I went one day on some missionary business to the little town of Wellington, five miles from Taunton, in a stage coach. It was a beautiful spring morning, it was an hour’s ride, and there was no other inside passenger. On the back of an old envelope I wrote in pencil the first two of the verses now so well known, in order to teach the tune to the village school supported by my stepmother, and which it was my province to visit. The third verse was added afterwards to make it a missionary hymn. Jemima Luke was the daughter of Thomas Thompson, one of the founders of the British and Foreign Sailors’ Society and a “friend of every good cause.” She volunteered to do missionary work in India, but ill health made that impossible. All her life, however, she maintained an active interest in foreign missions. In 1843, she married the Rev. Samuel Luke, a Congregational minister in Clifton, England. _MUSIC._ SWEET STORY is an arrangement by Wm. B. Bradbury (see Hymn 103) of a Greek tune known as “Salamis” or “Athens.” Mrs. Luke heard the melody (in its original form) used as a marching song by a group of children in a school near her home where she had gone to learn something of the teaching methods used. She was intrigued by the tune and wrote the words to fit it. The words and music are inseparably associated, the original form of the melody being used in England, and Bradbury’s adaptation (easier but less interesting) in America. 428. Jesus loves me! this I know _Anna B. Warner_, 1820-1915 A hymn beloved by all the children. It was composed about 1860. For comments on the author, Anna Bartlett Warner, see Hymn 201. _MUSIC._ JESUS LOVES ME. Bradbury’s tune was composed for this hymn in _The Golden Choir_, 1861. For comments on William B. Bradbury, see Hymn 103. 429. Loving Shepherd of Thy sheep _Jane Eliza Leeson_, 1807-82 From Miss Leeson’s _Hymns and Scenes of Childhood_, 1842. Based on John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.” For comments on the author, Jane Eliza Leeson, see Hymn 298. _MUSIC._ INNOCENTS. For comments on this tune, see Hymn 64. 430. I am Jesus’ little lamb _Henriette Luise von Hayn_, 1724-82 A song of the Good Shepherd’s care of His lambs, based on Isa. 40:11: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom.”