; but the reflection how soon these blooming pleasures will vanish, spreads a melancholy gloom, till the mind rises by a delightful transition to the celestial Eden the scenes of un- decaying pleasure and immutable perfection.

Earl Selborne describes her as, after Doddridge, the most popular, and perhaps the best of the followers of Watts. She is the first of our lady hymn-writers, and has been called the Miss Havcrgal of her century.

In the last illness of T. B. Smithies, the editor of the British Workman, in July, 1883, his friends thought he was asleep, but he broke into sudden praise, for the comfort and joy he had found during his whole life in the Word, and for the sufficiency of its stay in the hour of death

Father of mercies, in Thy word

What endless glory shines ! For ever be Thy name adored

For these celestial lines.

Hymn 250. Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire. CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740; Works, i. 238. Before reading the Scriptures.

In the third verse John Wesley changed prolific Dove into celestial Dove in 1780.

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