Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/323

 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 311

Hymn 523. Why not now, my God, niy God!

CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Short Hymns on Select Passages of Scripture, 1762 ; Works, ix. 318. Ps. ci. 2.

The first line of ver. 2 reads, At the close of life s short day.

No better cry could be put into the lips of a believer praying or of a seeker after God.

Hymn 524. Into Thy gracious hands I fall.

DESSLER (491) ; translated by JOHN WESLEY (36). The second part of the same translation as No. 521. Works, i. 90.

Hymn 525. Come, Thou all-inspiring Spirit. CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Hymns for the use of Families, 1767 ; Works, vii. 47.

Hymn 526. Come, Saviour, Jesus, from above!

ANTOINETTE BOURIGNON (1616-80) ; translated by JOHN WESLEY (36).

Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739 ; Works, i. no.

The writer was born at Lisle, and died at Franeker, in Friesland. She became in early life a religious mystic, and worked in France, Holland, England, and Scotland. She left a large number of followers in Scotland and France. She published several religious works, which were reprinted at Amsterdam, 1686, in nineteen volumes. She had to bear much persecution for her peculiar views. Venez, Jesus, mon salu- taire ( Renouncing all for Christ ), was written about 1640. She was betrothed to a noble, to whom she was truly attached ; but when awakened to a sense of sin by the influence of a Huguenot preacher, she felt that her spiritual life would be imperilled by union with a man of the world. Her family insisted on her marriage, and her own heart tempted her to yield. The night before the ceremony was to have taken place, she gathered her jewels together, cut off her beautiful

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