celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, the spiritual and
poetic beauty of whose _Meditations_ once made a devotional text-book
for pious souls. Of Dr. Watts and his offer of his hand and heart, she
always said, "I loved the jewel, but I did not admire the casket." The
poet suitor was undersized, in habitually delicate health--and not
handsome.

But the good minister and scholar found noble employment to keep his
mind from preying upon itself and shortening his days. During his long
though afflicted leisure he versified the Psalms, wrote a treatise on
_Logic_, an _Introduction to the Study of Astronomy and Geography_, and
a work _On the Improvement of the Mind_; and died in 1748, at the age of
seventy-four.

"O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES TO SING."

Charles Wesley, the author of this hymn, took up the harp of Watts when
the older poet laid it down. He was born at Epworth, Eng., in 1708, the
third son of Rev. Samuel Wesley, and died in London, March 29, 1788. The
hymn is believed to have been written May 17, 1739, for the anniversary
of his own conversion:

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise,
The glories of my God and King,
And triumphs of His grace.

The remark of a fervent Christian friend, Peter Bohler, "Had I a
thousand tongues I would praise Christ Jesus with them all," struck an
answering chord in Wesley's heart, and he embalmed the wish in his
fluent verse. The third stanza (printed as second in some hymnals), has
made language for pardoned souls for at least four generations:

Jesus! the name that calms our fears
And bids our sorrows cease;
'Tis music in the sinner's ears,
'Tis life and health and peace.

Charles Wesley was the poet of the soul, and knew every mood. In the
words of Isaac Taylor, "There is no main article of belief ... no moral
sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the gospel that does not find
itself ... pointedly and clearly conveyed in some stanza of Charles
Wesley's poetry." And it does not dim the lustre of Watts, considering
the marvellous brightness, versatility and felicity of his greatest
successor, to say of the latter, with the _London Quarterly_, that he
"was, perhaps, the most gifted minstrel of the modern Church."

[Illustration: Charles Wesley]

Most of the hymns of this good man were hymns of experience--and this is
why they are so dear to the Christian heart. The music of eternal life
is in them. The happy glow of