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 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 393

Bryant was the son of a physician, to whose careful training he owed a great debt. After ten years at the bar he settled in New York as an editor, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was the first American poet who became well known in all Anglo-Saxon lands. Lowell describes him

lie is almost the one of your poets that knows

How much grace, strength, and dignity lies in repose.

In an ode for the poet s seventieth birthday, Lowell pays high tribute to the singer of our crew in the great Anti- Slavery struggle

But now he sang of faith in things unseen, Of freedom s birthright given to us in trust ;

And words of doughty cheer he spoke between, That made all earthly fortune seem as dust,

Matched with that duty, old as Time and new, Of being brave and true.

We, listening, learned what makes the might of words, Manhood to back them, constant as a star ;

His voice rammed home our cannon, edged our swords, And sent our boarders shouting ; shroud and spar

Heard him and stiffened ; the sails heard and wooed The winds with loftier mood.

In our dark hours he manned our guns again ;

Remanned ourselves from his own manhood s store ; Pride, honour, country, throbbed through all his strain ;

And shall we praise? God s praise was His before; And on our futile laurels he looks down, Himself our bravest crown.

Hymn 765. Lord, grant us, like the watching five. THOMAS BOWMAN STEPHENSOX, B.A., D.D.

Dr. Stephenson, the son of the Rev. John Stephenson, Wesleyan minister, was born at Newcastle, 1839 ; educated at Wesley College, and entered the Wesleyan ministry in 1860. He was the founder of the Children s Home, and its first Principal. He was President of the Wesleyan Conference, 1891, and was appointed Warden of the Wesley Deaconess Institute in 1903.

This hymn was intended for the setting apart of deaconesses to their work, but it applies to all workers.

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