Some years ago, writes Mr. James A. Wat­son, of Black­burn, Eng­land, ‘I oft­en vis­it­ed one of our adult Sun­day-school schol­ars who had just been brought to the know­ledge of the Sa­viour…She heard a gos­pel of full and free sal­va­tion, em­braced it, and grad­u­al­ly be­came a faith-filled, con­sis­tent Christ­ian. She was laid low with a ser­i­ous ill­ness, but it was always a plea­sure to visit her. On one oc­ca­sion she told me that the ev­en­ing be­fore, when she had been left alone for the night, a cloud came over her spirit, the sense of lone­li­ness grew upon her, and she seemed for­sa­ken of God. All looked black, and she dread­ed the long, lone night. This was a most un­u­sual thing and she won­dered why it should be so. Just then, in the qui­et night, she heard steps on the flags of the foot-way. A man wear­ing the clogs of the fac­to­ry op­er­at­or was com­ing along, evi­dent­ly re­turn­ing late from some re­li­gious meet­ing. He was full of joy, for be­fore he reached the house where my schol­ar was lay­ing awake, he struck up in a joy­ful and loud song, ‘Art thou weary, art thou lan­guid?’…The sing­er, an ‘an­gel in clogs,’ went on his way, sing­ing aloud out of a full heart; but deep down in­to the heart of the lone­ly wo­man went the words, ‘Be at rest!’ Again she cast her­self upon the Lord; the cloud part­ed, peace and rest filled her heart, and she doubt­ed no more.”

This hymn was sung in the 1940 mo­vie Our Town, which was nom­in­at­ed for sev­er­al Acad­e­my Awards.