210 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Hymn 307. Jesus, the sinner s Friend, to Thee. CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739 ; Works, \. 83. GaL iii, 22. Thirteen verses.
One of the omitted verses has two lines
Tread down Thy foes, with power control The beast and devil in my soul,
which may be compared with Tennyson s In Memoriatn, cxviii.
Move upward, working out the beast, And let the ape and tiger die.
Hymn 308. Depth of mercy ! can there be.
CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740; Works, i. 271. After a relapse into sin. Thirteen verses of four lines.
Dr. Belcher traces the famous story of the actress who was converted through this hymn back to the Sunday School Journal, from which Mr. G. J. Stevenson quotes it almost verbatim. An actress in a provincial town heard some poor people singing this hymn in a cottage. She ventured in, and when the service was over, Charles Wesley s words followed her. She got a hymn-book, read and re-read the verses, and was thus led to Christ. She shrank from appearing again on the stage, but at last the manager of the theatre induced her to take the leading part in a new play. She had to sing a song on her entrance, and the band played the air three times whilst she stood lost in thought before the audience. Then, with clasped hands and eyes suffused with tears, she sang
Depth of mercy ! can there be Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners, spare?
The performance came to an end abruptly, but the night left its imprint on many lives. It is said that the actress afterwards became the wife of a minister.
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