At the Breaking of Bread on Sunday, December
30, 2012, Jack Baker asked the assembly to sing this hymn in worship—and
worship, it really is!
OUR HEAVENLY TITLE
“Accepted
in the Beloved.”—Ephesians i.6.
Rise,
my soul! behold ‘tis Jesus,—
Jesus fills thy wondering eyes;
See
Him now, in glory seated,
Where thy sins no more can rise.
There,
in righteousness transcendent,
Lo! He doth in heaven appear,
Shows
the Blood of His atonement,
As thy
title to be there.
All
thy sins were laid upon Him,
Jesus bore them on the tree;
God,
who knew them laid them on Him,
And, believing, thou art free.
God
now brings thee to His dwelling,
Spreads for thee His feast divine,
Bids
thee welcome, ever telling
What a portion there is thine.
In
that circle of God’s favour,
(Circle of the Father’s love),
All
is rest—and rest for ever,—
All is perfectness above.
Blessed,
glorious word “for ever!”
Yea, “for
ever” is the word;
Nothing
will the ransom’d sever,
Nought
divide them from the Lord.
Believers Hymn Book #238
J. Denham Smith
Joseph Denham Smith was born July 11,
1817, in Romsey, Hampshire, and trusted the Lord in childhood. In fact, his
biographer tells us, “At the age of sixteen he first preached the Gospel, and
many were thrilled by his lifting up of Christ.” Not many years later he
studied at the Dublin Theological Institute and “entered the Congregational
ministry in 1840. In 1849 he became pastor of the Congregational Church at
Kingstown [now Dunleary], near Dublin.”
In 1859 a revival began in the North and
Smith visited Belfast, Ballymena and other places. He returned to his church in
Kingstown and it is reported that there was “a remarkable outburst of spiritual
blessing on September 9 in the church at Kingstown, which continued for many
months with notable blessing to thousands of souls.” Services were even begun
on the ferries running between Kingstown and Holyhead in Wales. Smith then
rented the Metropolitan Hall in Dublin and began gospel presentations to which
“thousands flocked together in the morning, and remained hour after hour—many
without refreshments—until ten and eleven at night.”
Smith resigned from his church in
Kingstown “to take his stand as a servant of the Church at large.” At about
this time a united effort was put forth to build a centre for evangelization in
Dublin, and Merrion Hall was constructed. In 1863 Smith began a series of
services in the new hall. Shortly afterwards, he visited Paris and Geneva for more gospel work
and finally settled in London.
Smith “preached his last message at
Merrion Hall on July 26, 1887... concerning the Blessed Hope of the any-moment
return of the Lord for His people.” On March 5, 1889, he passed away in the
presence of his wife and family, in Marylebone, London, and was buried in
Hampstead Cemetery. Engraved on his memorial stone are two great tributes: “A
servant of Jesus Christ” and “A man greatly beloved.”
A good number of Denham Smith’s works are
now available online. The language of the times may seem very flowery to us but
it can never disguise Smith’s love for the Lord and his longing for the
salvation of his hearers. His poetry, especially in the five hymns we know in
the Believers Hymn Book [#57, 118, 157, 238, and 241], seems to distill to us
all that is best:
Death
and hell cannot appal me,
Safe in Christ whate’er befall me,
Calmly
wait I, till He call me,
Peace, peace, is mine!
