Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice, Returning from his ways; While angels in their songs rejoice And cry, "Behold, he prays!" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air; His watchword at the gates of death; He enters heaven with prayer. O Thou, by whom we come to God, The Life, the Truth, the Way, The paths of prayer Thyself hast trod: Lord, teach us how to pray! James Montgomery, 1818 THE HYMN LEGACY OF AN ENGLISH EDITOR Shortly before James Montgomery died, a friend asked him, "Which of your poems will live?" He answered, "None, sir; nothing, except perhaps a few of my hymns." Montgomery was right. Although he wrote a number of pretentious poems, they have been forgotten. But his hymns live on. A perusal of almost any evangelical hymn-book will probably reveal more hymns by this gifted and consecrated man than by any other author, excepting only Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. What a rich legacy was bequeathed to the Christian Church by the man who wrote "Hail to the Lord's Anointed," "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," "Angels, from the realms of glory," "In the hour of trial," "Who are these in bright array?" "According to Thy gracious Word," "Come to Calvary's holy mountain," "Forever with the Lord," "The Lord is my shepherd, no want shall I know," "Jerusalem, my happy home," and "Go to dark Gethsemane!" Montgomery wrote about four hundred hymns in all, and nearly one-fourth of these are still in common use. Montgomery began writing hymns as a little boy. He was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, November 4, 1771. His father was a Moravian minister, and it had been determined that the son James should also be trained for the same calling. Accordingly he was sent to the Moravian seminary at Fulneck, Yorkshire, England. The parents, however, were sent to the West Indies as missionaries, and their death there made it necessary for James to discontinue his schooling. For a while he worked as a clerk in a store, but this was entirely distasteful to one who possessed the literary gifts of Montgomery. At the age of nineteen we find him in London with a few of his poems in manuscript form, trying to find a publisher who would print them. In this he was unsuccessful, and two years later we follow him to Sheffield, where he became associated with Robert Gales, editor of the Sheffield Register.