Only new wine will last..

Mrs Anne Ross Cousin (1824-1906), hymn writer and only child of David Ross Cundell M. D. , an assistant surgeon of the 33rd regiment at Waterloo, was born in Hull, on April 27th, 1824 but her family afterwards moved to Leith.

Educated privately, Anne became an expert pianist under John Muir Wood.

In 1847, she married William Cousin, minister of Chelsea Presbyterian Church who was subsequently called to the Free Church at Irvine, Ayrshire, and in 1857 to Melrose. He retired in Edinburg in 1878 and died there in 1883. Mrs. Cousin survived him 23 years dying December 6th, 1906.

In 1920, a stained glass window was placed in her memory in St. Adrian’s United Free Church, Melrose. She had four sons and two daughters.

Mrs Cousin is best known for the hymn “The Sands of Time are Sinking” which is hymn 206 in this hymnal titled “Oh Christ He is the Fountain”. Originally it had 19 stanzas and was written in Irvine in 1854. “I wrote it”, she said “as I sat at work one Saturday evening and though I threw it off at that time." It was the result of a long familiarity with the writings of Samuel Rutherford especially his letters. The hymn first appeared in the Christian Treasury in 1857 under the heading of ‘The Last Words of Samuel Rutherford. ’ It did not become generally known until Dr. J. Hood Wilson of Barclay Church, Edinburgh introduced a shortened version of 5 stanzas into a hymn book ‘Service of Praise’ prepared for his congregation in 1865.

Next in popularity among her hymns are ‘Oh Christ What Burdens Bow’d Thy Head’ (hymn 94) which Mr. Sankey eulogized as a gospel hymn that had been very much blessed; and ‘King Eternal, King Immortal’ which has been frequently set to music and sung at great choral festivals. ‘To Thee Dear Lord, Oh Christ of God, ’(126) Is also found in this hymnal.

Christ is better than any old water fountain. Christ is THE fountain!!

O I am my Beloved’s,

And my Beloved’s mine;

He brings a poor vile sinner

Into His house of wine!

I stand upon His merit;

I know no other stand.

I’m hidden in His presence

And held by His own hand.

How sweet!

I appreciate verse two of this hymn as I sing it with Him!

To know the mutual belonging with Him, and enjoy my portion in His dwelling place of rich fellowship are related to three attachments that I have with Him: His merit, His presence, and His own hand.

His shed blood is my only merit before God.

His indwelling Spirit’s presence is my life and my existence.

His own hand speaks of humble worship before Him as the sovereign One on the throne over all my situations.

His merit, His presence, and His own hand are preparing His lovers (once poor vile sinners) to be His Bride to match Him!

Samuel Rutherford spent 1.5 years in prison in Aberdeen because he refused to accept the Established Church of Charles I. He called himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ and called these 18 months spent in confinement, the sweetest in his life. Years after his release he still considered himself the Lord's prisoner. When he was dying he said: "My Honorable Master and Lovely Lord has pardoned, loved, and washed, and given me 'joy unspeakable and full of glory'."

Samuel Rutherford was born in Nesbet Parish, Scotland in 1600. The day and month are not known. He was such a brilliant student that he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Edinburgh University while he was an undergraduate, and he continued in this position for some time after he obtained his degree. During the year 1630 or shortly before, he was ordained in the Church of Scotland and was appointed pastor at Anworth in Galloway. Rutherford was loved by all who knew and heard him. There was no place large enough in all the community to hold the great crowds who wanted to hear him.

Samuel Rutherford was a man of great learning and was in great favor with the Bishops and scholars of both Scotland and England. He could have chosen an easy way, and he could have lived in luxury as a Bishop of the established church or as one of the greatest university professors of his day; but he turned both aside. He refused to accept the establishment and wrote against the evils of that Church. Some bishops hoped he would be diplomatic and withdraw his writings, but he refused. Charles I ordered Rutherford to be imprisoned in Aberdeen.

Like St. Paul in Rome and John Bunyan at Bedford, Rutherford was allowed to go to his own hired house at times. During his 1.5 years of imprisonment, his letters to friends and parishioners have become classics of spiritual beauty. In reading his letters, I did not find one instance of his having murmured or complained of his wretched prison conditions. Others referred to it but he did not. Rutherford lived in the presence of his Lord and King, and his dingy cell became illuminated by the Light of the World. His prison became to him the Palace of the King. From his prison letters we read: "I dare not but speak to others what God has done to His poor, afflicted prisoner. His comfort is more than I ever knew before. He has made all His promises good to me, and has filled up all the blanks with His own hand. I would not exchange my bonds for all the plastered joy of this whole world. It has pleased Him to make a sinner, the likes of me, a banqueter in His House; with that Royal Princely One, Christ Jesus. Oh, what weighing, oh, what telling is in His love! How sweet must He be, when that black, burdensome tree, His own cross, is so perfumed with joy and gladness! Oh, for help to lift Him up by praises on His royal throne!"

Again he wrote to a friend: "My Lord is kinder to me than He ever was. It pleases Him to dine and sup with His afflicted prisoner; a King feasts with me, and His 'spikenard casts a sweet smell'. Put Christ's love to the test, and put upon it our burdens, and then it will appear love indeed; we employ not His love, and therefore we know it not. I verily count the sufferings of my Lord more than this world's over-gilded glory. My Lord has fully recompensed my sadness with His joys, my losses with His presence. I find it a rich and sweet thing to exchange my sorrows for Christ's joys, my afflictions with that sweet peace I have with Himself."

During Cromwell's Commonwealth, Rutherford was made Rector of the College at St. Andrews. When Charles II came to the throne, Rutherford refused to accept a new "Popish prayer book" and pronounced this infringement an indecency. The wrath of Charles II and the prelates fell on him and he was indicted for treason. He was driven from office and would have been beheaded had not death intervened.

When the officers came to arrest him, Rutherford was near death. He smiled at them who would take him prisoner and said: "I am summoned before a higher Judge and Judicatory, and I am behooved to attend them."

Later he held his hand out and with face beaming, said: "I shall shine, I shall see Him as He is; I shall see Him reign, and all His fair company with Him; and I shall have my large share; mine eyes shall see my Redeemer, these very eyes of mine, and no other for me. My honorable Master and Lovely Lord, my great and royal King, has not a match in heaven or in earth. I have my own guiltiness like any other man, but He has pardoned, loved, washed and given me 'joy unspeakable and full of glory'. I shall sleep in Christ, and when I awake I shall be satisfied with His likeness." His body broken but his spirit unbreakable, he passed away in 1661. With a wave of his frail hand he said: "Glory, glory dwells in Immanuel's land!" And all the trumpets sounded for him on the the other side. He had entered the Palace Beautiful, a guest of his "Lovely Lord".

Samuel Rutherford was not a hymn writer. But "Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's Land", or "The Sands of Time are Sinking", is known as Rutherford's hymn, although he was not the author. This hymn was written by Anne Ross Cousin, whose husband, William, was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in Melrose.

Mrs. Cousin read all the letters of Rutherford and was so thrilled with his life and so filled with the Spirit that was his, that she wrote his testimony in verse about the year 1847. His dying words: "But glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land" became the glad refrain. - 'More Living Hymn Stories' by Wilbur Konkel

Without Christ we have no merit, without Christ we have no stand. The lamb is all the glory, and our eternal stand!

We sang this at our wedding..Rolf and Jessica Fehrenbach.

Like Frank Diaz I too was at Elden hall during the golden age!

This hymn has seen me through Many storms yet the bridegroom remains altogether lovely. Read the

Letters of Samuel Rutherford, the author of this exquisite

Song, who was known for his profound love for Christ.