Page:Our Hymns.djvu/240

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220 OUR HYMNS :

coloured clothes, did not suspect the cause. This garb Robinson was compelled to assume in travelling, as wherever he was known he was pressed to stay to preach. At length, entirely overcome by the power of his feelings, he burst into tears, and said, Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who composed that hymn many years ago ; and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I then had. " The other hymn," says Dr. Belcher,

Mighty God, while angels bless Thee, the second line of which was written by Mr. Robinson,

May an infant lisp Thy name/

was composed for the use of the late excellent Benjamin Williams, Esq., for many years senior deacon of the first Baptist church at Reading, a man of great influence and usefulness. When a little boy, Benjamin sat on Robinson s knee while he wrote this hymn, who, after having read it to him, placed it in his hand. Well do we remember the deep feeling with whici the venerable man de scribed to us the scene, as we sat with him at his own fireside."

In " Dobell s Collection," 1806, this hymn is printed in nine stanzas of four lines each, and to each is added,

" Hallelujah ! Hallelujah ! Amen." The omitted seventh stanza is

" Did archangels sing Thy coming ?

Did the shepherds learn their lays ? Shame would cover me ungrateful Should my tongue refuse to praise."

SAMUEL MEDLEY.

17381799.

A BRIEF account of this hymn-writer is given in " The General Baptist Magazine" for August, 1799, the month after his death, and full details are given in the memoir published by his son in

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