Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/282

 270 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

on August 14, 1848, and was buried at Harlow. Eliza Flower had died of consumption in 1846. Mrs. Adams s health suffered by nursing her sister. Almost her last breath was unconscious song. The hymns and the music at both funerals were com posed by the sisters. A relative says Sarah was tall and beautiful, with noble features, gay and impulsive in manner, and full of wit and humour. Her mother died early, and her father under took the education of his two girls. She was a member of the congregation of Rev. W. J. Fox, Unitarian minister at South Place Chapel, Finsbury, and contributed thirteen hymns to the Hymns and Anthems published by Charles Fox in 1841. Of these, Nearer, my God, to Thee, is the best known. Her beautiful hymn, He sendeth sun, He sendeth shower, appeared in the same collection, and a rendering from Fenelon, Living or dying, Lord, I would be Thine. 3 Her hymns were the spontaneous expression of a strong impulse or feeling at the moment of composition. She published a dramatic poem in four acts in 1841, Vivia Perpetua, and The Flock at the Fountain, a catechism and hymns for children, in 1845. Bishop Bickersteth, in his annotated edition of the Hymnal Companion, says, The editor shrank from appending a closing verse of his own to a hymn so generally esteemed complete as this, or he would have suggested the following

There in my Father s home,

Safe and at rest, There in my Saviour s love

Perfectly blest ; Age after age to be Nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer to Thee.

Many attempts have been made to add a touch or two to this hymn which might take from it all suspicion of Unitarianism, but they have not found favour. The hymn is too complete and perfect in form to bear any alteration, and the fact that it is based on Jacob s dream at Bethel would make such additions an anachronism.

President McKinley found great comfort from this hymn when he was dying. After the battle of Fort Donnelson a drummer-boy, whose arm had been torn off by a cannon-ball, was found singing with his failing breath, Nearer, my God, to Thee. With that comfort as his pillow he died. Edward VH

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