Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/406

 394 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

One of Dr. Stephenson s best known hymns, This is the glorious gospel word, was inspired by a Brighton Convention, and published in the Methodist Sunday School Hymn-Book^ 1879.

Hymn 766. Great God, &quot;whose universal sway.

ISAAC WATTS, D.D. (3).

Psalms of David, 1719. Ps. Ixxii. i-n. The Kingdom of Christ. In ver. 2 Watts wrote, Thy sceptre well becomes His hands.

Hymn 767. Jesus shall reign where er the sun.

ISAAC WATTS, D.D. (3).

Psalms of David, 1719. Ps. Ixxii. 12-19.

In ver. I Watts wrote, Till moons shall wax and wane no more. Ver. 3, his early blessings is changed into young hosannas. His last line is, And earth repeat the loud Amen.

Two verses are omitted

Behold ! the islands with their kings, And Europe her best tribute brings ; From north to south the princes meet To pay their homage at His feet.

There Persia, glorious to behold, There India shines in eastern gold, And barb rous nations at His word, Submit and bow, and own their Lord.

This hymn was sung on Whit Sunday, 1862, at the beginning of the service which King George of Tonga and his people held under the banyan-trees preparatory to the adoption of a Christian form of government. As the people remembered how they had been saved from cannibal horrors, one after another broke down in sobs over the bitter past from which the gospel had rescued them.

Hymn 768. Saviour, sprinkle many nations. ARTHUR CLEVELAND COXE, D.D. (1818-96).

Dr. Coxe was the son of an American Presbyterian minister. In 1842 he became Rector of St. John s, Hartford, and in 1865

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