Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/385

 THE STORY OP THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 373

After dinner John Fletcher often sang several verses of Primitive Christianity, particularly that

Oh that my Lord would count me meet To wash His dear disciples feet!

Sometimes he read many of those verses with tears streaming down his face. Wesley s Life of Mr. Fletcher.

Hymn 701. O God of our forefathers, hear. CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Hymns on the Lord s Supper, 1745, No. 125 ; Works, iii. 309.

Hymn 702. From every stormy wind that blows. HUGH STOWELL, M.A.

Peace at the Mercy-Seat, in 7 he Winter s Wrtath, 1828, an illustrated annual, which lived from 1828 to 1832. The last verse is here omitted

Oh ! let my hand forget her skill, My tongue be silent, cold, and still, This throbbing heart forget to beat, If I forget the mercy-seat.

Canon Stowell was the son of the Rector of Ballaugh, near Ramsey ; was born at Douglas in 1799, and in 1831 became Rector of Christ Church, Salford, which had been built through his efforts. In 1845 he was Hon. Canon in Chester Cathedral, and in 1851 Rural Dean of Eccles. He was well known as a preacher and author, and a powerful champion of evangelical truth. He wrote the Jubilee Hymn for the British and Foreign Bible Society. He died in 1865.

In 1831 he published A Selection of Psalms and Hymns, in which nine of his own hymns appeared. Thirty-four others appeared in the enlarged edition of 1864.

His son says, My father s last utterances abundantly showed his love of, and delight in, prayer. Almost every word was prayer, couched for the most part in the language of Holy Scripture, or the Book of Common Prayer, and these prayers were characterized by the deepest humility and most entire self-distrust. Equally apparent was his simple and firm reliance on his Saviour. To the question, &quot;Is Jesus with you and

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