given by Dr. Putnam. By him or Dr. Dwight (jointly, perhaps) it was improved before 1841. Finally, Dr. Dwight rewrote the hymn for Lowell Mason, not later than 1844, using the first five lines by Mr. Brooks. This adjustment seems practically to reconcile both statements. May it not be accepted as at least more than probable? The only bit of evidence refusing to be linked in this conclusion is the verse signed by Dr. Dwight, which he was "pretty confident" was his, and which contains the very lines ascribed to Mr. Brooks. But, as Mrs. Henshaw's claim reminds us, the memory cannot be trusted to pick up forgotten lines after so long an interval of time; and it looks to the present writer as though Dr. Dwight himself did not feel so very confident about the details. THE AUTHORS OF THE HYMN We are now in a position to refer with some confidence to the joint authors of the hymn. The Rev. Charles T. Brooks was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on June 20th, 1813. He was graduated by Harvard College in 1832, and by the Divinity School at Cambridge in 1835. His principal pastorate, at Newport, Rhode Island, began in 1837 and continued until 1871, when he resigned through failure of his sight and health. He died on June 14th, 1883. Mr. Brooks was a poet and scholar, and also a diligent man of letters. The list of his works, original and translated, is a very long one, and their character is such as reflects honor upon their author's name. Gentle and retiring, he was greatly loved in life, though it is not likely that his work ever took hold of a very wide public. His translations of Goethe's Faust" and of Richter's "Hesperus" and "Titan" are the best remembered of his productions. Of his hymns none has ever come into general use. One of Mr. Brooks's most intimate friends, his classmate at Harvard and his co-laborer in several literary undertakings, was John S. Dwight. He was the son of Dr. John Dwight, of Boston, where he was born on May 13th, 1813. He also was graduated by Harvard in 1832, and by the Divinity School in 1836. His first and only pastoral charge was that of a little Unitarian congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, and lasted only one year. At its close he quietly retired from the ministry. Bashful, sensitive, and lacking confidence in himself, he was hardly at home in the pulpit. He shrank too from any outward expression of religious feeling; in later years developing great dislike to church organization and methods, and ceasing to attend religious services. After the ministry came the years of his connection with the Brook Farm experiment, in which he was an active spirit. But, wherever he was, the real enthusiasm of his nature was for music. He founded, in 1852, Dwight's Journal of Music, which, against great financial difficulties, he continued until 1881. It gave him a recognized position as the leader of Boston's musical interests, and through it and other labors he did great service to music as a branch of liberal culture. Dr. Dwight (he became a Doctor of Music) was of slender build and short stature. He was mild in manner, of a sweet and cheerful nature, and, however shy, was "clubbable," being one of the famous Saturday Club. He was very positive in his opinions and uncompromising in maintaining his intellectual and æsthetic ideals. Dr. Dwight was singularly unfitted for the task of living. He met life in a spirit of helplessness that appealed greatly to his friends, and which, in spite of their efforts, kept him in a struggle with poverty all his days. He died at Boston on September 5th, 1893. NOTE. My friend, the Rev. James Mearns, of Buntingford, England, writes me of his discovery that this hymn is a rather free version of the first and third stanzas of a German hymn ("Gott segne Sachsenland'), by August Mahlmann, that was first printed in 1815. XVIII FATHER OF MERCIES, IN THY WORD THE TEXT OF THE HYMN I Father of mercies, in Thy word 2 Here may the wretched sons of want Riches above what earth can grant, 3 Here the Redeemer's welcome voice 4 O may these heavenly pages be And still new beauties may I see, 5 Divine Instructor, gracious Lord, Teach me to love Thy sacred word, And view my Saviour there. Anne Steele, 1760 NOTE.-Five verses of the original twelve. The text is taken from the Poems of Theodosia, vol. i. THE STORY OF THE HYMN If this hymn were to be taken alone, its story might be summed up very briefly. It is a leaf out of an invalid's spiritual diary, penned in the Baptist parsonage of an obscure English village. That leaf bears no date of composition, dates being of but little account in the monotonous passage of such a life. The hymn first appeared in print in 1760 among the other poems of Miss Steele, but may have been written some years earlier; and it soon found the place in the hymn books which it has always kept. The hymn has much more of a story if taken in its historical connection with the whole body of Miss Steele's hymns. Of these it is one of the best, and it has its share in the very conspicuous part they have played in the history of our hymnody. Miss Steele's verses had long been familiar to her friends, but she was modest and reluctant to appear in print. It was by the advice and even persuasion of others that at length she consented to publish them, and then without her name. In 1760 they appeared in two volumes, at London, as "Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional. By Theodosia." If one were now to take up the little brown calf books for the first time it would not occur to him that Theodosia was a poet of a high order. He would perceive, however, that many of the pieces were written in the simple metres then used in hymns, and were composed with correctness and much tender feeling. He would probably conclude that they were intended to be sung, and might even point out a number as likely to succeed if put into the hymnals. This |