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Show 0XXK0 How It Started By Jean Newton roxoCKXo "OH WHERE ARE KINGS AND EMPIRES NOW?" TPHIS familiar hymn which always makes one feel keenly how transitory transi-tory may be wealth and power and how uncertain a thing is earthly glory, owes its origin to circumstances circum-stances which brought home that realization to its author, Bishop Coxe. Written in 1S30, the composition of the hymn followed an extended tour which the bishop had made through the Orient. There, at the seat of ancient power, where he saw the relics of once omnipotent empires long crumbled into dust, the truth was borne in upon him of the transi-toriness transi-toriness of mundane powers and the futility of earthly vanities. And in that realization he found the inspiration for the hymn that has stood the test of time, the passing of the years only adding to its prestige and establishing it more firmly among the classics that will be heard as long as hymns are sung. There is something some-thing powerfully arresting in the words . Oh where are kinq-s and empires now Of old that w?nt and came? But Lord, Thy .:i,urch is praying yet A thousand years the same. (CopyrlKht.) |