“The Ninety And Nine” - Elizabeth Clephane

1830–69

She had plenty of reasons to be bitter, but Elizabeth Clephane had a cheerful manner that dazzled the people of the Scottish town where she grew up. They called her Sunbeam. A sickly girl, she had lost both parents at an early age, but Elizabeth didn’t waste a lot of time feeling sorry for herself. Instead, she and her sisters became known for their charitable efforts, serving the poor of the region and giving away any excess income.

It would have been a quiet, devout life, except that Elizabeth also wrote poetry. A few of her works were published during her lifetime in a Scottish Presbyterian magazine, which published a larger collection of her poetry after her untimely death at age thirty-eight. Among these poems was the text of “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” which has since become a beloved hymn. There, in the third stanza, the woman known as Sunbeam wrote: “I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face.” Elizabeth had a knack for expressing rich human emotion in simple phrases.

Another hymn from her hand became a powerful part of revival meetings led by Dwight L. Moody in the late 1800s—“The Ninety and Nine.” Song leader Ira Sankey once picked up a newspaper for a train ride through Scotland, noticed a religious poem printed there, and clipped it. A few days later, Dwight L. Moody was preaching about the Good Shepherd and asked Ira to sing an appropriate song. Put on the spot, the song leader heard an inner voice saying, Sing the hymn you found on the train. He placed the clipping on the organ in front of him and improvised a tune for it.

There were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold.

But one was out on the hills away, far off from the gates of gold.

It had been five years since Elizabeth’s death, but in the revival meeting that night, hearing these words sung for the first time, was her sister, surprised and delighted to hear Sunbeam’s old poem in this fresh, new way. When we follow the Lord’s leading, there are no accidents.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6