Some of the shining number once I knew,
And travell'd with them here:

Nay some, my elder brethren now,

Set later out for Heaven, my junior saints below:
Long after me, they heard the call of Grace
Which waked them unto Righteousness :
How have they got beyond!

Converted last, yet first with glory crown'd!
Little, once, I thought that these

Would first the Summit gain,

And leave me far behind, slow journeying through the Plain.

Loved while on earth! nor less belov'd, tho' gone!
Think not I envy you your crown:

No! if I could, I would not call you down!
Though slower is my pace,

To you I'll follow on,

Leaning on Jesus all the way;

Who, now and then, lets fall a ray

Of comfort from His Throne:

The shinings of His grace

Soften my passage through the wilderness;
And vines, nectareous, spring where briers grew :
The sweet unveilings of His Face

Make me, at times, near half as blest as you!
O! might His Beauty feast my ravish'd eyes,
His gladdening Presence ever stay,
And cheer me all my journey through!
But soon the clouds return; my triumph dies;
Damp vapours from the valley rise,
And hide the hill of Sion from my view.

Spirit of Light! thrice holy Dove ! Brighten my sense of interest in that Love

Which knew no birth, and never shall expire!
Electing Goodness, firm and free,

My whole salvation hangs on thee,
Eldest and fairest daughter of Eternity!
Redemption, grace, and glory too,
Our bliss above, and hopes below,

From her, their parent-fountain, flow. Ah! tell me, Lord, that Thou hast chosen me! Thou, who hast kindled my intense desire, Fulfil the wish Thy influence did inspire, And let me my election know!

Then, when Thy summons bids me come up higher,

Well pleased I shall from life retire,

And join the burning hosts, beheld at distance now. Augustus Montague Toplady. 1759-1774

NOTES.

HYMN

11.-Part of Hymn No. 100 in Mant's Ancient Hymns, &c. Three stanzas out of eight are omitted.

IV. The text of this 'hymn, as now corrected (see Errata), is from The Devout Chorister (Masters; Third Edition, 1854); in which book it was first published; and the author's name is given, by his kind permission.

v. From the General Psalmody, compiled by the late Rev. William Carus Wilson. Author and original text unknown. VII.-From Hymns for the Church of England (Longman, 1857). Author and original text unknown.

.

VIII. From John and Charles Wesley's Collection of Psalms and Hymns (the first edition published in 1741). The Psalm, as rendered by Watts, is in six stanzas, of which the Wesleys omitted the first and fourth, and varied the second by substituting the well-known lines,

"Before Jehovah's awful throne,

Ye nations, bow with sacred joy;"

for Watts' original,

"Nations, attend before his throne
"With solemn fear, with sacred joy."

The only other change is the word "shall" instead of "must,'
in the third line of the last stanza.

XII.-Three stanzas out of six. The first, second, and fifth of Watts' are omitted.

xv.-Nine stanzas out of twelve (the first, third, and eleventh of Watts' being omitted). The word "God" is brought down into the first line, from the first (omitted) stanza, instead of "Him." XVI.-The four first stanzas of Hymn No. 11, Book II. in Gibbons' Hymns adapted to Divine Worship (London, 1784); sometimes wrongly ascribed to Berridge. Gibbons has seven stanzas. XXIII.-Four out of five stanzas, Lyte's fourth being omitted. XXVIII. The first thirteen out of forty-two stanzas. The poem is the last of several in Skelton's Appeal to Common Sense on the Subject of Christianity. (Dublin, 1784.)

XXXII.-Stanzas 1, 6, 9, and 10, of a poem in ten stanzas (No. 68 of T. Grinfield's Century of Sacred Songs). I have adhered to the selection made by the late Rev. John Hampden Gurney in the Marylebone Hymn-Book of 1851.

XXXIII. My only authority for ascribing this to Tate is the late Rev. Edward Bickersteth; but the authorship seems probable, as this is one of the hymns included in the "Supplement to the New Version," for the use of which Brady and Tate obtained from Queen Anne an Order in Council, dated the 30th July, 1703.

G G

HYMN

XXXIV. The text is that of the fourth edition (1743) of Hymns and Sacred Poems, by John and Charles Wesley; differing in one word only ("Heavenly," instead of "Inner," in the second line of the last stanza) from the first edition, published in 1739. The common variation, beginning, "Hark, the herald angels sing," is probably by Martin Madan (1760), who, besides altering several lines, has left out part (but not the whole) of the two last stanzas, which are usually omitted at the end of modern editions of the New Version of the Psalms. The word "welkin," in the first line, is open to criticism, but in other respects I prefer Wesley's original to Madan's variation.

xxxvIII.-From Christian Lyrics (Norwich: J. Fletcher; 1860). Mr. Sears is an American writer, and I have not been able to obtain access to his original text.

XL.-This text is genuine; but I have not been able to discover the author of the volume, published in 1829, under the title Spirit of the Psalms, which is not to be confounded with the work of the Rev. H. F. Lyte, afterwards published under the same title, in 1834.

XLI.-This hymn is from Hymns Ancient and Modern, for Use in the Services of the Church (London: Novello; 1861). I am indebted to the Rev. Sir Henry Baker, Bart. (one of the editors of that collection), for the permission, which he has kindly obtained for me from the author, to publish his name, as well as for the authentication of the text. I am also indebted to him and his co-editors for their consent to the use which I have made of this hymn, and of three others, contributed by Sir Henry Baker himself to the same collection, to which he has allowed me to affix his name. XLII.-Five out of seven stanzas. Those omitted are Doddridge's second and sixth.

XLVI.-Five stanzas out of a hymn which, as first published in 1740 (then beginning "Glory to God, and praise, and love"), consisted of eighteen stanzas; and which, in the seventeenth edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Pine, Bristol; 1773), was reduced to eleven stanzas; then beginning as in the present text. In the Hymn-Book for Methodists, it consists of ten stanzas; one of which is taken from the earlier edition, and is not in that of 1773.

XLVIII.-Four out of five stanzas. That omitted is the fourth of Watts.

LII.-Five out of eight stanzas.

fifth, and seventh of Watts.

LV. Six out of seven stanzas.
Newton.

Those omitted are the fourth,

That omitted is the third of

LVII. This hymn, as here given, was introduced into the Marylebone Collection (1851) from a poem of some length, published in 1831, in The Iris, a volume edited by the Rev. Thomas Dale. The text (which will be found at page 139 of that volume) is unaltered, except that the first word "Saviour," has been brought down from a preceding line, in substitution for the words "And then," so as to give to these stanzas an independent beginning.