There Were Ninety and Nine That Safely Lay

Today's hymn can be downloaded here. For more information look here.There were ninety and nine that safely lay. Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane* (1830-1869). This was one of eight hymns by Clephane printed after her death in The Family Treasury, a Scottish religious magazine, in 1874 under the general heading of ‘Breathings on the Border’ (she had lived in the Border town of Melrose). According to James Mearns* in JJ, p. 1162, it was written in 1868, and had been published in a small magazine for children, The Children’s Hour in the same year. It became very popular when set to the tune (sometimes called CLEPHANE) written by Ira D. Sankey* and published in his Sacred Songs and Solos. The hymn’s dramatic rendering of the parable from Luke 15: 3-7 is...
Thank you and God Bless.


1 There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the flock,
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off in the cold and dark;
Away on the mountains wild and bare,
Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

2 “Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?”
But the Shepherd made answer: “This of Mine
Has wandered away from Me;
And although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep.”

3 But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night which the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the bleak desert He heard its cry—
All bleeding and helpless, and ready to die.

4 “Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way
That mark out the mountain’s track?”
“They were shed for one who had gone astray
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.”
“Lord, whence are Thy hands so rent and torn?”
“They’re pierced tonight by many a thorn.”

5 And all through the mountains, thunder-riven,
And up from the rocky steep,
There arose a cry to the gate of heaven,
“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”
And the angels echoed around the throne,
“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!”

(Repeat the last line of each stanza)