‘If thou knewest the gift of God’ (John iv. 10).
This is the Gift, Thy Gift, O Lord!
The token of Thy dearest love:
The orient jewel of Thy Word;
Sent down my thankfulness to prove.
Great is his gift in all men’s eyes,
Who gives himself, his friend to save:
My Lord does more, for foes He dies,
This Gift no parallel may have.
But Lord! whil’st Thou thus gav’st to Thine
Others arose to vie with Thee:
The world and Satan did combine,
And they would needs a giving be.
Satan, sin’s pleasures offerèd,
And almost forced them upon me:
But while they bloomed, they witherèd,
And Lord! Thy Gift my choice shall be.
Then did the World its gayes present,
And still alluring cried, See, See!
Here’s that may rather give content;
But Lord! Thy Gift my choice shall be.
These cannot give, they’d steal away
From me my heaven, my heart from Thee:
Whate’er they offer, I’ll say nay,
Still Lord! Thy Gift my choice shall be.
Richard Baxter (1615-91) is to Nonconformity what Ken is to
Anglicanism. He might have been a bishop if he would, but preferred
the rough ways of persecution for conscience’ sake to the pleasant
paths of ecclesiastical preferment. He wrote many hymns, and
attempted, with as little success as others, a metrical version of the
psalms. He is, and will be, known to our hymn-books by the exquisite
verses taken from his long poem on the ‘Covenant and Confidence of
Faith.’ These verses, beginning
Now it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live.
are in almost every hymn-book. Another of his hymns, in a brighter
tone, is in many collections—
Ye holy angels bright.
The two following are not so well known. They are good in themselves,
and very characteristic of their author.
As for my friends, they are not lost:
The several vessels of Thy fleet,
Though parted now, by tempests tost,
Shall safely in the haven meet.
Still we are centred all in Thee;
Members, though distant, of one Head,
In the same family we be,
By the same faith and Spirit led.
Before the throne we daily meet,
As joint petitioners to Thee;
In spirit we each other greet,
And shall again each other see.
The heavenly hosts, world without end,
Shall be my company above;
And Thou, my best, my surest Friend,
Who shall divide me from Thy love?
The three following verses are in Miss Wood’s _Hymns for School
Worship_—a very striking selection of hymns suitable for intelligent
young people.
Lord, though Thy Church in this dark world
Do but begin and learn Thy praise,
Accept both it and us through Christ,
Till it and us Thy glory raise.
Here trembling sin resists Thy grace;
Of joy and sorrow we partake:
Our broken hearts and broken peace
Can none but broken music make.
Thy ways to us seem often dark,
Thou crossest human wit and will:
We murmur; but Thou dost Thy work;
That’s wise and good, which we thought ill.
If Austin is the Faber of the seventeenth century, John Mason (d.
1694), whom Baxter called ‘the glory of the Church of England,’ is its
Newton. There is in Mason the same childlike simplicity which is the
charm of the Olney hymns, with an added quaintness which belongs to
the earlier century. He is one of the minor poets of the sanctuary,
but in his own time he was amongst the best of the evangelical
hymn-writers. Mason was born a Dissenter, but entered the Anglican
Church. His friend, Thomas Shepherd (1665-1739), who also wrote some
noteworthy hymns, seceded from the Establishment, and was for a few
years pastor of the church at Nottingham, where Doddridge subsequently
ministered. Of the hymns of these good men, George Macdonald and Mr.
Horder express a high opinion, comparing them favourably with those of
Dr. Watts. Mr. Horder justly says that Mason would have reached a
higher standard had his lot been cast in a ‘hymn-singing age.’
Some of Mason’s verses are too racy for congregational use, e.g. this
from ‘A Song of Praise for Health’—
Their earnest cries do pierce the skies,
And shall I silent be?
Lord, were I sick as I am well,
Thou shouldst have heard from me.
The sick have not more cause to pray
Than I to praise my King;
Since nature teaches them to groan
Let grace teach me to sing.