Handbook to the Mennonite HymnaryHostetler, Lester
Religion
Handbook to the Mennonite Hymnary
Hostetler, Lester
Hymns, English -- History and criticism; Mennonites -- Hymns -- History and criticism
An evangelistic song, written by a Congregational minister. Hart, born
in London and brought up in a devout Christian home, was well educated
and taught the classics for many years. Early in life he departed from
his religious training and fell into a life of “carnal and spiritual
wickedness, irreligious and profane.” After continuing in this state for
a long period of years, during which he exerted a pernicious influence
upon all with whom he associated, Hart became deeply convicted, in his
fortieth year, and betook himself to daily prayer and Bible reading. He
was finally converted upon hearing a sermon on Rev. 3:10: “Because thou
hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour
of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that
dwell upon the earth”—preached in the Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane,
London. Becoming an earnest and consecrated Christian, and writer of
hymns, he was importuned to become a preacher, which he did, although in
his 48th year. From 1760 till his death in 1768, he preached regularly
as pastor of an Independent Congregation in London, drawing large
crowds. He died in the midst of labors and successes almost
unprecedented, and it is said that 20,000 people came to his funeral. He
is remembered chiefly, however, for his hymns, most of them of the
evangelistic type.
_MUSIC._ GREENVILLE, a beautifully quaint and popular tune, was not
written for sacred use but for a little song in the opera _Le Devin du
Village_, by Rousseau. It was once popular in a piano arrangement known
as “Rousseau’s Dream.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712-78, philosopher and musician, was born at
Geneva. Though not a religious man, he greatly influenced education in
Europe and became one of the great forces in modern literature. A
political radical, he was forced to leave France and for a time lived in
England. His opera, _Le Devin du Village_, was a success, but none of
his later musical efforts came to anything. He lived an unhappy life and
is thought to have committed suicide. His death occurred near Paris,
July 3, 1778.
460. I have a Savior, He’s pleading in glory _S. O’Maley Cluff_
A favorite prayer-meeting hymn for many years, in many churches.
Sankey came across these words in a printed leaflet while he was on his
first visit with D. L. Moody to Ireland in 1874. It was the second hymn
to which he wrote music and was much used in later Moody-Sankey revival
services.
No definite information has been traced by hymnologists concerning
Samuel O’Malley Clough to whom the words are attributed. He is believed
to have been an Irish clergyman who left the Established Church to unite
with the Plymouth Brethren in Ireland; later (1881) seceding from that
body to lead a “holiness” schism which has since become extinct. Julian
and others spell the name “Clough”; Sankey spells it “Cluff.”
_MUSIC._ CLUFF derives its name from the author of the words to which
Sankey set the tune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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