orious thought, I am with Thee!

Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1855

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE AND HER HYMNS

Through the fame that her book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," brought her, the
name of Harriet Beecher Stowe has become almost a household word on both
sides of the Atlantic. But not many, perhaps, are familiar with Mrs.
Stowe the hymn-writer. And yet she wrote a number of hymns that are
worthy of finding a place in the best of collections. Indeed, for sheer
poetic beauty there is probably not a single American lyric that can
excel "Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh."

It was her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, who introduced Mrs. Stowe as a
hymn-writer, when he included three of her hymns in the "Plymouth
Collection," which he edited in 1865. One of the three was the hymn
mentioned above; the other two were "That mystic word of Thine, O
sovereign Lord" and "When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean."

Like the Wesley family in England, the Beecher family became one of the
most famous in religious and literary circles in America. Harriet Beecher
was born in Litchfield, Conn., June 14, 1812. Her father was the noted
Dr. Lyman Beecher, a distinguished clergyman of his day. Her mother, a
very devout Christian, died when Harriet was less than four years of age.
Her dying prayer was that her six sons might be called into the ministry.
That prayer was answered, and the youngest of them, Henry Ward Beecher,
who was only a boy when the mother died, became one of America's greatest
preachers. We do not know what the dying mother's prayer for her daughter
was, but we do know that Harriet Beecher achieved fame such as comes to
few women. Even as a child she revealed a spiritual nature of unusual
depth. An earnest sermon preached by her father when she was fourteen
made such an impression on her youthful heart that she determined to give
herself wholly to Christ. She tells of the experience in these words:

"As soon as my father came home and was seated in his study, I went up to
him and fell in his arms, saying, 'Father, I have given myself to Jesus,
and He has taken me.' I never shall forget the expression of his face as
he looked down into my earnest childish eyes; it was so sweet, so gentle,
and like sunlight breaking out upon a landscape. 'Is it so?' he said,
holding me silently to his heart, as I felt the hot tears fall on my
head. 'Then has a new flower blossomed in th