THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 115
esteemed friendship. It would have been published earlier but for the long and affecting indisposition which prevented Cowper from taking any further part in the work. In 1773 one of his worst attacks came on, and he was an inmate of Newton s house for more than a year.
Earl Selborne says that the authors of the Olncy Hymns are entitled to be placed at the head of all the writers of the Calvinistic school. The greater number of the Olney hymns are, no doubt, homely and didactic ; but to the best of them (and they are no inconsiderable proportion) the tenderness of Cowper and the manliness of Newton give the interest of contrast as well as of sustained reality. If Newton carried to some excess the sound principle laid down by him, that "per spicuity, simplicity, and ease should be chiefly attended to, and the imagery and colouring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged very sparingly and with great judgement " if he is often dry and colloquial he rises at other times into soul- animating strains, such as " Glorious things of thee are spoken " ; and sometimes rivals Cowper himself in depth of feeling. Cowpcr s hymns in this book arc, almost without exception, worthy of his name. This is, however, a somewhat generous estimate. Even Cowper s muse drops sometimes from its serene height.
On Whit Sunday, June i, 1879, two days before Frances Ridley Havergal died, the doctor told her she would soon be going home. She exclaimed, Beautiful ! too good to be true ! Oh, it is the Lord Jesus that is so clear to me. I can t tell how precious! how much He has been to me! Afterwards she asked for How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.
Newton continued to preach when he was more than eighty. He could scarcely see his manuscript, but took a servant with him into the pulpit, who stood behind and with a pointer traced out the lines. One Sunday morning Newton came to the words Jesus Christ is precious, which he repeated. His servant thinking he was getting confused, whispered, Go on, go on ; you said that before ; Newton, looking round, replied, John, I said that twice, and I am going to say it again ; then with redoubled force he sounded out the words, Jesus Christ is precious. A pleasing picture of him is given in Henry Martyn s Journal for 1804: Drank tea at Mr. Newton s : the old man was very civil to me, and striking in his remarks in general. In 1805 he was pressed to give up
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