144 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Matthew Arnold thought this the finest hymn in our language. On the last day of his life he heard Dr. John Watson preach at Sefton Park, Liverpool. This hymn was sung after the sermon. Arnold was heard repeating the third verse in his sister s house shortly before his sudden death. When George Eliot s aunt, Mrs. Samuel Evans, the fiery little Methodist heroine of Adam Bede, a small, black-eyed woman, very vehement in her style of preaching, was dying, in December, 1858, she was one night sitting by her bed in great pain, when she exclaimed, How good the Lord is ! Praise His holy name. As a friend sup ported her, she quoted the verse, See from His head, His hands, His feet ; then, after a pause, ver. 5 of Hymn 152, Angels, assist our mighty joys. And after tears of joy, she added another verse, from Hymn 97, Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry.
Hymn 165. Tis finished! the Messiah dies. CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns on the Four Gospels ; Works, xii. 99. It is finished, John xix. 30. Eight verses. Published in the 1831 Supplement from MS. It is one of seven hymns on our Lord s words from the Cross. Other hymns were published in Short Hymns, based on certain verses of St. Luke s Gospel, but these were afterwards much enlarged and improved. Three verses are here omitted.
Hymn 166. Not all the blood of beasts. ISAAC WATTS, D.D. (3).
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1709. Faith in Christ our Sacrifice." Watts read, And hopes her guilt was there. His last verse runs
Believing we rejoice To see the curse remove ; We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice, And sing His bleeding love.
Mr. G. J. Stevenson gives a story of a Jewess who read on the leaf of a hymn-book which had come into the house the first verse of this hymn. She could not get it out of her mind. She procured a Bible, and became a convert to Christianity. Her husband divorced her, and she was reduced to poverty. The Bible Society s colporteur said, All this I knew ; and as
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