104 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
If Thou wilt spread Thy shield around
Till these our wandrings cease And at our Father s lov d abode
Our souls arrive in peace
To Thee as to our covenant God
We ll our whole selves resign And count that not our tenth alone
But all we have is Thine.
This hymn is a favourite of His Majesty King Edward VII, and was greatly loved by David Livingstone. It often cheered him in his African wanderings, was the most inspiring and endearing strain heard in his little mission study in Africa, and was sung over his grave in Westminster Abbey. Canon Ellerton says Doddridge had better taste upon the whole than Watts, and less fervour.
Mr. S. R. Crockett described the hymn to Mr. Stead as that which, when sung to the tune of " St. Paul s," makes men and women square themselves and stand erect to sing, like an army that goes gladly to battle.
Hymn 96. We come unto our fathers God. T. H. GILL (52).
In The Golden Chain of Praise Hymns, 1869, entitled The People of God.
Mr. Gill says, The birthday of this hymn, November 22, 1868 (St. Cecilia s Day), was almost the most delightful day of my life. Its production employed the whole day, and was a prolonged rapture. It was produced while the Golden Chain was being printed, just in time to be a link therein, and was the latest, as " How, Lord, shall vows of ours be sweet ? " was the earliest song included therein.
Mr. Gill wrote to Mr. Brownlie : The hymn, built on ver. i of Ps. xc., and intended to set forth the continuity and unity of God s people in all ages, had a somewhat remarkable birth. It was inspired by a lively delight in my Puritan and Presby terian forefathers of East Worcestershire. Descended from a Moravian martyr and an ejected minister, I rejoice not a little in the godly Protestant stock from which I spring. A staff handed down from him, and inscribed with the date 1692, was
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