460 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
In March, 1744, Charles Wesley was preaching in an old upper room in Leeds when the floor gave way. I lost my senses, but recovered them in a moment, and was filled with power from above. I lifted up my head first, and saw the people under me, heaps upon heaps. I cried out, " Fear not : the Lord is with us ; our lives are all safe ! " and then, " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." I lifted up the fallen as fast as I could, and perceived by their countenances which were our children ; several of whom were hurt, but none killed. It was one of the most serious accidents of his itinerant life, but he himself escaped with a bruised hand and part of the skin rubbed off my head.
John Wesley gives some beautiful little incidents in his Journal which show how this doxology sprang to people s lips in the supreme moments of joy or need. On March 19, 1769, he says, Elizabeth Oldham, the widow of one of his Preachers, told him at Chester that in her mother s last moments she said, Call my son to see me die. He asked, Have you any fear of death ? She said, Oh no ! That is gone long since. Perfect love casts out fear. Do not you see Him? There He is, waiting to receive my soul. She then sang with a clear voice, Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, and ended her song and her life together.
Hymn 901. O timely happy, timely wise. JOHN KEBLE, M.A. (85).
Part of the opening poem of The Christian Year, headed Morning. His compassions fail not ; they are new every morning. Lam. iii. 22-3. It begins, Hues of the rich unfolding morn, and was written September 20, 1822.
Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss says, in a letter dated August 25, 1840 : I am beginning to feel that I have enough to do without looking out for a great wide place in which to work, and to appreciate the simple lines
The trivial round, the common task, Will furnish all we ought to ask, Room to deny ourselves, a road To bring us daily nearer God.
Her Stepping Heavenward breathes that spirit.
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