Charlotte Elliot’s Hymn.
By Youth's Companion
SOME fifty years ago, that eminent minister, the Rev. Cæsar Malan, of Geneva, was a guest of the Elliots, a well-to-do family in the West End of London. One evening, in conversation with the daughter, Charlotte, he wished to know if she was a Christian. The young lady resented his question, and told him that religion was a matter which she did not wish to discuss. Mr. Malan replied, with his usual sweetness of manner, that he would not pursue the subject then if it displeased her, but he would pray that she might "give her heart to Christ, and become a useful worker for him." Several days afterwards, the young lady apologized for her abrupt treatment of the minister, and confessed that his question and his parting remark had troubled her. "But I do not know how to find Christ," she said; "I want you to help me." "Come to him just as you are," said Mr. Malan. He little thought that one day that simple reply would be repeated in song by the whole Christian world. Further advice resulted in opening the young lady's mind to spiritual light, and her life of devout activity and faith began. She possessed literary gifts, and, having assumed the charge of the Yearly Remembrancer, on the death of its editor, she inserted several original poems (without her name) in making up her first number. One of the poems was— "Just as I am—without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bid'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!" The words of Pastor Malan, realized in her own experience, were of course the writer's inspiration. Beginning thus its public history in the columns of an unpretending religious magazine, the little anonymous hymn, with its sweet counsel to troubled minds, found its way into devout persons' scrap-books, then into religious circles and chapel assemblies, and finally into the hymnals of the "church universal." Some time after its publication, a philanthropic lady, struck by its beauty and spiritual value, had it printed on a leaflet, and sent for circulation through the cities and towns of the kingdom, and in connection with this an incident at an English watering-place seems to have first revealed its authorship to the world. Miss Elliot, being in feeble health, was staying at Torquay, in Devonshire, under the care of an eminent physician. One day the doctor, who was an earnest Christian man, placed one of these floating leaflets in his patient's hands, saying he felt sure she would like it. The surprise and pleasure were mutual when she recognized her own hymn, and he discovered that she was its author.