Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane, daughter of the Sheriff of Fife and Kinross, was born in Edinburgh. She was a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Her hymn, “There were ninety and nine,” became widely known through its use by Moody and Sankey in their famous evangelistic meetings. The hymn, “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” appeared in Scotland, three years after the death of Miss Clephane, in _The Family Treasure_, a home magazine, with this explanatory note by the editor: These lines express the experiences, the hopes, and the longings of a young Christian lately released. Written on the very edge of this life, with the better land fully in view of faith, they seem to us footsteps printed on the sands of Time, where those sands touch the ocean of Eternity. These footprints of one whom the Good Shepherd led through the wilderness into rest, may, with God’s blessing, contribute to comfort and direct succeeding pilgrims. _MUSIC._ ST. CHRISTOPHER was composed for this hymn by Frederick C. Maker, 1844-1927, an English organist and composer of numerous hymn tunes. Maker spent all his life in Bristol, England, thirty years of which were devoted to the position of organist at the Redland Park Congregational Church. HIS RESURRECTION 113. Come ye faithful, raise the strain _John of Damascus_, _c._ 700 _Tr. John M. Neale_ A Greek hymn based on the Song of Moses, Exodus 15. Αἴσωµεν, πάντες λαοί, τῶ ἐκ πικρᾶς δουλείας Φαραὼ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἀπαλλάξαντι καὶ ἐν βυθῷ φαλάσσης ποδὶ ἀβρόχως ὁδηγήσαντι ᾠδὴν ἐπινίκιον, ὅτι δεδόξασται. Σήµερον ἔαρ ψυχῶν, ὅτι Χριστὸς ἐκ τάφου, ὥσπερ ἥλιος, ἐκλάµψας τριήµερος τον ζοφερὸν χειµῶνα ἀπήλασε τῆς ἁµαρτίας ἡµῶν, αὐτὸν ἀνυµνήσωµεν, ὅτι δεδόξασται. Ἡ βασιλὶς τῶν ὡρῶν τῆ λαµπροφόρῳ ἡµέρᾳ ἡµερῶν τε βασιλίδι φανότατα δωροφοροῦσα, τέρπει τὸν ἔγκριτον τῆς ἐκκλησίας λαόν, ἀπαύστως ἀνυµνοῦσα τὸν ἀναστάτα Χριστόν. Πύλαι θανάτου, Χριστέ, οὐδὲ τοῦ τάφου σφραγῖδες, οὐδὲ κλεῖθρα τῶν θυρῶν Σοι ἀντέστησαν, ἀλλ’ ἀναστὰς ἐπέστης τοῖς φίλοις σου εἰρήνην, Δέσποτα, δωρούµενος τὴν πάντα νοῦν ὑπερέχουσαν. It was written by John of Damascus about the middle of the 8th century. John of Damascus, Greek theologian and distinguished hymnist, as well as the greatest scholar and poet of his time, was born in Damascus of a prominent family, about A.D. 700. He was educated by an Italian monk named Cosmas, and retired to the monastery of St. Sabas in the Holy Land. He died between 754 and 787. He wrote a number of canons. A canon in Greek hymnology was a series of odes, usually eight or nine, threaded on an acrostic. This hymn is from his canon for the Sunday after Easter. For comments on the translator, John M. Neale, see Hymn 67.