Evangelist D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey, songleader, were a team.  One time, in the late 1800's, they were traveling by train to a meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Sankey saw a poem he liked in a newspaper.  He tore it out and put in his pocket.

At the service in Edinburgh, Moody spoke on "The Good Shepherd."  At the end of it, he asked Sankey for a solo.  Sankey is said to have remembered the poem in his pocket, and felt he should sing it.  He struck the chord of A flat on his little pump organ, and began to sing, composing the melody as he went.  At the end, both he and Mr. Moody were in tears. 

They found out later the poem was written by 21-year-old Elizabeth C. Clephane.  She would also later write the words to "Beneath the Cross ofJesus."

There are five verses to "The Ninety and Nine."  The fourth verse, particularly, refers back to the cross:

"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;

They're pierced tonight by many a thorn."

Verse five ends with "Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own."