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 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 24!

had been spent without any other compensation than this, my labours had been richly recompensed.

This hymn was a great favourite of Rowland Hill s, and was sung at his funeral.

Hymn 371. Happy soul who sees the day. CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Hymns and Sacred Poenis, 1742; Works, ii. 251. Isa. xii. Eight lines of the original omitted. It is in four-line verses.

A fine illustration of Charles Wesley s gift as a poetic commentator.

Hymn 372. My soul, inspired with sacred love.

CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Select Psalms: Psalm cxlvi. (left in MS.); Works, viii. 260. Appeared in the Arminian Magazine, 1798. Three verses are omitted.

Hymn 373. What shall I render to my God.

CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Psalms and Hymns, 1743 (left in MS.) ; Works, viii. 202. Psalm cxvi., second part.

Hymn 374. The God of Abraham praise. THOMAS OLIVERS.

Thomas Olivers was born at Tregynon, Montgomeryshire, in 1725, and lost both parents before he was five. As a youth he lived among people who thought little of lying or taking the name of God in vain, and before he was fifteen he was reckoned the worst boy known in the district for twenty or thirty years. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but his behaviour com pelled him to leave the neighbourhood. At Bristol he was convinced of sin under a sermon by George Whitefield. He fasted and prayed till his knees grew stiff. So earnest was I that I used by the hour together to wrestle with all the might of my body and soul, till I almost expected to die on the spot. He became a member of Wesley s Society at Bradford, in Wilts, where he was made a local preacher. He returned to Montgomeryshire and paid all his debts, travelling from

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