Hymn Stories of the Twentieth CenturyHart, William J. (William John)
Religion
Hymn Stories of the Twentieth Century
Hart, William J. (William John)
Hymns, English -- History and criticism
The musical gardener then made this observation: “You see, ma’am, when
the world gets busy, there are doubtless thousands upon thousands of
singers whose songs are rising like sweet music to the skies. I like to
think that most mornings I’m one of the earliest of the Lord’s servants
offering my tribute of praise. Besides I always think a few songs before
breakfast fill the heart with music all the day.”
Hymn Suggested by a “Blaze of Leafage”
For eight months an English Episcopalian bishop confined to a Japanese
prison saw no sunlight. But this prisoner of war did witness what he
described as “a blaze of leafage on some trees.” This sight recalled to
the mind of the bishop a hymn from the heart and pen of Charles Wesley:
“Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of righteousness, arise,
Triumph o’er the shades of night;
Day-Spring from on high, be near;
Day-Star, in my heart appear.”
This experience which came to Dr. J. L. Wilson, Bishop of Singapore, who
was representing the Church of England, stood out above all others, and
represented the value of a mind stored with memories of hymns. Three
thousand people listened most attentively for forty-five minutes in the
City Hall, Sheffield, England, in September, 1946, as the speaker
narrated experiences which can come only in war time.
A reporter was among those who heard with amazement the words of the
bishop as he explained how, charged with being a “spy,” he was
“imprisoned, tortured, and flogged with ropes almost beyond endurance”
by the Japanese. Four thousand persons were crowded into a prison
designed to accommodate seven hundred. They were a courageous company,
however. “When men and women came downstairs bleeding from torture, they
might not speak; but they smiled, and the others smiled back.” Bishop
Wilson was the only “European among Malayans, Indians and Chinese.” But
his fellow-prisoners, observing his firmness and forgiving spirit, asked
him to teach them to pray.
Bread and wine were lacking, but Bishop Wilson used tea or water in the
celebration of the Holy Communion on Sundays. “It might be irregular,”
the speaker remarked with a smile; but he could not be convinced that it
was not valid. A Christian girl, he learned, was there for helping the
British, and the elements were passed through the prison bars to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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