THE DAY OF REST.

Mataura Ensign, 27 September 1913, Page 7

THE DAY OF REST.

THE POWER OF PRAYER. Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms tako! What parched ground refi sh as with a shower! We kneel—and all around us seem to lower; Wo rise—and all, the distant and the near, Stand forth in sunny outline brace and clear. We kneel—how weak! We rise—how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves tiling wrong? Or others, that we ar« not always strong; That we are ever overborne with care; That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, while with us is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with Thee? —Archbishop Trench.

HYMNS THAT HAVE HELPED. "CHRISTIANS, AWAKE. SALUTE THE HAPPY MORN." Christians, awake, salute the happy morn Whereon the Saviour of man kind was

horn; Rise to adore the mystery of love, Which hosts of angels chanted' from above; With them the joyful tidings first besrun Of God Incarnate and: the Virgin's Son. Then to the watchful shepherds it was told, Who heard the angelic herald's voice, "Behold. I bring good tidings of a Saviour's birth To you and all the nations upon earth ; This day hath God fulfilled His promised word, This day is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord."

■>;:,■'?»-•<*■ He spake-; and straightway the celestial choir In hymns of joy, unknown before, conspire; Hi© praises of redeeming love they sang, And heaven's whole orb with alleluias rang; God's highost glory was their anthem still, Peace upon earth, and unto men goodwill.

To Bethlehem straight the enlightened shepherds ran, To sec the wonders God had wrought for

man; Then to their (locks, still praising God, return, And their glad hearts with lioly rapture hnrn; To all tho joyful tidings they proclaim, The lirst apostles of tho Saviour's name. .... ■ <m! may we keep and ponder in our mind God's wondrous love in saving lost mankind ; Tnice wo the babe, who hath retrieved our loss, From tho poor manger to the hitter cross; Tread in His steps, assisted by His grace, Till man's first heavenly state again takes place.

Then may we hope, the angelic hosts among, To join, redeomed, a glad triumphant throng; He that was bom this joyful day Around us all His glory shall display.; Saved by His love, incessant we shall sing Eternal praise fo heaven's .Almighty King.

r-' yftu Byrom, author of the beautiful •Christmas hymn, "Christians, awake, salute tli© happy morn," did many other things that one would naturally have supposed would have mad© ibis name remembered to future generations. He was recognised as something of a poet in his day. Collections of his verse were printed; he conducted an extensive and somewhat learned correspondence with notabilities of his day, chiefly with members of the clergy—the Wesleys, William Bentley, Bishop Butler, and Samuel Clarke—and this correspondent was afterwards collected andNiuhlisned; ho invented a system of shortHand and for 21 years enjoyed the monopoly, granted by Parliament, of vOitchmg shorthand!. Yet his name is remembered to-day by none of these things, but hy the simply beautiful Christmas hymn, "Christians, awake, salute the happy mora." Not that the hymn, was written with a view to winning fame or immortality. It was written to give pleasure to his little daughter Dorothy. It was composed in 1750, and was entitled! simply "Christmas Day for Dorothy." Wainwright, the famous organist, set the piece to music, and it was first sung outside the Byrom homo oil Christmas Eve of that year, by the choir of Manchester old church.

The piece has never won the popularity of Charles Wesley's "Hark, how all the welkin rings," known hotter as the hymn-tinkers have altered it, "Hark, the herald angels sing"; nevertheless to-day throughout the British Empire tho hymn has won favor and is much sung on Christmas Day. In the Motherland there is scarce a town or village where the sweet song is not sung. John Byrom is long since gone to his reward; his descendants are all gone; his learned correspondence is all but forgotten; his system of shorthand has been superseded _hy more rapid systems; the Jacobite cause for which, he labored, so zealously is no longer a factor in nolitics. Only the hymn, "Christmas Day for Dolly," remains to keep his memory groen. Surely a fitting monument to any man.

Dt. Byrom was bora at Broughton, near Manchester, February 29, 16D2, awl was thus but 10 years of age when Queen Anne came to the throne of England'. He was sent at an early age, from his father's house at Kersal Broughton, to school in London, and after some years at the Merchant Tay- | lors' he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where lie became a great ■student of languages, including Hebrew and Arabic. But it was not at school and college only that John Byrom was a worker. It was about this time that his sister wrote in on© of her letters: "Brother John is most at Kersal—he goes every night and morning down to tie waterside (the River and bawls out one of Tully's orations in Latin, so loud that they can hear him a mile off, so that all the neighborhood tliink he is mad, and you would think so too if yon saw him. Sometimes ha threshes corn with John Rigby's men, and helps them to get potatoes, and works as hard as any of them; ha is rery good company." Byrom went to school in the soutihi of France after his graduation from Cambridge, fcnd took • ooutbo in medicine;

but instead of practising the profession he invented a system of shorthand, .-Mid when at the age* of 29 he married his cousin, Elizabeth: Byrom, and he wa> ohlisred to determine on some means of livelihood, he settled on the teaching of bis shorthand system. Newspaper reporters and shorthand -writers wvvc not so common as in these days, and V--rom had no difficulty in yetting workin this line. Members of' Parliament were glad to learn the new system of and Byrom had: in his'clientele |men of distinction,—the famous Lord Chesterfield, Horace Wnlpole and his friends, John and Charles Wesley, among others. ft was in Byrom's shorthand that John Wesley wrote his famous "Journals."