THEIR AUTHOKS AND OKIGIN. 281
pectation, and ardent feeling of love to God and truth, which were wont to inspire me when I was an uneorrupted ~boj, full of tender ness, zeal, and simplicity." And with regard to his poems he says : " I have not dared to assume a sacred subject as the theme of any whole piece that I have written, on account of the gloom and despondency that frequently hung over my prospects, and sometimes almost sunk- my hopes into despair." Farther on he says : " 1 eompose very slowly, and only by fits, when I can arouse my indolent powers into exertion ;" and he promises to " lie in wait for his heart, and when he can, string it to the pitch of David s lyre, to set a psalm to the chief musician." With the experiences of the Christian life came their expression in Christian song. When Montgomery was advanced in years and seriously ill, he placed in the hands of his friend, Dr. Holland, transcripts of his original hymns to be read to him. But as the poet became much affected, the Doctor was about to desist, when Montgomery said, " Read on, I am glad to hear you. The words recall the feelings which first suggested them, and it is good for me to feel affected and humbled by the terms in which I have endeavoured to provide for the expression of similar religious ex perience in others. As all my hymns embody some portions of the history of the joys or sorrows, the hopes and the fears of this poor heart, so I cannot doubt but that they will be found an acceptable vehicle of expression, of the experience of many of my fellow-creatures who may be similarly exercised during the pil grimage of their Christian life."
Written, with a few exceptions, late in the author s life, Mont gomery s hymns are the productions of a skilled hand, and bear traces of the writer s maturity as a poet and as a Christian. There is nothing in them to offend the taste, and much to gratify it. The most precious truths of Scripture, and the richest ex periences of the Christian, find in them simple but poetic expres sion, and they are made suitable for the use of congregations, by a poet who was quite familiar with the requirements of an assembly of worshippers. " His hymns illustrate," says Wilson
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