THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 219
II is thought to he the old way of printing eleven, and the re ference is supposed to he to the eleven hymns already spoken of. But a man might justly disclaim authorship and yet have written a hymn which others had put in print ; and no negative evidence or theory, however plausible, can set aside the positive evidence in favour of Eobinson s claim. Some doubt having been cast upon the entry in the church book, the writer of this sketch has corresponded with the Kev. William Robinson, Eobert Robinson s biographer, who has the book in his possession, and is assured by him that this entry is in the same handwriting as that of the whole book, down very nearly to the end of Robinson s life, and that it is absolutely certain that it is his handwriting. And in confirmation of Robinson s claim, we have before us the letter of a venerable correspondent, who can speak of seventy years of his own experience, whose father has often given out the hymn as Robinson s, and whose grandfather was one of Robinson s deacons, and their family testimony is unequivocal in favour of Robinson.
The late Dr. Joseph Belcher, in his work, " Historical Sketches of Hymns," relates the following anecdotes about Robinson s cele brated hymns. The first with reference to the hymn,
" Come, thou fount of every blessing,"
was told Dr. Belcher by a descendant of one of the parties referred to in the narrative. It is as follows : " In the latter part of his life, when Mr. Robinson seemed to have lost much of his devo tional feeling, and when he indulged in habits of levity, he was travelling in a stage-coach with a lady, who soon perceived that he was well acquainted with religion. She had just before been read ing the hymn of which we were writing, and asked his opinion of it, as she might properly do, since neither of them knew who the other was. He waived the subject, and turned her attention to some other topic ; but after a short period she contrived to return to it, and described the benefits she had often derived from the hymn, and her strong admiration of its sentiments. She observed that the gentleman was strongly agitated, but as he was dressed in
�� �
