Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/267

 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 255

Toplady was converted in a barn under a sermon by James Morris, a Methodist preacher. He says, Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought right unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of people met together in a barn, and by the ministry of one who could hardly spell his own name. This statement is very wide of the mark, for Morris was by no means an illiterate man. He was a born orator, though reticent and lowly-minded. Toplady was ordained in 1762, and became afterwards Vicar of Broadhembury. His controversy with Wesley showed him to be a partisan, impulsive, rash-spoken, reckless in misjudgement.

He came to London in 1775 as preacher at the French Church, Orange Street, Leicester Square ; died at Knightsbridge, and was buried at Whiteneld s Chapel in Tottenham Court Road. Canon Ellerton says, Almost simultaneously with &quot;Rock of Ages,&quot; he wrote and gave to Lady Huntingdon another, which, barring one or two blemishes, I venture to think is scarcely surpassed as a dying man s last utterance by &quot; Abide with me &quot; itself the wonderful and heavenly-minded &quot; When languor and disease invade.&quot; The light of God must have already been upon the face of one who could thus \vrite. The hymn is given in Karl Selborne s Book of Praise. We may quote the first two verses

&quot;When languor and disease invade

This trembling house of clay, Tis sweet to look beyond the cage,

And long to fly away.

Sweet to look inward, and attend

The whispers of His love ; Sweet to look upward to the place

Where Jesus pleads above.

In Toplady s last illness the doctor spoke encouragingly of the prospect of recovery. No, no, said Toplady ; I shall die, for no mortal could endure such manifestations of God s glory as I have, and live. The next day, August u, 1778, he passed to his rest while singing his own Deathless principle, arise.

In the Gospel Magazine, October 1775, an article appears on Life a Journey from the pen of Toplady, signed Minimus. Yet, if you fall, be humbled, but do not despair. Pray afresh to God, who is able to raise you up, and set you on your feet

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