Sankey'S Singing In Edinburgh
SANKEY'S SINGING IN EDINBURGH
One of his hearers has thus described the impression made by Mr. Sankey's singing in Edinburgh. " Mr. Sankey sings with the conviction that souls are receiving Jesus between one note and the next. The stillness is overawing; some of the lines are more spoken than sung. The hymns are equally used for awakening, none more than 'Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By'. When you hear the ' Ninety and Nine 'sung, you know of a truth that down in this corner, up in that gallery, behind that pillar which hides the singer' s face from the listener, the hand of Jesus has been finding this and that and yonder lost one to place them in His fold. A certain class of hearers come to the services solely to hear Mr. Sankey, and the song draws the Lord's net around them. We asked Mr. Sankey one day what he was to sing. He said, 'I'll not know till I hear how Mr. Moody is closing.' Again we were driving to the Canongate Parish Church one winter night, and Mr. Sankey said to the young minister who had come for him, ' I am thinking of singing' 'I am so Glad to-night.' 'O said the young man, please rather sing 'Jesus of Nazareth.' An old man told me to-day that he had been awakened by it the last night you were down. He said, 'It just went through me like an electric shock.' A gentleman in Edinburgh was in distress of soul, and happened to linger in a pew after. the noon meeting. The choir had remained to practice and began, 'Free from the Law, O, Happy Condition.' Quickly the Spirit of God carried the truth home to the awakened conscience, and he was at last in the finished work of Jesus.