Is there any hope to accomplish anything worth-while when your life has gotten off to the wrong start? Phoebe Hinsdale was left an orphan when she was only two years old. A member of her family , the keeper of the county jail, raised her amid drudgery and cruel hardship. She, who was destined to write one of the great Christian hymns, never learned to read until she was eighteen. In the three months she was allowed to go to school, she not only learned to read, but she learned about Jesus, and gave her heart to Him.Later she married a house-painter, Timothy Brown. They lived in poverty in a very small unfinished house in Ellington, Connecticut. She had very little time for herself, with a demanding husband, four children, and a sick sister to care for. She had a strong need to find time to be alone with the Lord, but there was no place in their crowded small house to find a place to be alone with Jesus. Therefore, at twilight she would frequently slip away from the house and walk alone along the road as far as her neighbor's beautiful garden for devout meditation and communion with God. The owner of the garden confronted her one day by saying, "Mrs. Brown, why do you come up at evening so near our house and then go back without coming in? If you want anything, why do you not come in and ask?"
According to Carl Price, who wrote "One Hundred And One Hymn Stories," that very night with all the children in bed, except the baby in her arms, she wrote "An Apology for My Twilight Rambles, Addressed to a Lady." Her letter became the heart of one of the most famous hymns ever written, "I Love to Steal Awhile Away."
I LOVE to steal awhile away from every cumbering care,
And spend the hours of setting day in humble, grateful prayer.
I love, in solitude, to shed the penitential tear;
And all His promises to plead, when none but God can hear.
I love to think on mercies past, and future good implore;
And all my cares and sorrows cast on Him whom I adore.
I love, by faith, to take a view of brighter scenes in heaven;
The prospect doth my strength renew, while here by tempests driven.
Thus, when life's toilsome day is o'er,
May its departing ray
Be calm as this impressive hour,
And lead to endless day.
-Phoebe (Hinsdale) Brown. 1783–1861
BROWN, Phoebe Hinsdale, poet, born in Canaan, New York, in 1783; died in Henry, Illinois, 10 October, 1861. She married Timothy H. Brown. In 1824 she contributed to Dr. Asahel Nettleton's "Village Hymns" the popular lyric, "I Love to steal Awhile Away," and several of her hymns are in Cleveland's " Lyra Sacra Americana." One of her sons became a missionary in Japan.
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