Before a Collection made for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

FROM From India's coral strand,

Where Afric's sunny fountains

Roll down their golden sand; From many an ancient river, From many a palmy plain, They call us to deliver,

Their land from error's chain!

ROM Greenland's icy mountains,

What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle, Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile: In vain with lavish kindness The gifts of God are strown, The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone!

The following information regarding this universally admired hymn is transcribed from the fly- leaf accompanying the fac- simile of the original autograph( Hughes, Wrexham). original was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, from Dr. Raffles collection:­

The

" On Whitsunday, 1819, the late Dr. Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph, and Vicar of Wrexham, preached a sermon in Wrexham Church, in aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. That day was also fixed for the commencement of the Sunday Evening Lectures, intended to be established in that Church, and the late Bishop of Calcutta( Heber), then In the course of Rector of Hodnet, the Dean's son- in- law, undertook to deliver the first lecture. the Saturday previous, the Dean and his son- in- law being together at the Vicarage, the former requested Heber to write Something for them to sing in the morning,' and he( Heber) retired for that purpose from the table, where the Dean and a few friends were sitting, to a distant part of the room. In a short time the Dean inquired,' What have you written?' Heber having then

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