your first mission in Liverpool an old man, between seventy and eighty, was converted through your singing "There were ninety and nine.' He lived for a number of years afterward, and was a bright worker and gave a clear testimony. During the remainder of his life he went by the name of ' Ninety and Nine.'"

From South America, only last November, came this testimony from a former co-worker: "Many years ago, in 1884, I had the pleasure of meeting you. I was then a member of your London choir, and helped in speaking to souls at the after-meetings of those wonderful gatherings you and dear Mr. Moody held in London in that year. Now, more than twenty years after, I am out here, where God in his grace has given me the privilege of witnessing for him for the last sixteen years. I can not tell you the blessing that the translations of your hymns into Spanish have been here. I send you a copy of our hymn-book, in which I have collected a large number of songs, the great majority having against them 'S. S.,' signifying 'Sacred Songs and Solos.' These are translations, adaptations or tunes of your collection. I am sure God has graciously used these hymns in blessing many souls. Only this afternoon, while I was out visiting some new converts, I heard of the case of a woman converted through the singing of a Spanish translation of 'There were ninety and nine.' Some time ago a man, who was a bad character, was spoken to by a colporteur, and he had a desire to read the Bible. He lost his work for a day and a half while he hunted in the different book-shops for a Bible. At last he got

one, and commenced reading it. He came to our openair meetings, followed us into one of our halls, and was soon converted. He was so thankful to the Lord for what he had done for him that he asked us to come and have meetings in his house. The result has been that at least twelve of his relatives and neighbors have been converted. Not long ago a woman came into the meeting in his house in a careless, laughing way. The hymn I have referred to was being sung. The Spirit of God convicted her then and there, and she burst into tears and cried to God for mercy, saying that she was 'that lost sheep, out on the mountains.' She found peace, and now her husband is converted, and they are bright and earnest Christians."

The Shining Shore

Words by the Rev. David Nelson

Music by George F. Root

"My days are gliding swiftly by,

And I, a pilgrim stranger."

Mr. Nelson was a surgeon in the army during the War of 1812. Afterward he entered the ministry, preached in Tennessee and Kentucky, and later moved to Missouri, where he opened a plantation. There he heard an address on the evils of slavery that changed his views. "I will live on roast potatoes and salt before I will hold slaves!" he declared. He advocated colonization of the negroes. This brought down upon him the wrath of his slave-holding neighbors, who drove him from his home and pursued him through the woods and swamps for three days and nights. Finally he came out on the banks of the Mississippi River opposite Quincy, Illinois. By signs he made known

his condition to friends there, and then hid in the bushes to await the approach of night. As he lay there in danger of being captured every moment, the land of freedom in plain sight, with the swiftly gliding waters between, the lines of this hymn began to assume form in his mind, and he wrote them down on the back of a letter he had in his pocket. The voices of the vengeful pursuers were heard in the woods about him. Once they strode by the very clump of bushes in which he was concealed, and even poked their guns in to separate the branches; but they failed to notice him. Several members of the Congregational church of Quincy came over in the evening in a canoe, and began fishing near his hiding-place. When they had located this exactly they gave a signal, and drawing near to the shore, met him as he rushed down to the water's edge. They got him safely to the Illinois side, but were discovered and followed by the slaveholders, who demanded his surrender. But they were informed that Mr. Nelson was now in a free State, and that nothing should molest him. In Illinois he was employed by the Home Missionary Society, and continued to take an active part in the anti-slavery agitation of those times. He died in 1844.

As to the music of this hymn Mr. Root says: "One day, I remember, as I was working at a set of graded part-songs for singing classes, mother passed through the room and laid a slip from one of the religious newspapers before me, saying; 'George, I think that would be good for music.' I looked at the poem, which began, 'My days are gliding swiftly by,' and a simple melody sang itself along in my mind as I

read. I jotted it down and went on with my work. That was the origin of the music of The Shining Shore.' Later, when I took up the melody to harmonize it, it seemed so very simple and commonplace that I hesitated about setting the other parts to it. I finally decided that it might be useful to somebody, and I completed it, though it was not printed until some months afterward. In after years I examined it in an endeavor to account for its great popularity-but in vain. To the musician there is not one reason in melody or harmony, scientifically regarded, for such a fact. To him hundreds of others, now forgotten, were better."

This was a favorite hymn of Henry Ward Beecher.

The Smitten Rock

Words by George C. Needham

Music by Ira D. Sankey

"From the riven Rock there floweth

Living water ever clear."

"When Mr. Sankey lived at Cohasset, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1876, after the great Boston meetings, he very naturally desired to bring the Gospel to the people living in that neighborhood. Accordingly he invited me," wrote Mr. Needham on one occasion, "to spend a week with him in a series of evangelistic meetings. Before the breakfast-hour one morning, while Mr. Sankey was playing on his organ, remarked: 'I wish we had a good hymn on The Smitten Rock, as I hope to speak on that subject to-night.' Mr. Sankey replied with enthusiasm: 'Here is a new hymn which came to me last night in my sleep; I be

I

lieve the Lord gave it to me. I wish I had words for it. Why don't you write a piece on The Rock?' I replied, Why, I can't write such a hymn as you want, and you know that I don't understand music; how to fit words to your music would puzzle an unmusical man.' The enthusiastic soloist, still playing, said: 'You'll find pen and paper on the table; this is a stirring tune and I want the words; try your hand at it.' I immediately sat down and asked the Lord's special help, and then wrote the hymn as it now appears. Mr. Sankey took the paper, with the ink scarcely dry on it, and sang it through with the chorus-the new air and the words exactly fitting, without alteration or amendment. I think the Lord gave you the words as truly as he gave me the tune,' was Mr. Sankey's first remark. And then we commended the little piece and its music to the great Master, praying that the unction of the Holy One might rest upon it. Mr. Sankey sang the hymn for the first time in public that evening, after I had given my address on The Smitten Rock."

The Solid Rock

Words by the Rev. Edward Mote

Music by William B. Bradbury

"My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

"I went astray from my youth," said the author of this hymn. "My Sundays were spent on the streets in play. So ignorant was I that I did not know there was a God." He was a cabinet-maker, and was con verted under the preaching of the Rev. John Hyatt. The refrain came into the author's mind one morning in 1834, as he was walking up Holborn Hill, London, on