History of the Hymns

History of the Hymns March 30, 2008

‘Depth of Mercy’ (1740) pg. 355
Words by Charles Wesley (1707 - 1788)
Music by: Orlando Gibbons (1583 - 1625)

An ac­tress in a town in Eng­land, while pass­ing along the street, heard sing­ing in a house. Out of cur­i­o­si­ty she looked in through the open door and saw a num­ber of peo­ple sit­ting to­ge­ther sing­ing this hymn. She list­ened to the song, and af­ter­wards she heard a sim­ple but ear­nest pray­er. When she finally left, the hymn had so im­pressed her that she pro­cured a co­py of a book con­tain­ing it. Read­ing and re-read­ing the hymn led her to give her heart to God and she re­solved to leave the stage. The man­a­ger of the the­a­ter plead­ed with her to con­tin­ue to take the lead­ing part in a play which she had made fa­mous in other ci­ties, and fi­nal­ly he per­suad­ed her to ap­pear at the the­a­ter. As the cur­tain rose the or­ches­tra be­gan to play the ac­com­pa­ni­ment to the song which she was ex­pect­ed to sing. She stood like one lost in thought, and the band, sup­pos­ing her em­bar­rassed or lost, played the prel­ude over a se­cond and a third time. Then with clasped hands she stepped for­ward and sang with deep emo­tion:
“Depth of mercy, can there be Mercy still reserved for me?”
This put a sud­den stop to the per­for­mance; most were im­pressed, though many scoffed. The change in her life was as per­ma­nent as it was sin­gu­lar. Soon af­ter she be­came the wife of a min­is­ter.

Meanwhile…1740…268 years ago…in the United States…

President: Obviously none - V.P.: Just as obviously none
Fort Niagara is in existence and known as “The Castle”
Mostly French trappers and Native Americans inhabit our region. France had control of the area as a colony. The English colonies along the eastern seaboard are still developing but are claiming all land due west of them, even across the mountains. As English trappers and traders move into the French territory and compete, tensions grow. The French try to convince the Native American tribes that the English will take away their hunting grounds and thereby make allies of most of them.

Ref. Library of Congress crosswinds Town of Hanover Bicentennial BuffaloHistory Tanbible