“O HAPPY SAINTS WHO DWELL IN LIGHT.”
Sometimes printed “O happy souls.” This poetical and flowing hymn seems to have been forgotten in the making up of most modern church hymnals. Hymns on heaven and heavenly joys abound in embarrassing numbers, but it is difficult to understand why this beautiful lyric should be universally neglected. It was written probably about 1760, by Rev. John Berridge, from the text, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,”
The first line of the second stanza—
Released from sorrow, toil and strife,
—has been tinkered in some of the older hymn-books, where it is found to read—,
Released from sorrows toil and grief,
—not only committing a tautology, but destroying the perfect rhyme with “life” in the next line. The whole hymn, too, has been much altered by substituted words and shifted lines, though not generally to the serious detriment of its meaning and music.
The Rev. John Berridge—friend of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Lady Huntingdon—was an eccentric but very worthy and spiritual minister, born the son of a farmer, in Kingston, Nottinghamshire, Eng., Mar. 1, 1716. He studied at Cambridge, and was ordained curate of Stapleford and subsequently located as vicar of Everton, 1775. He died Jan. 22, 1793. He loved to preach, and he was determined that his tombstone should preach after his voice was still. His epitaph, composed by himself, is both a testimony and a memoir:
“Here lie the earthly remains of John Berridge, late vicar of Everton, and an itinerant servant of Jesus Christ, who loved his Master and His work, and after running His errands many years, was called up to wait on Him above.
“Reader, art thou born again?
“No salvation without the new birth.
“I was born in sin, February, 1716.
“Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730.
“Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1751.
“Admitted to Everton vicarage, 1755.
“Fled to Jesus alone for refuge, 1756.
“Fell asleep in Jesus Christ,—” (1793.)