There were ninety and nine that safely lay

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 said...