CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT

EING highly cultured, strong in intellect, intensely spiritual, divinely gifted in song, a patient sufferer for fifty years, Miss Elliott was inspired to give the Christian Church some of the most tender and effective hymns to be found in our hymnology. She was born at Clapham, England, in 1789. Reared in the Established Church, she was a devout member of that communion, till her translation in 1871. A severe illness at the age of thirty-two left her a permanent invalid, but this invalidism did much to make her the most distinguished of all women hymnwriters of the nineteenth century. Of the one hundred and twenty or more hymns. credited to her, a large proportion are in common use in lands of the English tongue. The hymn by which Miss Elliott is best known and most dearly beloved is, “Just As I Am":

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am (Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down),
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am, of that free love

The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come!

This is such a universal favorite that it has been rendered into the language of every civilized country on the globe, and indeed it is sung in the tongues of many heathen lands. The story that has often been told in pulpits and not infrequently repeated by the religious press, associating the hymn with the alleged conversion of Miss Elliott after spending some years in ungodly living, is erroneous. It is no doubt true that to her acquaintance with the famous and saintly Dr. Henri Abraham Cesar Malan, of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1822, “is attributed much of the deep spiritual-mindedness so prominent in her hymns." But "Just as I Am" was the spontaneous language of her heart in 1836, when a storm of pain and sorrow seemed to assault her soul.

Another hymn marked by a deep patnetic spirit is that popularly known as "Thy Will be Done." It was published in

Miss Elliott's "Invalid's Hymn Book" in 1834, and during the following five years it appeared in four editions of her hymns and in as many varying forms, all of them made by herself. The text which I append is from the first edition :

My God and Father! while I stray,
Far from my home, in life's rough way,
Oh, teach me from my heart to say,
Thy will be done."

Though dark my path and sad my lot,
Let me be still and murmur not;
Or breathe the prayer, divinely taught,
Thy will be done.”

What though in lonely grief I sigh
For friends beloved, no longer nigh?
Submissive still, I would reply,
"Thy will be done.”

If Thou shouldst call me to resign
What most I prize, it ne'er was mine:
I only yield Thee what was Thine;
"Thy will be done.”

Should pining sickness waste away
My life in premature decay,

My Father! still I strive to say,
"Thy will be done.”

If but my fainting heart be blest
With Thy sweet Spirit for its guest,
My God! to Thee I leave the rest,
"Thy will be done."

Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with Thine, and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
"Thy will be done.”

Then when on earth I breathe no more
The prayer oft mixed with tears before,
I'll sing upon a happier shore,—

"Thy will be done."

"Thy Will be Done" has been set to many beautiful chants, and in one of these settings the hymn was a special favorite of Queen Victoria; it was selected by her to be used at the burial of her daughter, Princess Alice of Hesse, who died almost tragically in 1878. Her Majesty was always deeply touched by the tenderness and pathos of the hymn; and after the death of the Princess it was sung several times at commemoration services held in the private chapel at Windsor Castle.

In the edition of Miss Elliott's "Invalid's Hymn Book" published in 1841,