A study of the hymn is interesting. The first stanza at once suggests the
words of Jesus, uttered in the last week of His life, when Greek pilgrims
in Jerusalem came seeking for Him: "And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me." In the second stanza the author no
doubt had in mind the immortal words of St. Augustine: "Thou, O Lord,
hast made me for Thyself, and my heart can find no rest till it rest in
Thee." And in the final stanza we find almost an echo of the thought
expressed by Paul in Romans: "How then shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they
have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things!"

Curiously enough, this beautiful missionary lyric was written on two
shores of the Atlantic. It was on Good Friday, in the year 1850, that the
first stanza was written by Bishop Coxe at his home in Hartford, Conn.
For lack of time, however, or because the needed inspiration did not come
to him the unfinished manuscript was laid aside.

The next year he visited England, and one day, while wandering about the
campus of Magdalen College, Oxford, the thought flashed through his mind
that he had never completed the hymn. Finding a scrap of paper and a
pencil, he sat down to write, and in a few moments the touching words of
the two concluding stanzas were composed, and the hymn was sent on its
way to stir the heart of the world.

Bishop Coxe was not primarily a hymn-writer. His fame rests chiefly on
his religious ballads. It was in 1840, when a young student of
twenty-two, that he published his first volume, entitled "Christian
Ballads." These are mostly moral poems, impressive and challenging in
character, but not usually suitable as hymns. One of them, however,
bearing the name of "Chelsea," has yielded the famous hymn, "O where are
kings and empires now?"

An interesting story is told concerning this hymn. In 1873 the General
Conference of the Evangelical Alliance was held in New York City. It was
a period when many scientific objections had been raised regarding the
value of prayer, and many anxious souls were fearful that the faith of
the Church was being shaken to its foundations. President Woolsey of Yale
University gave the opening address. After he had