ken
Into play.
Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way!

The following account of the origin of the well-known hymn, the "Ninety
and Nine," may have a tendency to stimulate others to go and do
likewise. It is taken from "Sabbath Reading," published by the late Mr.
Dougal of this city, who has recently passed away into his everlasting
rest.

A humble lady in Melrose, Scotland, was led to see the beauty of the
character of Christ in the parable of the Good Shepherd. She possessed
genius, and sometimes expressed her best thoughts and feelings in
verse. The vision of Christ leaving the glories of Heaven and becoming
a seeker of men who had gone astray, like an Eastern shepherd seeking a
wandering sheep in perilous places, touched her heart with poetic
fervor, and she wrote the hymn beginning:

"There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold."

One of the stanzas most vividly and tenderly expressed her clear view
of Divine sympathy and compassion:

"But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert He heard its cry--
Sick and helpless, and ready to die."

The poem was published in a local paper, and the lady soon afterward
died, and went to the Good Shepherd, whose love for the wandering and
perishing had gained the affections and service of her life. She was
buried in one of the churchyards of beautiful Melrose.

The efforts of a sincere life always meet with the needs of others, and
are often given, under Providence, a special mission in the world. The
simplicity and fervor of the little poem gained for it an unexpected
recognition.

The American evangelist, Mr. Sankey, was one day returning from
Edinburgh to Glasgow, to hold a farewell meeting there. Glasgow had
been the scene of the most signal triumphs in the work of Messrs. Moody
and Sankey, and this farewell gathering promised to be one of
thanksgiving and tears, of wonderful interest, power, and feeling.

Mr. Sankey, on this occasion, desired to introduce a new hymn which
should represent Christ as a compassionate and all-sufficient Saviour.
"Before getting on the train," he says, "I went to the news-stand and
bought two or three papers--some secular, some religious--and in one of
them I found these verses:

"'There were nin