THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 411
nearer an end, yet above the stars were looking down from the clear sky. He began to sing, How bright those glorious spirits shine. Next day he found a soldier shivering under a verandah, with his bare toes showing through his worn-out boots. Matthi- son gave him half a sovereign to buy a new pair. The soldier thanked him. I am not what I was yesterday. Last night as I was thinking of our miserable condition, I grew tired of life, and said to myself, " I can bear this no longer, and may as well put an end to it." So I took my musket and went down yonder in a desperate state, about eleven o clock ; but as I got round the point, I heard some person singing, " How bright those glorious spirits shine " ; and I remembered the old school and the Sabbath school where we used to sing it. I felt ashamed of being so cowardly, and said, " Here is some one as badly off as myself, and yet he is not giving in." I felt, too, he had something to make him happy which I had not, but I began to hope I, too, might get the same happiness. I returned to my tent, and to-day I am resolved to seek the one thing? Do you know who the singer was? 3 asked the missionary. No, was the reply. Well, said Mr. Matthison, it was I. Tears rushed into the soldier s eyes, and handing back the half- sovereign, he said, Never, sir, can I take it from you after what you have been the means of doing for me.
Hymn 809. The saints of God! their conflict past. WILLIAM DALRYMPLE MACLAGAN.
In Church Bells, 1870, and in S.P.C.K. Church Hymns, 1871. His Good Friday hymn, Lord, when Thy kingdom comes, remember me, was written for Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875.
Archbishop Maclagan, son of David Maclagan, M.D., was born in Edinburgh in 1826. He served as an officer in India, but entered the Church of England ; was Rector of Ncwington 1869-75 ; Vicar of Kensington, 1875-8 ; Bishop of Lichfield, 1878 ; Archbishop of York, 1891.
Hymn 810. Hark! the sound of holy voices.
CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D.D. (187). For All Saints Day, Holy Ysar, 1862.
The verse, Now they reign in heavenly glory, was omitted in earlier editions of Church Hymns (S.P.C.K.), because it was
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