Il6 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
preaching, as he could no longer read his text. What, he replied, shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak ! He died in 1807.
His epitaph was written by himself
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk,
Once an infidel and libertine,
A servant of slaves in Africa :
Was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ,
Preserved, restored, pardoned,
And appointed to preach the Faith
He had long laboured to destroy.
Near sixteen years at Olney in Bucks :
And twenty-seven years in this Church.
��Hymn 110. Jesu, the very thought of Thee.
ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX ; translated by EDWARD CAS WALL (105).
Caswall s translation is in his Lyra Cathotica, 1849. Ver. 5 is taken from another source.
Bernard was born at his fathers castle near Dijon in 1091. High birth, great personal beauty, and many worldly advantages did not restrain him from entering Citeaux, the first Cistercian monastery, in 1113, together with his uncle and two of his brothers, whom he had won over. Two years later he founded Clairvaux, of which he became the first abbot. It was chiefly through his influence that Innocent II made good his claim to the Papacy. It has been said that he ruled the Christian world from his cloister. Milman says he became the leading and the governing head of Christendom. He took an active part in securing the condemnation of Abelard, and in 1146 preached the Second Crusade through France and Germany. The people flocked to the standard, the only fear was that of being the last on the road. The complete failure of the ex pedition next year clouded St. Bernard s last days. He died in 1153. Luther described him as the best monk that ever lived.
Earl Selborne says, Bernard was the father, in Latin hymnody, of that warm and passionate form of devotion which some may consider to apply to Divine Objects the language of
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