THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 155
She was greatly impressed by the Tractarian Movement, and her Verses for Holy Seasons, with catechetical questions and with a preface by Dr. Hook, appeared in 1846; Hymns for Little Children, a tiny volume of some thirty leaves, came out in 1848. Her hymns and poems number nearly four hundred. Her Burial of Moses has attained wide popularity. Tennyson said it was one of the poems by a living writer of which he would have been proud to be the author. Her hymns are household words all over the world. Many of them were written for her Sunday-school class, and read over there before they appeared in print. Some were prepared at the request of the editors of Hymns Ancient and Modertt, others for Sunday schools and children s gatherings. Dr. A. E. Gregory says she may almost be called the first writer of real children s hymns. She combines with the winsome simplicity, which charms and instructs a little child, the power to speak to the child in the heart of the man.
Hymn 183. Thou art gone up on high.
EMMA TOKE.
Mrs. Toke was the daughter of Dr. Leslie, Bishop of Kilmore, and was born at Holy wood, Belfast, in 1812. She married Rev. Nicholas Toke, of Godington Park, Ashford, Kent, in 1837 ; and died in 1872.
Her early hymns were written in 1851. At the request of a friend who was finding hymns for the S.P.C.K., seven of them, including the Ascension hymn, appeared in S.P.C.K. Hymns for Public Worship, 1852. She afterwards added a verse to her Ascension hymn
Thou hast gone up on high !
Triumphant o er the grave, And captive led captivity,
Thy ransomed ones to save. Thou hast gone up on high !
Oh ! help us to ascend, And there with Thee continually
In heart and spirit blend.
Mrs. Toke wrote another series of fourteen hymns for the Sunday School Liturgy and Hymn-book, arranged by Rev. R. Judd, of St. Mary s, Halifax, 1870 ; but they did not prove so
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