THEIK AUTHOES AND OEIGIN. 245
fifty-eighth of the " Translations and Paraphrases," a book pre pared by a Committee appointed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It was published in 1745, and these hymns were added in 1781. The hymn is given complete in the " New Congregational Hymn Book," but with slight verbal alterations.
"The hour of my departure s come." No. 725.
This forms hymn five, of the five hymns appended to the " Translations and Paraphrases." It is evidently by the dying poet, Bruce, and not by the pleasure-seeking Logan. And there is the same external evidence that it is by Bruce, as in the other verses.
" Behold ! the mountain of the Lord." No. 925.
This is four verses of a piece of six verses, forming the eighteenth of the " Translations and Paraphrases." Verse three
"The beam that shines from Zion s hill," &c.,
is known to have been Bruce s. It lingered in the memories of his companions at Kinneswood. Probably the other part was felicitously altered by him from an older version. It is too late to determine what alterations Logan made in Bruce s pieces.
��MATTHEW WILKS.
174G1829.
THIS eccentric, but deservedly eminent Congregational minister, was born in 1746 at Gibraltar, where his father, an officer in the army, was stationed with his regiment. Soon after Matthew s birth, his father removed to Ireland, where he remained for many years, and subsequently on retiring on half-pay he settled down at Birmingham. Mr. Wilks s youth was marked by the display of talent, but was devoid of the fruits of personal piety. It was not till his twenty-fifth year that he became a convert to Christ.
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