Great Hymns Of The Faith - "The Ninety And Nine"
This is copied from the bulletin of Calvary Baptist Church on 472 Ocean Rd in Portsmouth NH 03801. (603) 436-7736. The bulletin is dated 10/20/2024.
Great Hymns Of The Faith
"The Ninety And Nine"
Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1830-1869.
"The Ninety and Nine" is a spiritual mosaic of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. Elizabeth C. Clephane has woven the scripture into a poem of rare beauty. In forming the mosaic she took the scriptural descriptions of the Good Shepherd as the artisan takes the pieces of tile, putting each in its place and proper relationship, with the result of a true and perfect product.
"The Ninety and Nine" reveals depth of insight and a genius selection of material. The mosaic shows architectural beauty of design and spiritual understanding of content.
Miss Clephane wrote the hymn for children. It was published in The Children's Hour in 1868. She passed to her reward the following year.
Ira D. Sankey set the poem to music in 1874, so the author of the lyrics missed the knowledge of how great an immediate blessing her poem was, and its later growth to world wide popularity and use.
From a religious paper Mr. Sankey was reading, while traveling in Scotland, he had cut the poem and put it in his vest pocket. Following a powerful sermon in Edinburg, on the "Good Shepherd", Dwight Moody, the evangelist, asked Mr. Sankey to sing something suitable. Ira Sankey thought of the poem for which there had, as yet, been no music written. Drawing the poem from his pocket he placed it on the organ and struck the chord of A-flat. He followed on, composing as he went the very tune which remains unchanged to this day. The audience was greatly moved. Mr. Sankey, in tell of the occasion, says, "Mr. Moody was in tears, and so was I.".
"I am the good shepherd." (John 10:11, 14). "...come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).
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