Show A tf nin Is Js 7 n n r is 1 BY CLINT BONNER s a The Ninety And Nine Dine NineA A preacher and a singer take a train ride Two tired men hurried through the railroad station at Glasgow Scotland One of or them paused bought a newspaper and stuffed it into his pocket On the train they took scats seats facing each other One of or the men was Dwight L. L Moody the great evangelist of or the time The Theother Theother Theother other was Ira D D. D Sankey who sang to his own accompaniment and if not the greatest gospel singer of the past century certainly one of or the greatest The pair had just closed an an extended revival in Glasgow and were on their way to Edinburg for a belated engagement Moody waded into a bundle of unopened letters from his home In Chicago It was 1874 His church had been destroyed three e years earlier in the great fire and he was anxious There were ninety and nine that safely lay In th the shelter of the fold But one was out on the hills away I Far For off from the gates of gold Away on the mountain wild and bare Away from the tender Id Shepherds Shepherd's car co care I lord Thou hast host here Thy ninety and nine Are they not enough for Thee But the Shepherd made This answer of mine Has wandered away from Me And although the road is rough and steep I go to the desert to find My sheep about progress on his new tabernacle Sankey scanned his newspaper was about to toss it aside when he noticed a poem written by a little orphaned Scotch girl named Elizabeth Clephane lie He road read the lines over and over over over- tore the poem out and put It into his pocket In Edinburgh Moody preached on the subject The Good Shepherd Came time for for tor Sankey's solo He lie had not expected the sermon and had no appropriate number Then he thought of the poem He put It on the music rack tits His hand hit the keys kes He lie starred stared singing This is perhaps the only case in the history of hymn making where a tune was composed note for note just as it stands toda today while the composer sang it for the first time But none of the ransomed ever knew How deep were the waters crossed Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed Ere He found His sheep that was lost Out In tn the desert He heard Its cry cry cry- Sick and helpless and ready to die But But all through the mountains thunder riven And up from the rocky steep There arose a glad cry at the gate gale of heaven Rejoice I have found have found My sheep And the angels echoed around the throne Rejoice for the Lord brings back His |