THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 409
of the dying triumphs of their early brethren have been sung at the death-beds and funerals of Methodists throughout the world. The Bishop of Hereford (Dr. Percival) told Mr. Stead that he considered the verse, One army of the living God, one of the finest in the whole range of hymnology.
On May 6, 1905, the American Ambassador, Mr. Choate, was entertained at a farewell banquet at the Mansion House, London. The leading representatives of every department of English public life met to do honour to one who had laboured, during the six years he had been ambassador, to promote goodwill between the two sister nations. He said that he was resigning his great post because he was homesick. My friends on this side of the water are multiplying every day in numbers and increasing in the ardour of their affections. I am sorry to say that the great host of my friends on the other side are as rapidly diminishing and dwindling away. " Part of the host have crossed the flood, and part are crossing now," and I have a great yearning to be with the waning number.
Tne Rev. Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844), a powerful American evangelist, often referred to this hymn in his last illness with the deepest affection. Dr. Nicholas Murray visited Dr. Childs at Hartford, and preached for him in the Presbyterian church on January 13, 1861. He repeated with deep pathos the stanzas, One family we dwell in Him, and One army of the living God. Who of us, said his host, supposed that his feet were even then touching the dark waters that our next message about him would be that he had " crossed the flood " ?
Mrs. Fison, wife of the Bishop of Hokkaido, says that in 1874 her husband sometimes took the service at Camp Hill for the English marines at Yokohama. A friend told her that after one service he joined an officer in the porch. As they walked away the soldier said, Come, let us join our friends above, which they had just been singing, was his favourite hymn. He repeated two lines
Part of His host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now.
Within two days he had joined the army who have crossed the flood." He was riding out with a brother officer, and in passing through a village near Yokohama they met a Daimio and his retinue. The Englishmen were ordered to dismount, but, probably not understanding the order, they were cut down and killed. Church Missionary Intelligencer, January, 1906.
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