TORY 











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FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. 

BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 

THE LIBRARY OF 

PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 



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Digitized by the Internet Archive 

in 2012 with funding from 

Princeton Theological Seminary Library 



http://archive.org/details/storyOObutt 






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JAN 23 1933 






THE 















glory of the ^anes. 



FOR HOME READING, PRAISE MEETINGS, 
AND LECTURES ON SACRED MUSIC. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH ANECDOTES. 



V 

HEZEKIAH BUTTER WORTH, A. M., 

AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF THE HYMNS." 






AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



CONTENTS. 



Illustrations 4 

Introduction 5 

The Praise-Meeting and its Music 12 

The Tune-Writers 15 

The Missionary Praise-Service 1S7 

Christmas Caro's . 195 

Old Revival Melodies . . 205 

The Authors of Preludes, Interludes, and Postludes. . .211 
Praise-Meeting Anecdotes of the Mission of Music . . .221 

The New Song 237 

Index and Notes 243 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Mason, Lowell Frontispiece. 

Bliss, P. P 17 

Handel, George Frederick 36 

Haydn, Joseph 39 

Gustavus Adolphus 41 

Elliott, Charlotte 43 

Phillips, Philip 65 

Luther, Martin 74 

Heber, Reginald 114 

Muhlenberg, W. H 121 

Sankey, Ira D. 126 

Bonar, Horatius 128 

Palmer, Ray 134 

Bach, Johann Sebastian 145 

Ken, Thomas 169 

Mozart, J. C. W. A 200 

I lavergal, Frances Ridley 229 

Calvin, John 245 



INTRODUCTION 



The volume to which this is intended to be a 
companion was published in 1875, under the title of 
u The Story of the Hymns." The George Wood Gold 
Medal for that year was awarded to the book, and it 
has passed through numerous editions, including an 
edition de luxe. 

It was written as a spiritual help to the intelligent 
singing and use of hymns, but it soon found an unex- 
pected field: it was made the text-book of Praise 
Services in many churches, the story of the hymn 
being told in the pulpit before the singing of it by the 
congregation or choir. The people were thus in- 
structed in the religious experiences of the originators 
of the hymns, and the reflex influence in some in- 
stances proved the beginning of spiritual revivals. 

The author has been impressed with the thought 
that the experiences of the tune-writers would make 
an interesting addition and companion to the earlier 
work, especially for the purpose of the Praise Service. 
So strong was the impression that from time to time 
he has turned aside from a busy life to secure and 
collect, from the most trustworthy sources, histories 
and anecdotes of tunes that he regarded as useful to 
leaders of Praise-Meetings by illustrating the spiritual 
value of music in worship. The Praise Service meets 



6 INTR OD UCTION. 

the needs of many small towns and neighborhoods 
where regular preaching cannot be secured. Christian 
people are called together to hear the Word of God 
read and to sing his praise, and such services have 
often proved the beginning of an enduring gospel 
work. 

To help the leader of such meetings to make the 
service effective for good seemed to the author a useful 
work. In prosecuting it he has had the friendship of 
some of the most popular and intelligent writers of 
church music and gospel hymns. 

That the volume may prove helpful both in the 
Praise Service and the Christian home, is the author's 
earnest desire. He could not include the history of all 
popular hymn-tunes, but only that of such as seem to 
best meet the present experience of the church and the 
wants of private devotion. 

As to the true value of a hymn-tune, the law that the 
best survives, and that that is the best which will 
do the most good, is as true of hymns and tunes as of 
other human efforts; the best in sacred music, however, 
is not always that which most closely follows the rules 
of musical or technical art or the standards of the 
schools, but that which is most spiritual and inspiring. 

Grand compositions of perfect workmanship often 
become lost to music as the years go by, while a 
simple strain that truly interprets the soul lives and 
becomes immortal. The hymn so well known as 
u Jesus, lover of my soul " will not bear close literary 
criticism and analysis, but it is the true language of 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

the soul, and will outlive the more ambitious work of 
the rhetorician. Pleyel rilled France with his works 
and the world with his fame, and he could hardly 
have dreamed that the simple soul-melody known in 
all lands as " Pleyel's Hymn" would keep alive his 
name when the numerous secular works with which 
he pleased the ear of his own time should cease to be 
heard. It is because of the spiritual value of the tune 
that the church holds it among her jewels. 

Many of the so-called "Gospel Hymn" tunes of to- 
day will undoubtedly be made more perfect and will 
outlive more elaborate work, because they well-nigh 
perfectly express the needs, aspirations, and experi- 
ences of the heart. To express what is spiritual 
requires not simply genius; it implies a spiritual fire. 
Criticism has little influence in such matters; the soul 
recognizes its own tongue. "He is a genius," says 
a great thinker, "who gives me back my own 
thoughts." It is so with hymn-music. From this 
point of view the authors of many gospel hymns, 
while we could wish the art- work more perfect, are yet 
deserving of a more worthy place and name in music 
than they receive from the schools. 

It is a rare gift to be able, by any art, to catch and 
express the spirit of things, and it is almost a prophetic 
gift to be able thus to interpret spiritual life and to 
form language for the inner tongue to express the un- 
seen revelations of divine love. "Spiritual things are 
spiritually discerned," and the church will always find 
her voice in many tunes which fashionable art ignores. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

The best music for the church is that which is the 
most spiritual, and of this quality secular schools and 
undevout minds, whatever may be their accomplish- 
ments, can be but imperfect judges. The church, to 
be true to her mission, must ever select her own tunes 
in accordance with her own inward experiences and 
outward needs. But the great tunes of the church, 
like the great hymns of the church, in which spirit- 
uality and art unite, are the imperishable monuments 
of the soul's progress; and consecrated art is one of the 
soul's best offerings to God. While the broad mind 
will never undervalue a simple gospel hymn that goes 
out to the world to reform, comfort, and help, it must 
ever find its highest expression of praise in the grand 
music of the greatest spiritual composers, and must feel 
even in that the inadequacy of human art to express 
what is infinite in goodness and boundless in love. 
"God is greatly to be praised:" this was the in- 
spiring thought of old Hebrew Psalms and of the 
temple's oratorios. 

" Come, let us adore him ; come, bow at his feet ; 
Oh, give him the glory, the praise that is meet; 
Let joyful hosannas unceasing arise, 
And join the full chorus that gladdens the skies." 

A number of interesting books have been written 
on hymn-writers, giving the history of hymns, but no 
book, so far as we know, has been written on the 
authors of hymn-tunes. The music is half of every 
grand hymn, the chariot of the soul of song. The 
notes convey impressions as well as the words, and 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

the tune-writer, as well as the hymn-writer, is a spirit- 
ual benefactor. 

One pleasant June day we rode from Wakefield to a 
bowery old farm in Reading, because we were told 
that there Dr. George F. Root used to live, and that 
there, amid a saintly family, he had been inspired to 
write many of those tunes which have become voices 
in the churches. We knew something of the influ- 
ence of such tunes in gospel work and progress; we 
thought of the single tune called the u Shining 
Shore" — how it had found a place in the memory of 
every American Protestant Christian, was well known 
in England, was a favorite in Scotland, was familiar in 
Germany, and had gone with the missionary into all 
lands. It was a pleasure to walk about the old house 
and amid the orchards and pine groves where such 
spiritual inspiration was born, and we still retain 
pleasant memories of the old North Reading " Willow 
Farm." 

We recently visited by invitation a lovely Christian 
home on Shawmut Avenue, Boston, to see the old 
melodeon on which Oliver Holden composed the 
hymn-tune " Coronation," nearly one hundred years 
ago (1792). Perronet's words are inspiring, but they 
would have been wingless without the tune. What a 
flame of fire has that tune been to untold millions 
of aspiring souls in all lands for so many years! 

America has produced few great musical works 
that are known in other lands and that have entered 
into the common experience of mankind; but her 



io INTRODUCTION. 

simple hymn-tunes are everywhere recognized as true 
spiritual inspirations, and are sung in all' Christian 
lands. They have become, as it were, a universal 
spiritual language. The street boy in London knows 
them; the old Scottish woman in her simple cottage, 
the boatmen on the Rhine, the street Arabs of Con- 
stantinople, and the half-naked children on the islands 
of the southern seas are familiar with them. They 
are sung on Sabbath evenings in palaces; they are 
sung on the steamers that cross the sea. 

"What shall we sing?" asked a minister in the 
steerage of an English steamer; "it must be some- 
thing that we all know, and here are gathered people 
from nearly all the countries of Europe." 

"Then it must be an American hymn-tune," said 
the master of the steerage. * ' Try ( His Jewels. ' ' ' 

There were a thousand people in the steerage 

whose future home was to be America; very many of 

them knew that simple air. The very chimes in the 

old steeples had taught it to them. So the song arose 

as one voice: 

" When he cometh, 
When he cometh 
To make up his jewels." 

"Now what shall we have next?" asked the min- 
ister. 

"'What a Friend we have in Jesus!'" was the 
answer. 

That song followed in thret different languages as 
one voice. 



INTRODUCTION. n 

The ship landed at Quebec; the thousand emi- 
grants rilled two long trains of cars, one train going 
east and the other towards the Georgian Bay. As the 
two trains separated each was rilled with the song, 
"When he cometh !" The whistle shrieked, and the 
words died away amid the shadows of the Canadian 
woods. It was the tune that had made the hymn a 
common language. 

The number of tunes that belong to the general 
experience of the Protestant Church is not large. It 
is being increased by the addition of the most spiritual 
tunes and musical inspirations of the Roman-catholic 
Church; for spiritual music becomes universal, what- 
ever its source, as Christianity itself rises above its 
working and missionary divisions. 

The tunes which we have selected for notice in 
this volume are generally familiar to Protestant con- 
gregations or in use in the choirs of most evangelical 
churches. The historic facts concerning many of 
them are such as tend to add to the estimate in which 
they are held and to prove spiritually helpful to the 
singers of them. 



12 INTR OD UCTION. 



THE PRAISE MEETING AND ITS MUSIC. 

The Praise Meeting, as we now term the special 
service of sacred song, originated with Dr. Eben 
Tourjee, Director of the New England Conservatory 
of Music, in the Methodist church in Warren, Rhode 
Island, where a part of Dr. Tourjee' s early life was 
spent and where he was married. For this Methodist 
church he has preserved a strong affection. 

Dr. Eben Tourjee was born at Warwick, Rhode 
Island, June i, 1834. He was of Huguenot descent. 
His musical inspiration came to him in boyhood. His 
parents were religious people, and he early felt an 
ambition to use music for the spread of the gospel. 
Gov. Harris ot Rhode Island had noticed young 
Tourjee' s love of music, and said to him on one occa- 
sion, 

' ' I wish that you would learn to play the organ as 
soon as possible. Here is the key." 

The boy took the key with a trembling hand and 
went to the church organ, on which he had never 
played before. That organ key was the key of his 
destiny. 

His early life was a struggle with poverty under 
the inspiration of great and noble plans and ideals. 
To make music a service of God, as it has been in the 
land of Luther, has been his leading aim. The 
thought expressed by Champlain in regard to the new 
French provinces that he had founded, " These king- 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

doms are for God," seems to be the ruling idea of Dr. 
Tourjee in respect to music. 

Dr. Tourjee, with the best of opportunities to be- 
come a rich man, conscientiously remained poor, in 
order the better to give his life to his calling and 
art. He became an organist and public singer, organ- 
ized the "Conservatory of Music" at the Providence 
Conference Seminary, East Greenwich, R. I. ; estab- 
lished the "New England Conservatory of Music," 
Boston; secured the teaching of music in the public 
schools of Massachusetts; and originated the plan of 
Praise Services, which he promoted by lectures and by 
specimen and model services of the kind in many 
cities and towns. The New England Conservatory 
has more than two thousand pupils yearly, and it is 
the purpose of its director to make it a Christian 
home. Employing some of the greatest instructors in 
the world, Dr. Tourjee has never lost sight of his 
early consecration. 

His connection with the great "Peace Jubilee" is 
historic, but is a matter of minor importance in com- 
parison with his service in the great choirs and 
choruses of Boston for evangelistic work. Who can 
ever forget the chorus which he organized for the 
Tabernacle meeting in connection with the work of 
Messrs. Moody and Sankey? or the singing by that 
chorus of the thrilling gospel song, u To the work ! to 
the work!" 

The Christian world owes him a debt of gratitude 
for his plan of Praise Services, voiced in the people's 



i 4 INTRODUCTION. 

music of all lands. His devout thought and sincerely 
religious enthusiasm, which have never been used for 
any selfish end, enter into them all. 

The plan of the Praise Meeting is somewhat sim- 
ilar to that of the popular English Service of Song, 
with connected Scripture readings, the design of the 
meeting being to illustrate a single subject by Scrip- 
ture and song. To-day these meetings often consist 
of a general singing of familiar tunes; and while the 
grand chorals are used at the introduction and close, 
the simple, spiritual music of Doane, Lowry, Main, 
Woodbury, Bradbury, Phillips, Hull, Murray, Root, 
and Bliss fills the larger part of the hour. In all such 
services the spirit of worship should reign supreme, 
and the gratification of the musical faculty should 
minister to the religious exercise. People desire home 
singing, or the spiritual songs of the heart, for the 
Praise Service, and not an exhibition of high art. 
Hence the German chorals and American tunes are 
most used. 

This is true not only of our own land, but also of 
England. There it is customary to issue programmes 
of the service in the form of printed tracts or leaflets, 
and these published Praise Services, of which millions 
of copies have been sold, are filled with German and 
American music. It is hoped that the anecdotes 
which have been added to the brief histories of many 
of the tunes may prove helpful to the directors of 
such services. 



THE 

TUNE-WRITERS 



ADESTE FIDELES, OR PORTUGUESE HYMN. 

MARCUS PORTUGAL 1763-1S34. ADAPTED BY JOHN READING. 17 — . 

The origin of the hymn is uncertain; it was 
translated from the Latin by Rev. Frederic Oakeley, 
about 1841. 

"Frederic Oakeley graduated M. A. at Oxford 
and took orders in the Church of England. He be- 
came prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, preacher at 
Whitehall, and incumbent of Margaret Chapel, Lon- 
don. He was active in the 'Oxford Movement,' and 
in 1845 called attention to his views for the purpose 
of seeing if he could continue to hold an Oxford 
degree with so great a change in his opinions. The 
question was tried, and he was perpetually suspended 
unless he retracted. He then resigned his positions 
in the Church of England and entered the Church of 
Rome, in which he became a priest, and canon of the 
diocese of Westminster. His publications are numer- 
ous, and some of them have considerable value." 

"Annotations to the Episcopal Hymnal." 

It was also translated by Edward Caswall (born 
1814) under the title of "Come hither, ye faithful." 



16 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

The tune is known by Romanists as u The Mid- 
night Mass." It used to be sung in the processions 
of priests and nuns and the religious orders on their 
way from their houses to the church on Christmas 
morning. It is known in some Protestant churches 
as the Portuguese Hymn, so called because the tune 
was brought to England from Portugal. 

The hymn has been attributed to Bonaventura 

(1221-1274). 

Adeste fideles, 

Laeti triumphantes, 

Venite, venite in Bethlehem. 

Natum videte Regem angelorum. 

Chorus. 
Venite adoremus, 
Venite adoremus ; 
Venite adoremus Dominum. 

Deum de Deo, 

Lumen de lumine, 

Gestant puellae viscera. 

Deum verum genitum non factum. — Cho. 

Cantet nunc Io 

Chorus angelorum, 

Cantet nunc aula ccelestium. 

Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo. — Cho. 

Ergo qui natus, 

Die hodierna, 

Jesu tibi sit gloria. 

Patris aeterni verbum caro factum. — Cho. 

The composer of the tune, Marcus Portugal, was 
a chapel master to the king of Portugal, and died at 
Rio Janeiro about 1834, aged 71. 




•w Ip 



ALMOST PERSUADED. 17 

ALMOST PERSUADED. 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

"I am preparing a book of gospel songs; pray for 
the book; all the good that is in it must come from 
God." So wrote P. P. Bliss to a Christian friend. 
The book was published. It was full of gospel messa- 
ges to the people. It led to the publishing of "Gospel 
Hymns," of which millions of copies have been sold. 

Mr. Bliss was born near Rome, Penn., 1838. No- 
ting the general acceptance of the tune "Oh! how I 
love Jesus," he said, " I have sung of my poor love to 
Christ; now I will sing of his love to me." There 
followed "Jesus loves me." One of his most beau- 
tiful tunes is "Eternity;" one of the most service- 
able, "Almost Persuaded." 

Rev. Mr. Brundage tells of the origin of "Almost 
Persuaded," in a sermon preached by him many 
years ago. The closing words of the sermon were: 
"He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to 
be almost saved is to be entirely lost." Mr. Bliss, 
being in the audience, was impressed with the 
thought, and immediately set about the composition 
of what proved one of his most popular songs, deriv- 
ing his inspiration from the sermon of his friend, Mr. 

Brundage. " Memoir of Bliss." 

Mr. Bliss perished in the railroad disaster at Ashta- 
bula, O., December 29, 1876, after a visit to his aged 
mother. He was accustomed to compose on the cars 
and in public places, wherever the impulse met him, 

The Story of the Tunes. 



1 8 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

and was believed to be engaged in a composition 
when he met with the fatal accident. His wife, n£e 
Lucy Young, perished with him, aged 35. 

The Chicago "Tribune" thus reports the scene of 
the accident in which Mr. and Mrs. Bliss perished: 

"It was the wildest winter night of the year. 
Three hours behind its time, the Pacific Express, 
which had left New York the night before, struggled 
along through the drifts and the blinding storm. The 
eleven cars were a heavy burden to the two engines, 
and when the leading locomotive broke through the 
drifts beyond the ravine and rolled on across the 
bridge, the train w T as moving at less than ten miles 
an hour. The head-lamp threw but a short and dim 
flash of light in the front, so thick w r as the air with 
the driving snow. The train crept across the bridge; 
the leading engine had reached solid ground beyond, 
and its driver had just given it steam, when some- 
thing in the undergearing of the bridge snapped. 
For an instant there was a confused crackling of 
beams and girders, ending with a tremendous crash, 
as the whole train but the leading engine broke 
through the framework and fell in a heap of crushed 
and splintered ruins at the bottom. Notwithstanding 
the wind and storm, the crash was heard by people 
within-doors half a mile away. For a moment there 
was silence, a stunned sensation among the survivors, 
who in all stages of mutilation lay piled among the 
dying and dead. Then arose the cries of the maimed 
and suffering; the few who remained unhurt hastened 



ALMOS T PERS UADED. 1 9 

to escape from the shattered cars. They crawled out 
of windows into freezing water waist-deep. Men, 
women, and children, with limbs bruised and broken, 
pinched between timbers and transfixed by jagged 
splinters, begged with their last breath for aid that 
no human power could give. 

14 Five minutes after the train fell the fire broke 
out in the cars piled against the abutments at either 
end. A moment later flames broke from the smok- 
ing car and first coach piled across each other near 
the middle of the stream. In less than ten minutes 
after the catastrophe every car in the wreck was on 
fire, and the flames, fed by the dry varnished work 
and fanned by the icy gale, licked up the ruins as 
though they had been tinder. Destruction was so 
swift that mercy was bafTled. Men, who in the be- 
wilderment of the shock sprang out and reached the 
solid ice, went back after wives and children, and 
found them suffocating and roasting in the flames. 
The neighboring residents, startled by the crash, were 
lighted to the scene by the conflagration, which made 
even their prompt assistance too late. By midnight 
the cremation was complete. The storm had sub- 
sided, but the wind still blew fiercely, and the cold 
was more intense. When morning came, all that 
remained of the Pacific Express was a windrow of car- 
wheels, axles, brake -irons, truck - frames, and twisted 
rails lying in a black pool at the bottom of the gorge. 
The wood had burned completely away, and the ruins 
were covered with white ashes." 



20 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

Another correspondent thus gives the circum- 
stances of the death of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss: 

"When the train fell, Mr. Bliss succeeded in 
crawling through a window, supposing he could pull 
his wife and children after him. But they were 
jammed fast and every effort of his was unavailing. 
The car was all jammed up, and the lady and her 
children were caught in the ironwork of the seats. 
Finding that he could not save them, he stayed there 
with them and died." 



AMERICA. 

HENRY CAREY, 17— . 



The words of this tune, "My country, 'tis of 
thee, 1 ' were composed by Rev. S. F. Smith, the au- 
thor of "Yes, my native land, I love thee!" and other 
hymns. They were written for Lowell Mason, to 
be sung at a national festival in Boston, in Park 
Street Church. 

The music is an old English tune, composed by 
John Bull, teacher to Queen Elizabeth, and improved 
by Henry Carey. A like tune of French origin is as- 
sociated with Louis XIV. and with the vintages of old 
France. 

Moore, in his "Cyclopaedia of Music," gives the 
following story of the origin of this tune, which is 
the accepted version. Moore also gives credit to the 
French tune as a possible suggestion of the English. 

" It has been generally believed that Henry Carey 



AMERICA. 21 

was the author, and that he employed Dr. Thornton, 
of Bath, and Christopher Smith, Handel's clerk, to 
correct the words as well as music. This gave rise 
to the assertion that Handel was the composer. The 
words, with the air, appeared in the 'Gentleman's 
Magazine' in 1745, when the landing of the young 
Stuart called forth expressions of loyalty from the ad- 
herents of the reigning family. After Dr. Arne, the 
composer of another English song, 'Rule, Britannia,' 
had brought it on the stage, it soon became very 
popular. Since that time the harmony of the song 
has been much improved, but the rhythm is the same 
as ori<rinallv. According to a notice in the ' New 
Monthly [Magazine,' Vol. IV., page 389, there is a 
copy of this national song, published without date, by 
Riley and Williams, in which Anthony Young, organ- 
ist in London, is called author of the air. There is 
also a story that this national song was not made for 
King George, but that in older versions it ran thus: 
l God save great James, our king,' and that it was 
originally written and set to music for the Catholic 
chapel of James II., and no one durst own or sing it 
after the abdication of James, fearing to incur the 
penalty of treason, so that the song lay dormant sixty 
years before it was revived for George II. It is very 
interesting to observe how this song, of which the 
words have no great merit, has become dear to the 
whole English nation, on account of the associations 
connected with it." 



22 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

AMERICAN HYMN. 

MATTHIAS KELLER, 1813— . 

Matthias Keller was born at Ulm, Wiirtem- 
berg, Germany, in 1813. He became a musician and 
band-master, and came to this country in 1846. The 
war for the Union inspired him with a desire to write 
a national song, and he produced the "American 
Hymn," usually sung to the words, "Angel of 
peace." He is said to have offered it to music pub- 
lishers without receiving encouragement, and the 
composition was long in gaining recognition. Hav- 
ing failed to secure interpreters for it in New York, 
he offered it to a band in Boston, where it met with 
appreciation. It was played on the Common for 
many years on Independence Days. At the great 
"Peace Jubilee" in 1872 it was sung by a chorus of 
some ten thousand voices, to an orchestra of a thou- 
sand or more instruments. It was a favorite with 
Gilmore's band, and from these sources became na- 
tional. 

We give below a hymn often sung to it: 

" Father Almighty, we bow at thy feet; 

Humbly thy grace and thy goodness we own. 
Answer in love when thy children entreat, 

Hear our thanksgiving ascend to thy throne. 
Seeking thy blessing, in worship we meet, 

Trusting our souls on thy mercy alone ; 
Father Almighty, we bow at thy feet. 

" Breathe, Holy Spirit, thy comfort divine, 
Tune every voice to thy music of peace; 
Hushed in our hearts, with one whisper of thine, 
Pride and the tumult of passion will cease. 



AMSTERDAM. 23 

Joy of the watchful, who wait for thy sign, 
Hope of the sinful, who long for release, 
Breathe, Holy Spirit, thy comfort divine. 

' God of salvation, thy glory we sing, 

Honors to thee in thy temple belong; 
Welcome the tribute of gladness we bring, 

Loud-pealing organ and chorus of song. 
While our high praises, Redeemer and King, 

Blend with the notes of the angelic throng, 
God of salvation, thy glory we sing." 

REV. THKRON BROWN. 



AMSTERDAM. 

JAMES NARES, 1715-1783. 

To this tune is usually sung the hymn by Rev. R. 
Seagrave, "Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings." 

"TheGreat Musicians," edited by Francis Hueffer, 
contains the following account of James Nares, the 
author of the tune: 

"He was born at Hanwell, Middlesex, in 1715, 
was admitted chorister at the Chapel Royal, under 
Bernard Gates, and when he was able to play the 
organ was appointed deputy for Pigott, of St. George's 
Chapel, Windsor, and became organist at York Min- 
ster in 1734. He succeeded Greene as organist and 
composer to the Chapel Royal in 1756, and 'in the 
same year was made Doctor of Music at Cambridge. 
He was appointed master of the children of the Chapel 
Royal in 1757, on the death of Gates. This post he 
resigned in 1780, and he died in 1783 (February 10), 
and was buried in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. 
He had the reputation of being an excellent trainer of 



24 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

boys' voices, many of his anthems having been writ- 
ten to exhibit the accomplishments of his young pu- 
pils. The degree of excellence the boys attained was 
not won in those days without the infliction of much 
corporal punishment." 



ANTIOCH. 

ARRANGED FROM HANDEL, BY DR. LOWELL MASON, 1792-1872. 

Dr. Lowell Mason may be regarded as the Jubal 
of American hymn-tune writing. His "Missionary 
Hymn," "Boylstoii," and "Hebron" were among 
the first of these compositions, and have become per- 
petual tones in the church, as also " Antioch," "La- 
ban," and "Watchman, tell us of the night." 

His early life was practical and simple. He loved 
music and instructed himself. He went to Savannah 
as a clerk; he there edited a book of church music, 
which was published by the Handel and Haydn So- 
ciety, Boston, 1822, and led to his going to Boston 
and making that city his home. He became the 
President of the Handel and Haydn Society, and es- 
tablished the Boston Academy of Music. 

A disciple of Pestalozzi and a friend of such men 
as Horace Mann, he began, about 1850, the system 
of musical conventions which is now common in 
America and England. 

He studied abroad, and was made a Doctor of 
Music, 1853, and he died at Orange, N. J., 1872. 



AULD LANG SYNE. 25 

ARLINGTON* 

DR. AKNE, I7IO-: 

Dr. Thomas Augustine Arne was born in 1710. 
He was sent to Eton to prepare for the practice of 
law, but was early seized with the desire to become a 
musician. He would assume the guise of a servant 
in order to hear good music at a low cost. He learned 
music on a muffled spinet, and practised at night. 
His family and friends tried in vain to repress these 
musical aspirations. He followed the methods of 
Handel, inspired by a pure love of art. He died in 
1778, having composed more than one hundred and 
fifty musical pieces. He was a Roman-catholic. 



ARNHEIM. 

SAMUEL HOLYOKE, 1762-1816. 

Composed in 1785 by Samuel Holyoke, when he 
was but fourteen years old. It was the last tune sung 
to him before his death. This is one of the few tunes 
of early New England psalmody that have survived. 



AULD LAXG SYNE. 

ARRANGED BY GEORGE THOMSON, I757-1S5I. 

To this Scottish air are sung several sacred hymns, 
notably, u When I can read my title clear," especially 
in country congregations. 

In a letter dated December 17, 1788, Burns says, 
u There is an old song and tunc which has often 



26 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

thrilled through my soul; I shall give you the verses 
in another sheet. Light be the turf on the breast of 
the poet who composed the glorious fragment." 

This old song and tune inspired Burns to compose 
u Auld Lang Syne." Only the second and third 
stanzas were composed by Burns; the others were 
retouched and adopted from the older song. The 
words "Auld Lang Syne" had long been refrain 
words in Scotland. 

In a letter to George Thomson, a musician, dated 
September, 1793, Burns says, " One song more: 'Auld 
Lang Syne;' the air is but mediocre, but the follow- 
ing song, the song of the olden times, and which has 
never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I 
took it down from an old man's singing, is enough to 
recommend any air." 

Mr. Thomson set the words to an old minstrel 
melody, "I feed a lad at Michaelmas," and out of 
this combination came the song which has long been 
put to the uses of gospel singing. The tune dates 

1750 or earlier. 

♦ 

AVISON. "SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL." 

CHARLES AVISON, I71O-1783. 

The tune owes its popularity to the words of 
Moore. It is the same tune as 

" Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea." 
The hymn, 

" Zion, the marvellous story be telling," 



BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. 27 

or, 

11 Shout the glad tidings, exultingly sing," 

well fills the spirit and expression of this jubilant 

melody. 

♦ 

BALERMA. 

ROBERT SIMPSON, OF SCOTLAND, I790-1832. ARRANGED BY DR. LOWELL MASON. 



BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. 

FRANK E. JEROME, RUSSELL, KANSAS, l86l. 

An old Methodist camp-meeting tune, adapted to 
the use of the army by Charles Hall, Charlestown, 
Mass. When it was first published, Capt. James 
Greenleaf, an organist, arranged the music, and it 
was first publicly sung by a Massachusetts regiment, 
at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, in 1861. 

Mrs. Howe, some years ago, in answer to a note 
from the " Youth's Companion," wrote for that paper 
the following story of this national hymn: 

"In the late autumn of the first year of the war 
for the Union a strong feeling of interest and wonder 
drew me to the city of Washington. Arriving within 
the city, we found abundant evidence of its military 
occupation. A number of troops were quartered 
within it, and small bodies of armed men marched 
frequently through the streets. Officers and orderlies 
galloped past the windows of our hotel. Ambulances 
came and went. Buildings here and there were desig- 
nated as military headquarters. Onite near our hotel 



28 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

was a ghastly reminder of what was going on, in the 
shape of an establishment for embalming the bodies 
of the dead, so that they might be removed to the 
places designated by their friends for burial, 

"The minds of all were intent upon the war, and 
no news were asked for other than intelligence of the 
various skirmishes and encounters which were con- 
stantly taking place. It was therefore with eager 
interest that we made our first visit to the encamp- 
ment of the great Army of the Potomac, which at 
that time occupied a great stretch of country in the 
neighborhood of the city. 

1 ' Our first visit was to the colonel of a Massachu- 
setts regiment stationed at Fort Albany. I remember 
well the interest with which we inquired into every 
detail of camp-life ; the officers' tents, warmed by 
small stoves of sheet iron; the doctor's tent, provided 
with a huge medicine-chest; the hospital tent, with 
its rows of pale, gaunt faces. 

"Our friend, Col. G , welcomed us cordially to 

his headquarters, which were in an ordinary wooden 
building, with a piazza running along the front. He 
invited us to warm ourselves by a comfortable wood 
fire, and presently called together a number of his 
men to greet the visitors from Massachusetts, among 
whom was the wife of its greatly honored governor, 
John A. Andrew. From this camp we drove to an- 
other and another, and the sunlight had quite failed 
us before we crossed the long bridge again and re- 
turned to our hotel. 



BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. 29 

"A little after this we drove out again to attend a 
review of ten thousand of the national troops. While 
this was in progress a sudden alarm intervened. A 
small body of men had been attacked and surrounded 
by the enemy. We saw the reinforcements gallop to 
their assistance, and presently learned that the review 
would be discontinued. 

"On our way back to Washington, to beguile the 
time we began to sing the John Brown song, which 
was at that time very popular among the soldiers. 
As we sang it they answered back, 'Good for you!' 
I remarked to a friend that I had always wished to 
write some verses which might be sung to that 
tune. 

"That night I went to bed as usual, and slept 
soundly after the fatigue of our long, cold drive. It 
must have been at the earliest touch of dawn that I 
awoke, and began in my mind to twine the long lines 
of a hymn which promised to suit the measure of the 
John Brown melody. Each verse in succession 
seemed to write itself clearly in my thoughts, and I 
presently said to myself, c I must get up and write 
this down.' Accordingly I sprang out of bed and 
fumbled about in the dark room for a stump of a quill 
pen and a bit of paper, which I remembered to have 
seen upon my table before retiring to rest; and al- 
though what I wrote was very crookedly written, I 
knew by past experience that I should be able to 
make it out within twenty-four hours of the time in 
which it was written. 



3 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"The poem was published in the 'Atlantic 
Monthly' magazine. Mr. James T. Fields, at that 
time the editor of the magazine, suggested the name 
by which the verses have become known. Its appear- 
ance at first excited little comment, and I had ceased 
to think of it as likely to be especially noticed, when 
I read in some newspaper that a number of Union 
men shut up in a Southern prison had found some 
comfort in singing this new hymn, whose author was 
unknown to them even by name. This name was 
now inquired for and made known. 

"In the twenty years that have passed since that 
time I have often had the pleasure of knowing that 
my battle hymn has been sung by the lovers of God 
and men. I learned years ago that at a great meet- 
ing of the colored schools of Richmond, Va., it was 
sung by a large chorus of children, teachers, and 
parents. In our far West I have been greeted by its 
music as I have walked to take my place on the plat- 
form. I have heard it in the far Bast also. When 
on a visit to Constantinople two years ago, I had the 
pleasure of passing some hours at Robert College, 
an American institution, beautifully situated on the 
banks of the Bosphorus. As I was about to take 
leave, the professors and ladies who had kindly en- 
tertained me asked me to listen to what I should 
hear while descending the steep hill upon whose 
summit the college stands. I had been carried up 
this ascent in a chair by two stout porters. As I 
walked down, helped only by one strong arm, I heard 



BENEVENTO. 31 

the voices of my late entertainers united in singing, 
' Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.' 
And I thought that we might see this glory oftener if 
we would look for it, and most of all when faithful 
souls are working together for the good of humanity." 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ; 

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are 

stored ; 
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword ; 
His truth is marching on. 

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ; 
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps; 
I have read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps ; 
His day is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel — 

"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall 

deal ; " 
Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel, 
Since God is marching on. 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat; 
Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer him ; be jubilant, my feet; 
Our God is marching on. 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me; 
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on. 



BEXEVEXTO. 

SAMUEL WEBBE, I74O— lSl6. 

This tune is usually sung to the words of Rev. 
John Newton, 

"While with ceaseless course the sun." 



32 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Samuel Webbe, the author of the tune, was a pop- 
ular English composer of songs, and was born in 1740. 
Losing both his parents in his youth, he had recourse 
to copying music for a support ; and this led him 
to become a composer. He produced more than one 
hundred popular compositions. 



BETHANY. 

DR. LOWELL MASON. SEE ANTIOCH, BOYLSTON, AND MT. VERNON. 



BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING. 

G. O STEBBINS. 1846. 

Mr. Stebbins is an American singing evangelist, 
greatly respected and beloved, and a contributor to the 
musical works of Messrs. Moody and Sankey. 



BOYLSTON. 

DR. LOWELL MASON.* 1792-1872. 

Of the moral worth of Dr. Mason and his fitness as 

a teacher and composer, his pastor thus spoke in a 

memorial sermon: "His pupils, who are scattered 

east and west and north and south across the continent, 

are quick to testify their personal indebtedness to him, 

not only, and not even chiefly, for the musical skill 

and knowledge which he gave them, but for the moral 

tone which his strong character imparted to their 

lives." 

* See Antioch. 



CHESTER. 3 3 

One of his old Boston pupils thus writes of him: 
" Schoolboys of forty years ago will remember, as does 
the writer of this article, how Dr. Mason's splendid 
face, lighted with the smile it always wore, beamed 
like sunshine upon the class; and his cheery, ' Now 
we will sing this little exercise!' made it an impossi- 
bility not to do what he wanted. How well all the 
boys loved him!" 

It was Dr. Mason's habit to select his themes from 
Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and the great composers, and 
give them a metrical clothing. Several tunes that 
bear his name were only rearranged by him from the 
great musical compositions, but on being transferred to 
other works are credited to him as the editor of the 
music-book from which they were taken. 



BOWER OF PRAYER. 

WRITTEN 1815, BY ELDER JOHN OSBORNE, OF N. H., OF THE CHRISTIAN DENOMINA- 
TION. 

" To leave my dear friends and with neighbors to part." 



CHESTER. 



WORDS AND MUSIC WRITTEN AS A PATRIOTIC ODE IN 1770, BY WILLIAM BILLINGS. 
1746-lSoO. SEE MAJESTY. 

11 A flippant critic, of the new school of musi- 
cians and with all the prejudices of his class, thus 
summarizes him: 4 William Billings, of Boston, a nat- 

The Story of the 1 2* 



34 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

ural genius with no education. ' He is correct in both 
propositions, but it opens up a field of speculation 
without limit. If with 'no education' William Bil- 
lings achieved so much, what would he not have done 
had he been educated ? The probabilities are such as 
to dwarf into utter insignificance the attainments of 
the so-called 'educated ' ones of the present day. 

"Another writer says of him, c His works survive 
their critics, and are sung in grateful recollection by 
thousands over all the land, while forgetfulness covers 
his detractor. . . . Billings was the man with the 
genius and zeal to write words and music that moved 
the hearts and nerved the arms to strike for freedom in 
these early days. "Chester," among others, was a 
favorite rallying song at home and in the camp during 
the Revolutionary struggle. From what we know of 
Billings, and of the circumstances of the time when he 
appeared, it is not difficult to perceive the value of his 
efforts in meeting the wants of the age.' 

" Lowell Mason, who has done more for the devel- 
opment of music among the masses than any other 
man, said to the writer, who was his pupil in one of 
the Boston public schools many years ago, ' So he 
was your grandfather, was he ? Well, my lad, if you 
have one tenth part of his genius and perseverance, 
you are sure to go ahead. He was a genius, a rough 
diamond, who would have made himself felt in any 
age or place in which he lived.' " f.n. Scott. 

" Billings possessed something of the spirit of po- 
etry, as well as of music, and was the author of many 



CHINA. 35 

of the words, as well as the tunes, he published. The 
following words set to ' Chester' are his own: 

" ' Let tyrants shake their iron rod, 

And slavery clank her galling chains ; 
We '11 fear them not ; we trust in God — 
New England's God for ever reigns.' 

He was a zealous patriot, too, and much attached to 
Gov. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, who was also a 
great lover and performer of psalmody; and it is with- 
in the recollection of many now living that that 
memorable statesman uniformly was seated at church 
in the singing choir. One secret, no doubt, of the vast 
popularity Billings' works obtained was the patriotic 
ardor they breathed. The words above quoted are an 
example, and 'Chester,' it is said, was frequently 
heard from every fife in the New England ranks. The 
spirit of the Revolution was also manifest in his 
'Lamentation over Boston,' his 'Retrospect,' his 'In- 
dependence,' his 'Columbia,' as well as his 'Chester,' 

and many Other pieces. ' ' Moore's " Cyclopaedia of Music." 



CHINA. 

TIMOTHY SWAN, 1758-1842. 

This was once one of the most popular tunes in 
New England, and was sung to the words, 

"Why do we mourn departing friends, 
And shake at death's alarms ? 
Tis but the voice that Jesus sends 
To call us to his arms." 



36 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

It was composed by Timothy Swan, and published in 
1785 in " Federal Harmony," when the composer was 
about twenty-eight years of age. 



" COME UNTO HIM." 

GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL, 1684-1759. 

11 1 did think I saw all heaven before me and the 
great God himself;" so said Handel of his spiritual 
experience during the composition of the Hallelujah 
Chorus of the " Messiah." 

This chorus is an immortal tone, the nearest ap- 
proach to the celestial world, perhaps, to which mu- 
sic can lead us. It is as the ninetieth Psalm among 
Psalms. We may doubt that in coming time it will 
be equalled. When George II. first heard it he leaped 
to his feet; and following the example of the king, the 
audience rose. The custom of rising during the first 
word of the chorus has become general. The listener 
seems to stand in the very presence of the Majesty on 
high. Handel wrote for God. 

" You have given the audience an excellent enter- 
tainment," said a nobleman to Handel after a per- 
formance of the " Messiah." 

u My lord," said the great composer, "I should be 
sorry if I had only entertained them; I wish to make 
them better." 

Handel was born at Halle, on the Saale, in Lower 
Saxony, in 1684. His soul seemed full of music in 



"COME UNTO HI Mr 37 

childhood, and in his early years he taught himself to 
play on a dumb spinet in the garret. 

11 Music," said Dr. Handel, his father, on seeing 
the trend of the boy's mind, "is an amusement; as 
an occupation it has little dignity; its object is merely 
entertainment." He opposed the musical develop- 
ment of his son. 

One day young Handel played in the chapel of the 
ducal palace. The duke heard him with admiration, 
and said to his father, 

"The boy has genius; you do wrong to repress it; 
let him become a musician." 

Accordingly he was placed under musical instruc- 
tion. Music absorbed him; he aspired to know the 
whole of it and of every musical instrument. He 
went to Florence, to Venice, and became familiar with 
the tone-pictures of beautiful Italy. In 1709 he be- 
came connected with the court of King George of 
Brunswick. He was invited to England, where his 
coming was a triumph. England loved Handel, and 
Handel England. His works were everywhere sung 
and played. Arias, concertos, oratorios, music of 
every kind, flowed from his pen in a continuous 
stream. Yet nearly all that he wrote before the age 
of fifty is now neglected or forgotten. At the age. of 
fifty-four he produced "Saul," the Dead March in 
which is still played on grand and solemn occasions. 
It was followed by "Israel in Egypt," with its stu- 
pendous choruses. The "Messiah" was written for a 
charity. Handel sympathized with the Irish people, 



38 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

who asked him to give a concert in Dublin to aid the 
release of prisoners for debt. To thus open the prison 
doors he composed the oratorio. Its triumphs brought 
him but little money, but it gave him influence. It 
enabled him to sing the gospel, which was a supreme 
desire. It was a gospel of music gloriously presenting 
the mission of Christ to the world. 

Handel became old and blind; it is a tradition that 
he selected the organ for King's Chapel, Boston, after 
blindness had come upon him. 

"I desire to die on Good Friday," he said, " for 
that was the day that the Lord entered paradise." 

On his monument in Westminster Abbey is the 
following inscription: 

" Died on Good Friday, April 14, 1759." 
"Come unto Him" is from the "Messiah." 



CORONA TION. 

OLIVER HOLDEN, 1765-1844. 

This hymn and tune may be regarded almost as 
the Te Deum of simple Protestant worship. A sketch 
of the author of the words, with an account of his 
triumphant death, has been given in "The Story of 
the Hymns." I recently saw at Mrs. Tyler's, in Bos- 
ton, the little melodeon on which the tune was com- 
posed, and I could not but regard the instrument and 
its associations with devout interest. The place where 
we have done good is always pleasant to us, as are all 



CREA TION. 39 

the places where good has been done, all the birth- 
places of good influence. Mrs. Tyler, who was a 
granddaughter of Mr. Holden, was with the composer 
in his last hours, and she gave me an account of his 
death. The last utterances of this eminently good 
man resembled Perronet's. 

4 'Music is coining to me," he said, "and such 
beautiful themes; but I can write no more." 

Oliver Holden, the author of the tune "Corona- 
tion," was born in Charlestown, Mass., 1765. His 
music books were most useful in their day. Among 
many popular hymn-tunes that he wrote are " Cow- 
per," "Confidence," and "Concord." 

The hymn to "Coronation" was at first rejected 
by the compilers of the Methodist hymn-book; so also 
was "I would not live alway " by the Episcopal 
compilers. "Waiting and Watching" was inserted 
in Gospel Hymns only after much hesitancy. All 
were hymns with a mission. 



CREA TION. 

"The heavens are telling" is one of the greatest 
choruses in the history of music, and is from the 
oratorio of the "Creation." Haydn seems to have 
been sincerely pious, and whenever he felt the need of 
anything he resorted to prayer. 

His spiritual experience during the writing of the 
"Creation" was like Handel's when composing the 
41 Messiah." The work was the ripe fruit of his life, 



4 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

and was composed in 1799, when he was sixty-seven 
years of age. 

"I was never so pious," he said, " as when com- 
posing the 'Creation.' I knelt down every day and 
prayed God to strengthen me for my work." 

"I know," he said, "that God has bestowed a 
talent upon me, and I thank him for it. I think I 
have done my duty, and been of use in my generation 
by my works. Let others do the same." 

"Not mine, not mine; it all came to me from 
above!" he exclaimed, when, for the last time, he 
heard the great chorus, "Let there be light!" 



"DARE TO BE A DANIEL." 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

A TUNE of little merit in itself, but, with its hymn, 
very useful for special occasions in gospel work. It 
was suggested to Mr. Bliss while attending a service 
at the State prison in Joliet, 111., where he had gone 
to sing. H. G. SpafTord, of Chicago, had spoken to the 
prisoners on Daniel in Babylon. "Are your windows 
open towards Jerusalem?" he asked in closing his ad- 
dress. Hence the suggestion that gave rise to the 
tune. 



EIN' FESTE BURG. 
" A mighty fortress is our God." 

This is Luther's version of the Forty-sixth Psalm, 
written about 1529, when the evangelical princes de- 



E/JV FESTE BURG. 41 

livered that protest at the Diet of Spires from which 
Protestants take their name. Luther used often to 
sing it in 1530, while the Diet of Augsburg was sit- 
ting. It soon became a favorite psalm with the peo- 
ple. It was one of the watchwords of the Reforma- 
tion, cheering armies to conflict and sustaining be- 
lievers in the hour of fiery trial. The first line of this 
psalm is inscribed on Luther's tomb at Wittenberg. 
It has been called the "Marseillaise hymn of Protes- 
tant Germany." MILLER. 
One version commences thus: 

Our God stands firm, a rock and tower, 

A shield when danger presses, 
A ready help in every hour 

When doubt or pain distresses. 

According to the popular tradition, it was com- 
posed in Coburg Castle, where Luther was protected 
during the meeting of the Diet at Augsburg. Here, 
in anxiety, he used to look up to heaven and sing 
this hymn. 

It was the hymn of Gustavus Adolphus before the 
battle of Leipzig (1631), and before that at Liitzen 
(1632), where he lost his life. 

The "Quiver" (London) publishes an account of 
the music of this great choral, which is doubtless cor- 
rect, as follows: 

"The history of ' Ein' feste Burg,' like that of 
most of our old clioralcs, is invested with some degree 
of uncertainty. Dr. Burney and other historians 
plainly assert that Luther wrote the hymn, set it to 



42 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

music, and sang it as he entered Worms in 1521. Ac- 
cording to the testimony of several of the reformer's 
contemporaries, the tune was composed in the castle 
of Coburg, during the period of the Diet of Augsburg, 
1530. The latter date is the one which has been gen- 
erally accepted, a strong point in its favor being the 
fact that Luther left at Coburg a copy of the tune in 
his own handwriting, dated 1530. The first publica- 
tion of the tune was in Kophl's ' Psalmen und geist- 
liche Lieder,' printed at Strasburg about 1538. The 
original form of the melody, as seen in this collection, 
is somewhat different from that now in use, being al- 
most entirely free from 'passing notes,' and having 
several other variations in the rhythm. The form 
which is now employed was first adopted by Sebas- 
tian Bach. 

"Several of the great composers have made use 
of 'Ein' feste Burg' in their works. In 'L,es Hugue- 
nots ' Meyerbeer puts it into the mouths of the old 
Huguenot soldier and his companions — not very ap- 
propriately, as we think: the death song of the Hugue- 
nots was not likely to have been a German chorale, but 
rather 'one of the melodies set to Marot and Beza's 
psalms. A more fitting use of the tune was made by 
Mendelssohn in his 'Reformation Symphony,' where 
it is given without the passing notes in the initial 
strain, and without the repetition of the first two 
lines. Other notable uses of the melody are by 
Bach, in several of his cantatas; by Raff, in an over- 
ture, and by Wagner, in his ' Kaiser Marsch.' " 



ELLIOTT. 43 

ELLIOTT. 

DR. LOWELL MASON, 1792-1S72. SEE CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT, " STORY OF THE 
HYMNS," 17S9-1S71. 

This tune was written by Dr. Mason for the words 
" Just as I am," by Charlotte Elliott. The hymn is 
also sung to ancient music arranged for popular use 
under the name of Hamburg, by Dr. Lowell Mason. 

"A faithful pastor of a small flock once met one 
of the young ladies of his congregation on the street 
as she was on the way to her dressmaker's to have a 
dress made for a ball. Stopping her, he asked her 
errand; she frankly told him. 

U< I wish,' he said, 'you were a Christian woman; 
that you would forsake all these frivolities and learn 
to live nearer to God. Wont you stay away from 
this ball, if for nothing else, because I ask it?' 

"She replied, ( I wish you would mind your own 
business, sir. Good-day.' 

"This young lady went to the ball and danced 
all night. She went home, and when her head was 
at rest upon her pillow, conscience began to do its 
work. She thought how she had insulted her pastor, 
perhaps the best friend she had on earth. This tor- 
ment of conscience went on for three days, until she 
could endure it no longer. 

"Going to her pastor's study, she told him how 
sorry she was that she had said words that had caused 
his heart to ache. ' I have been the most miserable 
girl in the world for the past three days,' she said, 



44 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 



and now I want to become a Christian; I want to be 



saved. Oh, what must I do to be saved ? 

"The old pastor, with his heart full of com- 
passion and sympathy for the contrite spirit before 
him, pointed her to the Lamb of God, and told 
her that she must give herself to God just as she 
was. 

" 'What! Just as I am, and I one of the most 
sinful creatures in the world? You surely do not 
mean to say that God will accept me just as I am !' 

u 'I mean just that,' was the pastor's reply. 'God 
wants you to come to him just as you are.' 

"The young lady went home, and retiring to her 
room, kneeled beside her bed and prayed God to take 
her, just as she was. Reaching to a chair that stood 
by the bed, she took a piece of paper and a pencil 
that were there, and under the holy influences that 
were at work upon her wrote the verses of that hymn 
so dear to the heart of every true Christian: 

"Just as I am, without one plea, 
But that thy blood was shed for me, 
And that thou bidst me come to thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! 

"Just as I am, and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 
To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! 

"Just as I am, though tossed about 
With many a conflict, many a doubt, 
With fears within and foes without, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! 



ELLIOTT. 45 

"Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind, 
Sight, riches, healing of the mind, 
Yea, all 1 need in thee to find, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! 

"Just as I am ; thou wilt receive, 
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; 
Because thy promise 1 believe, 
O Lamb of God, I come ! 

"Just as I am, thy love unknown 
Hath broken every barrier down; 
Now to be thine, yea, thine alone, 
O Lamb of God, I come !" 

John B. Gough once told, in a lecture, an anecdote 
of a blunder he once made which illustrates the say- 
ing that " appearances are deceitful." Sitting in a 
city church one Sunday morning, he was annoyed by 
the looks of a man whom the sexton showed into the 
same pew. His appearance made a very unfavorable 
impression on Mr. Gough, for his face was mottled 
like -castile soap, his lips twitched, and every now 
and then his mouth would twist out a singular sound. 
Mr. Gough moved away from him to the extreme end 
of the pew. 

Presently the congregation rose to sing that most 
touching hymn which begins with, 

"Just as I am, without one plea, 
But that thy blood was shed for me." 

"He can't be so disagreeable after all," said Mr. 
Gough to himself, seeing that the man knew the hymn 
and sang it. Mr. Gough moved up nearer. 

"He would sing," said the orator, telling the 



46 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

story. "It was awful, positively awful. I never 
heard anything like it. Kvery now and then his lips 
would twitch out that strange noise. Then he would 
commence again and sing faster to catch up with the 
other singers, and would run ahead. When that stan- 
za was finished and the organist was playing the inter- 
lude, he leaned towards me and whispered, ' Would 
you be kind enough to give me the first line of the 
next verse ?' I did so: 

" 'Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind.' 

" 'That's it!' said he; 'and I am blind— God help 

me!' and the tears ran down his face — 'and I'm 

wretched, and I am paralytic' And then he tried to 

sing, 

" 'Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind.' 

"At that moment it seemed to me that I never 
heard in my life a Beethoven symphony with as much 
music in it as in the blundering singing of that hymn 

by the pOOr paralytic." Youth's Companion. 



EVENTIDE. 

ADAPTED FROM THE GERMAN BY WILLIAM HENRY MONK, 1823. 

Mr. Monk was born in London in 1823. In youth 
he attended the concerts of the Sacred Harmonic 
Society, and they decided for him his profession and 
the character of his work. They revealed to him his 
soul and led him to a consciousness of its powers. He 
studied music under noted masters, became an organ- 



EVENTIDE. 47 

ist, and succeeded John Hullah as Professor of Vocal 
Music in King's College. 

In 1S51 he became Professor of Music at the School 
for the Indigent Blind. 

He was one of the musical editors of " Hymns An- 
cient and Modern," and has made many contributions 
to modern hymnals. 

Of the author of the hymn so happily married to 
this tune, " Eventide," we have this account: 

In 1818 an English Episcopal minister, at the close 
of a brilliant and much-applauded life, sent for a 
neighboring clergyman and said to him, 

"I am about to die, and I am unprepared." 

The two ministers read their Bibles together and 
prayed. The invalid died in peace, and the visitor 
received from the scene an impression that influenced 
his whole life. He resolved to devote himself wholly 
to the service of God, and that with such humility and 
self- forgetful zeal that any event in life would find 
him prepared. 

That visitor was Henry Francis Lyte, the author of 
the well-known hymns beginning, 

" Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," 
and 

"Jesus, I my cross have taken." 

He relinquished all selfish ambitions, and accepted 
a curacy on the wild coast of Devon, where he might 
work for Christ among the poor. He gathered here a 
large Sunday-school from the sea-faring population, 
preached to the sailors, and devoted himself with a 



4 8 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

self-consuming zeal to the humble duties that met 
him on every hand. 

He was removed from the society of the great and 
learned, yet he was very happy. He thus tells his ex- 
perience in a poem that we doubt that many of our 
readers have seen: 

Long did I toil, and knew no earthly rest; 

Far did 1 rove, and found no certain home; 
At last I sought them in his sheltering breast 

Who opes his arms and bids the weary come. 
With him I found a home, a rest divine ; 
And I since then am his, and he is mine. 

Yes, he is mine ! and naught of earthly things, 
Not all the charms of pleasure, wealth, or power, 

The fame of heroes or the pomp of kings, 
Could tempt me to forget his love ail hour. 

Go, worthless world, I cry, with all that 's thine ! 

Go ! I my Saviour's am, and he is mine. 

The good I have is from his stores supplied ; 

The ill is only what he deems the best ; 
He for my friend, I 'm rich with naught beside, 

And poor without him, though of all possessed. 
Changes may come; I take or I resign, 
Content while I am his, while he is mine. 



FEDERAL STREET. 

HENRY K. OLIVER, 1800-1885. SEE MERTON. 

IT was a part of the daily programme of the 
"Boston Peace Jubilee" of 1872, inaugurated by P. S. 
Gilmore, to close each day's work with a hymn-tune. 
On the "President's day" (so called because of the 
presence of President Grant), the Coliseum building, 



FED URAL STREET. 49 

in which the concerts were given, was crowded with 
an immense multitude — forty thousand people being 
in the audience and twenty thousand in the chorus 
and orchestra. The well-known ' ' Federal Street ' ' was 
the tune for the day; and when its turn came, Mr. 
Zerrahn, the conductor, beckoning out from the crowd 
of singers its composer, Henry K. Oliver, of Salem — 
a man well advanced in years — led him to the con- 
ductor's stand and gave him the baton. At its signal 
the great organ gave its mighty utterance, and then 
chorus and orchestra and the audience (which rose) 
took up the strain; and never was a hymn given forth 
in such a swelling volume of harmony, the multitude 
seeming thoroughly familiar w r ith it, and prepared to 
sing its simple, artless, yet grand measures. I doubt 
whether a dozen persons in the whole assemblage 
knew how the tune came into being. It was in this 
wise: The composer had, after his graduation, held 
various positions, from teacher to treasurer of Massa- 
chusetts, and had been much before the public, yet he 
had been always from childhood devotedly fond of 
music. When he entered college his father, wholly 
unmusical, prohibited his attempting to play any 
instrument. His musical proclivities seem to have 
come from his mother, she being a fine singer; and 
singers were all the eight children save one. But the 
prohibition of the father was ineffectual, and the son 
became familiar with half a dozen instruments, in- 
cluding the flute and organ. He did not attempt 
composition till he was thirty-one years old, when 

Tii.- Btory of the Tunes. <I 



50 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

one afternoon, in his library, he read to its close an 
affecting story terminating with the saddest results. 
Laying down the volume, and thinking of what he 
had read, there came into his mind the last verse of 
Mrs. Steele's hymn, 

"So fades the lovely, blooming flower." 
As he repeated the verse an unbidden melody came 
with it; and sitting down to a pianoforte in the 
room, he harmonized the melody and put it on pa- 
per, with a change of the initial word of the verse 
from "Then" to "See." When thus scored the com- 
poser threw the paper into the drawer of his table. 
There it remained a couple of years, when Dr. Lowell 
Mason came to Salem to teach music to classes of 
both young and adult. Towards the close of the 
course Dr. Mason asked if any pupil had ever at- 
tempted composition, and if so, he said he would be 
happy to examine it. The tune in the drawer at 
once came to the composer's mind, and it was placed 
in Dr. Mason's hands. On returning it, the latter 
asked permission to use it in his forthcoming work 
called "Boston Academy's Collection of Church Mu- 
sic." Assent being gladly given, it was necessary to 
give the tune a name, and he decided to call it after 
the name of the street in Salem in which his wife was 
reared, wooed, won, and married, and from which, to 
the music of the same tune, she was many years 
afterwards buried. "Federal Street" proving an ac- 
ceptable tune, it was followed by "Harmony Grove," 
"Morning," "Walnut Grove," "Merton," "Vesper," 



FLEE AS A BIRD TO YOUR MOUNTAIN. 51 

"Hudson," "Bosworth," "Salisbury Plain," etc., 
several motets and anthems, and a Te Drum. The 
author subsequently gathered these into a book, pub- 
lished by DitSOll & CO. From "Olden-Time Music." 



FLEE AS A BIRD TO YOUR MOUNTAIN. 

Flee as a bird to your mountain, 

Thou who art weary of sin ; 
Go to the clear-flowing fountain, 

Where you may wash and be clean ; 
Fly, for the avenger is near thee, 
Call, and the Saviour will hear thee, 
He on his bosom will bear thee, 

Thou who art weary of sin, 

Oh, thou who art weary of sin. 

He will protect thee for ever, 

Wipe every falling tear; 
He will forsake thee, oh, never, 

Sheltered so tenderly there ; 
Haste then, the hours are flying, 
Spend not the moments in sighing, 
Cease from your sorrow and crying, 

The Saviour will wipe every tear, 

The Saviour will wipe every tear. 

Words by Mrs. Dana. 

Franz Wilhelm Abt was born near Zurich, 1819. 
He was chapel-master at Brunswick. He composed 
many popular ballads; one of these, "When the swal- 
lows homeward fly," has been very popular in this 
country, and is often sung to the words of Charles 
Wesley's Hymn, " Jesus, Lover of My Soul." 



52 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

GRANDER THAN OCEAN. 

Words and music by Prof. W. Sherwin, of the 
New England Conservatory of Music (1889). It was 
written during a vacation rest, on one of the beaches 
near New York, while the author was lying in the 
shade w T atching the ocean. Prof. Sherwin was born 
at Ashfield, Mass., in 1826. 



GREENVILLE. 

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU, I712-1778. 

The words of this hymn, 

"Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing," 
are often sung to a Sicilian melody called the u Si- 
cilian Hymn," but generally to "Greenville" or 
"Rousseau's Dream." Rousseau, a most erratic 
genius, was born at Geneva, 1712. He was a man of 
restless habits, changeable moods, and many contra- 
dictions, but yet of noble aspirations and impulses at 
times, and he produced works both of good and evil 
influence. Of the works of philosophy and the 
music and poetry of his half-crazed life, "Green- 
ville," kept alive by the church he was accustomed 
to ridicule, seems the longest to endure. 



HAMBURG. 

ARRANGED BY LOWELL MASON. 



HINSDALE. 53 

HEBRON. 

ARRANGED BY LOWELL MASON. 



HE LEADETH ME. 

TUNE BY WM. B. BRADBURY, lSl6-lS6S. 

There were two pupils of Dr. Mason's whose 
hymn- tunes were destined to become very popular, 
William B. Bradbury and George Frederick Root. 
They were perhaps associate workers rather than 
pupils, but each derived his inspiration in part from 
Dr. Mason. Mr. Bradbury was the pioneer in the 
publishing of Sunday-school music books, thus be- 
ginning the adaptation of religious songs to children. 
Who does not remember "The Jubilee" and "The 
Shawm " ? 

William B. Bradbury was born at York, Me., in 
1816. His father was a Revolutionary soldier and a 
choir-leader. Musical impulses came to young Brad- 
bury on his father's farm. He went to Boston in 
1830, where for the first time he heard an organ. He 
went abroad, studied in Leipzig, and returning de- 
voted himself to music. He died in great serenity 
and happiness at Montclair, N. J., 1S6S. 



HINSDALE. 
The reputed composer of this tune is George Hins- 



54 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

dale, whose daughter, Phoebe Hinsdale Brown, wrote 

the hymn, 

" I love to steal a while away." 

See " Monson " and " Story of the Hymns." 



J. B. DYKES. 1823-1876. 



SEE "Heber" in " Story of the Hymns," and 
"Lead, kindly Light," p. 84. This is one of the 
grandest hymns and tunes of recent years, and one of 
the best for use at the beginning of any religious ser- 
vice. 



"HOLD THE FORT 7" 

P. P. BLISS. 1838-1876. 

This hymn, with its tune, though almost univer- 
sally known, has little claim to literary or musical 
merit, and yet it is inspiring. It was suggested by an 
incident in the war for the Union. A message was 
waved from Gen. Sherman to Gen. G. M. Corse, when 
the latter was besieged at Altoona: u Gen. Sherman 
says, ' Hold fast. We are coming. 7 " 

The signal flag then used is still exhibited. It 
was recently shown at a Soldiers' Fair in Horticultural 
Hall, Boston, being loaned by A. D. Frankenberry, of 
Point Marion, Pa., who was a member of the signal 
detachment on Kenesaw Mountain in October, 1863. 



-HOLD THE FOR T." 55 

Ho ! my comrades, see the signal 

Waving in the sky! 
Reinforcements now appearing, 

Victory is nigh. 
11 Hold the fort, for I am coming !" 

Jesus signals still ; 
Wave the answer back to heaven, 

" By thy grace we will!" 

The " Memoir of P. P. Bliss," published by A. S. 
Barnes & Co., N. Y., gives the following picturesque 
account of a visit of Mr. Bliss to the scene of his fa- 
mous song. Mr. Bliss was on his way to fill an ap- 
pointment at Augusta, Georgia. 

u He stopped at Marietta on a beautiful April 
morning, and, after dinner with the writer, rode out 
two miles to the mountain. The carriage left us about 
three-fourths of a mile from the summit, and we pur- 
sued our journey on foot. Upon the summit, the ruins 
of the earthwork near which Gen. Polk was killed, 
and part of the framework of the signal station from 
which Sherman had the message signalled to hold the 
fort, were found. 

"It was a bright, clear, sunny day, and the laud- 
scape in every direction was before our view from this 
remarkable elevation. Altoona Mountain, where the 
fort was held, could be plainly seen twenty miles to 
the north; and the intervening valley across which 
Sherman hurried his troops was at our feet. 

"Bliss enjoyed the scene to the full. He took in 
all of its beauty and all of its inspiration. We read 
the passage concerning the coming of our Lord from 
heaven — knelt in prayer and consecration — and then 



56 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

sang 'Hold the Fort/ looking out upon the distant 
mountain, looking up to the clear blue sky, and hoping 
and almost expecting that Jesus might then appear, so 
near he seemed to us that April day. I thank my 
Heavenly Father that I was led to so urge my friend 
and brother to make that mountain visit. He reck- 
oned it, while he lived, as one of his blessed days, and 
the memory of it to me is, and will continue to be 
while life lasts, a transfiguration scene. How little did 
we think that day that, ere the year should close, for 
him the battle would be won, and he be taken to the 
mountains of glory, to signal for his Lord to the sol- 
diers in the valley, ' Cheer, my comrades, cheer!' " 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

COMMONLY SUPPOSED TO BE A SICILIAN AIR, ADAPTED BY SIR H. R. BISHOP. 

1786-1855- 

The doubt as to the authorship of the beautiful 
melody of "Home, Sweet Home" still appears to be 
unsettled. Controversies are every now and then 
started in the newspapers on the subject. With the 
view of putting an end to them once for all, I write 
this letter to prove to the most incredulous that the 
air is English, and was the composition of the very 
eminent and gifted musician, the late Sir Henry R. 
Bishop. In one of the many conversations on well- 
known English melodies with that gentleman I took 
occasion to ask him for information on the subject of 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 57 

u Home, Sweet Home," the authorship of which was 
often attributed to him and as often denied by many 
who claimed it as a national Sicilian air which Sir 
Henry had discovered and rearranged. He thereupon 
favored me with the whole history. He had been 
engaged in his early boyhood to edit a collection of 
the national melodies of all countries. In the course 
of his labors he discovered that he had no Sicilian 
melody worthy of reproduction, and Sir Henry thought 
he would invent one. The result was the now well- 
known air of " Home, Sweet Home," which he com- 
posed to the verses of an American author, Mr. How- 
ard Payne, then residing in England. When the 
collection was published the melody became so popu- 
lar that, to use a common phrase, "It took the town 
by storm," and several musical publishers, believing 
it to be Sicilian and non-copyright, reissued it. 

Charles Mackay, in "London Telegraph." 

J. H. Payne, who wrote the words in 1823, was 
an almost homeless wanderer. His song enriched his 
publishers, but not his own sorrowful life. It was 
probably composed in Paris, when Payne was starv- 
ing in an attic. "How often," he says, "have I 
been in the heart of Paris, Berlin, London, or other 
city, and heard persons singing or musicians playing 
my song, without a shilling to buy myself a meal or 
a place to lay my head." 



3* 



5 S THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

HOPE. 

W. B. BRADBURY, 1S16-1868. 

■ My hope is built on nothing less." 

About the beginning of this century there lived on 
Upper Thames Street, London, an obscure family by 
the name of Mote. The father and mother were not 
Christians, but their son Edward became interested 
in religion while a youth. He has related his expe- 
rience of saving faith in a valued hymn. 

When sixteen years of age he entered Tottenham 
Court Chapel, where he heard John Hyatt, one of 
England's most persuasive ministers, preach. "My 
parents having no fear of God," he says, "I went to 
a school where no Bible was allowed, so that I was 
totally ignorant of religion when I entered that house 
of worship." 

His conscience was awakened by the preacher's 
declaration of the sinfulness of the human heart and 
the necessity of a changed nature. He left the chapel 
in sorrow. For two years he clearly saw the unwor- 
thiness of a life without God, but he did not appre- 
hend the promises of the gospel. 

It was Good Friday, a day when the English 
Church holds a solemn service in memory of the suf- 
ferings and death of Christ. That morning Rev. Mr. 
Bennet, a highly spiritual preacher from Birmingham, 
was to fill one of the London pulpits, and the lad 
determined to hear him preach. 

The services were very solemn and brought vivid- 



HYMN TO THE NATIVITY. 59 

ly to mind the mission of Christ to the world. The 
youth listened with awe. 

The text was announced: "The Lord hath laid 
upon him the iniquity of us all." 

"Upon him!" The youth saw the gospel in a 
new light — as a saving power. He looked to Christ 
as his Saviour; committing the interests of his soul 
to him, he rejoiced. Years passed, and this experi- 
ence he expressed in a hymn which all have sung: 

My hope is built on nothing less 
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness; 
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 
But wholly lean on Jesus' name. 
On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; 
All other ground is sinking sand. 



"HOW PRECIOUS THE NAME." 

JEREMIAH INGALLS, 1764-1838. 

This old revival melody was published in " Chris- 
tian Harmony" in 1830. 



HYMN TO THE NATIVITY: MILTON. 

MUSIC BY JOHN KNOWLES PAINE. 1839. 

Prof. Paine was born at Portland, Me., 1839. He 
became an organist at the age of eighteen, and studied 
in Germany, where he gave organ recitals. In 1S62 
he was appointed Professor of Music at Harvard Uni- 
versity. He is the author of the oratorio "St. Peter," 
the "Hymn to the Nativity," and numerous other 



60 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

works of the highest order. His oratorios have been 
sung on several notable occasions by the Handel and 
Haydn Society, Boston. 



"I AM SO GLAD THA T OUR FA THER IN HE A VEN? 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

Mr. Bliss was the heart and soul of the first volume 
of the "Gospel Hymns." The present hymn was the 
rallying song of the great Scottish revival. 

" Oh, that song !" said a young man who attended 
a Sunday-school meeting in a hamlet in Missouri, 
under the work of the American Sunday-school Union. 
u I could not get away from it, and it has saved me." 



"IF I WERE A VOICED 

WORDS BY DR. CHARLES MACKAY. MUSIC BY ISAAC BEVERLY WOODBURY. 
1 8 19-1858. 

IT originally appeared in the "-Song Crown," and 

is used in "Winnowed Hymns." Who has not heard 

" Tell me, ye winged winds," 

" If I were a voice, a persuasive voice," 
and 

" Cheer, boys, cheer for country, mother country!" 

Dr. Mackay, the author of the above-mentioned 
songs, was an old man in 1887, living at Fern Dell, 
Dorking, England. His songs and poems seem to 
belong to America rather than to England. He al- 
ways loved America, and was very American in his 
sympathies. Charles Sumner delighted to quote his 



"IF I II FRF A I '( II l '/■:. ' 6 1 

"Good time coming," and employs it as a prophecy 
in one of his greatest speeches. All of our popular 
music books contain Dr. Mackay's songs. His influ- 
ence musically in American households and schools 
has been greater than that of many of our own poets. 
His political songs have afforded many texts for polit- 
ical reformers in America as well as in England. 

Dr. Mackay was first appreciated as a poet in 
America, and he has nobly expressed his gratitude in 
both prose and verse. 

"When I was a young man," he writes, "I pub- 
lished a volume of poems. Seven copies only were 
sold at the time. I was disappointed." 

"But comfort," he says, "came to me from a 
wholly unexpected quarter." 

This comfort took the form of a letter from James 
T. Fields, Boston, Mass. It expressed appreciation 
of his work and asked for his autograph. 

It has been Dr. Mackay's ambition to be the poet 
of the people. His "London Lyrics," "Voices of the 
Crowd," and "Songs of Emigration" are popular 
tones and echoes. As an explanation of his purpose 
in writing, he quotes with approval a remark made to 
him by Emerson: "The writers are the happiest and 
most to be envied who do not seek either fame, popu- 
larity, or reward, but who write as the birds sing or 
the stars shine, because it is their nature to do so." 

In regard to the author of the music, which is 
very beautiful and popular, Dr. George P. Root Si 
in his reminiscences: 



62 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"L B. Woodbury was two or three years older 
than myself, and had commenced his musical work a 
year or two before me. He had a small room in 
Tremont Row, Boston. He was a most indefatigable 
student and worker. I think it was during my first 
winter in Boston that he taught a singing-school in 
Beverly, and often walked back to Boston, fifteen 
miles, after nine o'clock at night, to be ready for his 
lessons in the morning. We who were inured to the 
hardships of New England country life in those days 
did not think of such things as they would be thought 
of now. Mr. Woodbury was very economical, and in 
a year or two had saved enough money to go to Lon- 
don and take lessons for a few months. Soon after he 
came home he began to write, and it was not long 
before he published his first book of church music. 
He was prosperous and very ambitious. He said to 
me once, ' When I die I shall surprise the world,' and 
he did. He was not strong constitutionally, and the 
flame burned so fiercely that the end for him came 
early. It was then found that he had left almost his 
entire estate to found a Musical Institution — the money 
to be used for that purpose after it had been invested 
long enough to produce a certain sum. But the law 
stepped in and changed this disposition of his fortune 
in favor of his wife and children. Mr. Woodbury was 
a genial, pleasant gentleman, and, because he wrote 
only simple music, never was credited (by those who 
did not know him) with the musical ability and cul- 
ture that he really possessed." 



"IF WITH ALL YOUR HEARTS." 63 



"IF WITH ALL YOUR HEARTS." 

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDV, 1809-1847. 

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, commonly 
known as Mendelssohn, was the son of a Hamburg 
banker, and was born in 1809. At the age of eight he 
could play at sight the scores of Bach. 

"When a young man he visited England, and his 
reception was so cordial, his genius seemed so admira- 
bly adapted to the tastes of the people, and his suc- 
cesses were so brilliant and uninterrupted, that he 
thereafter gave his affections and a great portion of 
his artist life to the English people. 

"He wrote the oratorio ' St. Paul,' which placed 
him in the front rank of great composers. Later he 
was invited to compose an oratorio for a national fes- 
tival to be given in Birmingham, England. He chose 
for his subject ' Elijah,' and gave his soul to the com- 
position with a self-consuming zeal. 

" That was a grand occasion when the oratorio was 
first produced. It was the summer of 1846. Busy 
Birmingham lay circled with gardens of flowers; peo- 
ple of rank, genius, wit, flocked thither to listen to 
the masterpiece of the king of composers. The assem- 
bly represented the best ability of the world. 

11 All was expectation when Mendelssohn appeared. 
The oratorio opened. There were four solemn trum- 
pet blasts, and Elijah, the man of the desert, who de- 
nounced the pagan altars that flamed on every hill, 



64 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

appeared and cursed the land with famine and death. 
The music grew tumultuous, representing the distress 
of the people. The apostles cry aloud, ' Help, Lord!' 
and choruses, heavy with affliction, follow. Hope 
dawns with the magical tenor solo, ' If with all your 
hearts ye truly seek me,' and choral quartets relieve 
the distress of the prophet with the promise, ( He shall 
give his angels charge over thee.' 

"Again the trumpets sound, and Elijah appears in 
presence of the king and announces the end of the 
famine. He calls the heathen priests to Mt. Car- 
mel, and tells them that there the true God will 
manifest himself in fire. The scene on Mt. Carmel, 
where the frantic pagans call upon Baal, leads to one 
of the most weird and awe-inspiring choruses ever 
produced in music; and when the first part of the 
oratorio ended, the great audience knew that Men- 
delssohn had produced an immortal work, had cre- 
ated, as it were, a new orb of music which was to 
shine for all time. 

"The second part was as wonderful, but not as 
overpowering. The soprano trio, 'Lift thine eyes,' 
the heavenly chorus, 'He watching over Israel,' the 
contralto song, ( Oh, rest in the Lord,' the earthquake 
in Mt. Horeb, and the departure of Elijah through 
the rending sky in the chariot of fire, the comforting 
choruses bringing the work to a close like the parting 
clouds of a tempestuous day, all added surprise to sur- 
prise and admiration to admiration, and at the end 
of the work, as the composer moved away, words of 



IF YOU CANNOT ON THE OCEAN" 6s 



praise greeted his ear on every hand like the sound of 
the shining waves of the sea. His genius had made 
a mighty effort and his triumph was complete. 

"The composition of 'Elijah' consumed not only 
the genius, but the life, of Mendelssohn. After his 
overwhelming triumph at Birmingham, and while 
yet receiving the congratulations of princes and the 
praise of the whole musical world, he became con- 
scious that his nervous system was shattered and that 
his days of usefulness were drawing to their close. 

u ' Play, play,' said a young ^friend to him, just 
after the performance of ' Elijah ' at Birmingham. 

u The young composer shed tears. 'I cannot play; 
I have no strength,' he said. He placed his thin 
hand upon his forehead and exclaimed, ' Oh, my head! 
my head!' looking upward to heaven, towards which 
his spirit was hastening. He died at Leipzig in 1847, 
the year after the production of 'Elijah,' at the early 
age of thirty-eight years." 

"Great Composers." 



" IF YOU CANNOT ON THE OCEAN." 

PHILIP PHILLIPS, 1834. 

A favorite hymn of President Lincoln. The 
words are by Mrs. Ellen H. Gates. She says: 

"The lines were written upon my slate one snowy 
afternoon in the winter of i860. I knew, as I know 
now, that the poem was only a simple little thing, but 
somehow I had a presentiment that it had wings." 

The story of the Tones. 



66 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY." 

GIORNOVICHI, 1775-1804. HYMN BY REV. HORATIUS BONAR, 1808-18S9. 

IT is a remarkable fact that several great tunes 
found in hymn-books were composed by erratic men 
of genius whose sanity may even be doubted, and 
whom charity would pity as well as justice blame. 
Such are "Greenville" by Rousseau, the "Italian 
Hymn" by Giardini, and the above sympathetic 
hymn-tune by Giornovichi. 

Of Giornovichi, or Jarnowick, "Moore's Cyclopae- 
dia" says: 

"The following, anecdotes are related of this singu- 
lar character. On his journey to Lyons he once 
announced a concert at six francs a ticket, when, no 
company arriving, he resolved to be revenged on the 
avarice of the Lyonese, and postponed the performance 
to the following evening, changing the price of the 
tickets to three francs. A crowded audience was the 
consequence; but at the moment the concert was about 
to commence they were given to understand that Jarn- 
owick had suddenly taken post-horses and quitted the 
town. Another time, being in the music shop of Bail- 
leux, Jarnowick accidentally broke a pane of glass. 
' Those who break windows must pay for them,' said 
Bailleux. 'Right,' replied the other; 'how much is 
it?' 'Thirty sous.' 'There's a three-franc piece.' 
'But I have no small change.' 'Never mind that,' 
replied Jarnowick, 'we are now quits,' and immedi- 
ately dashed his cane through a second square. He 



" / NERD THEE E VER Y HO URr 

often quarrelled with the Chevalier de St. Georges, 
who was a good violinist, b.ut more celebrated swords- 
man. One day, in the heat of their dispute, Jarnowick 
boxed the ears of St. Georges, who contented himself 
with coolly observing to a third party who was pres- 
ent, 4 y y aime trop son talent pour me cbattre avec lid /' 1 1 
admire his talents too much to fight him.' " 

Beautiful melodies broke from these disturbed 
souls. What might have been possible to such genius 
had it been consecrated to Him whose service demands 
the best use of all the powers for the spiritual good of 
mankind ! 



"I KNOW THA T MY REDEEMER LIVETH. 

GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL. l6S4~I759 SEE " COME ONTO HIM." 



INDIAN HYMX. 

In de dark wood, no Indian nigh, 
Den me look heaven and send up cry, 

Upon my knees so low ; 
Den God on high will grant me grace 
And hear me in his heavenly place ; 

De Bible tell me so. 

Claimed for Samuel Cowdell, a schoolmaster in 
Annapolis Valley, X. S., about 1820. It is popularly 
believed to have had an earlier date. 



11 1 NEED THEE EVERY HOUR." 

REV. R. LOWRV, 1S26. SEE "SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER." WORDS BY MRS. 
ANNIE S. HAWKS. 



68 THE STOR V OF THE TUNES. 

ITALIAN HYMN. 

FELICE DE GIARDINI. 17161796. 

Of Giardini, u Moore's Cyclopaedia" thus speaks: 
"The general capricious character and splenetic 
disposition of Giardini were his bane through life. 
He spoke well of few, and quarrelled with many of his 
most valuable friends. Nothing but his very superior 
musical talents could have upheld him during the 
time he was in favor with the public. Careless of his 
own interest, and inattentive to all those means which 
would have promoted his success in the world, he at 
length sank under misfortunes of his own creating, 
and died in 1796 at Moscow, weighed down by penury 
and distress." 



"/ WAS A WANDERING SHEEP." 

J. ZUNDEL. 1815-1882. 

John Zundel was born near Stuttgart, Germany, 
in 1815, and received his musical education in Wur- 
temberg. He went to Russia in 1840 to give an organ 
concert, and while at St. Petersburg met musical 
Americans who induced him to visit the United States. 
He was at first disappointed in America and saw dark 
days, but in 1850 he became organist of Plymouth 
Church, Brooklyn, then at the height of its popularity 
and influence. 

With some intermissions, during one of which he 
was organist in Dr. Tyng's church in New York, he 



"JESUS IN THE TEMPLE." 

remained organist of Plymouth Church for nearly 
thirty years. He died in Germany in 1SS2. 



"JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN?' 

A. EWING. 1830. 

The grand and inspiring old hymn usually printed 
in three parts, "Jerusalem the Golden," "Jerusalem 
the Glorious," and u Brief L,ife is Here my Portion," 
was translated by Dr. John Mason Neale from Bernard 
of Cluny, and is almost always sung to this noble and 
popular tune " Ewing." The tune is in many hymn- 
books ascribed to Bishop Alexander Ewing. It was 
written by a nephew of the bishop's, who bore the same 
name. The younger Alexander Ewing was born in 
1830. He was an amateur in music, and this tune 
seems to have been written in his happiest mood. 



"JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. n 

WORDS BY MRS. MARY B. C. SLADF. 1S26-1SS2. MUSIC BY DR. GEORGE F. ROOT, 182a 

SEE JEWELS. 

Almost every one has heard "Jesus in the Temple 
with the doctors wise." In music-books for young 
people and the fireside are to be found the initials " M. 
B. C. S." Few people are acquainted with the his- 
tory of this lady out of her own city and State, except 
the mere fact that she was the editor of a school publi- 



7 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

cation of much interest and worth, called "Good 
Times," and wrote much for young people, especially 
school songs. 

She died in Fall River, Mass., in the spring of 
1882, at the age of fifty-six. In her early life she was 
a teacher. Out of this experience came two successful 
books, "The Children's Hour," and "Exhibition 
Days." She was one of the editors of the "Journal of 
Education," edited the "School Festival," and con- 
ducted a department in the Philadelphia " School Day 
Magazine." She was a most prolific writer of Sunday- 
school and day-school songs. 

Children were her delight. She worked for them 
to the last under the shadow of the sickness that ended 
her life. Her one ambition was to prepare the young 
for the highest duties of life. Millions of young peo- 
ple owe good influences to her. 



JEWELS. 

DR. GEORGE F. ROOT, 182O. 

The hymn-tunes and household songs of Dr. Geo. 
Frederick Root are universally known and sung, as 
well as those of his pupil Philip Paul Bliss. Who does 
not recall "Hazel Dell," "Music in the Air," and 
"Rosalie," among Dr. Root's household songs? and 
"Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom," which thrilled 
the great mass-meeting in Union Square in 1861, and 
two years later led the decisive charge at Chickamau- 



JEWETT. 71 

ga ; and "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," which rang 
through the camps of Chicago almost before the ink 
was dry, in the darkest period of the conflict ? And 
again, who does not recall the " Vacant Chair" as the 
home song of the war, sung often amid blinding tears! 
u Jewels" is a popular church bell melody, and 
we heard it rung from the chimes of St. Martin's, 
IvOndon, a few years ago. 



JEWETT. 

FROM VON WEBER, 1786-1826. BY J. P. HOLBROOK, l822. 

This most beautiful hymn, so often used at fune- 
rals, is a translation by J. Borthwick. 

My Jesus, as thou wilt, 

Oh, may thy will be mine! 
Into thy hand of love 

I would my all resign. 
Through sorrow, or through joy, 

Conduct me as thine own, 
And help me still to say, 

My Lord, thy will be done. 

My Jesus, as thou wilt ; 

Though seen through many a tear, 
Let not my star of hope 

Grow dim or disappear ; 
Since thou on earth hast wept 

And sorrowed oft alone, 
If I must weep with thee, 

My Lord, thy will be done. 

My Jesus, as thou wilt, 

All shall be well for me; 
Each changing future scene 

I gladly trust with thee: 



72 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Straight to my home above 

I travel calmly on, 
And sing, in life or death, 

My Lord, thy will be done. 

The music, as beautiful as the words, is an ar- 
rangement from Von Weber, and is usually called 
"Jewett." It was arranged by J. P. Holbrook. 

The last hours of Carl Maria von Weber have been 
the subject of painting and song. 

His last evening was passed at the house of Sir 
George Smart, London, in a musical company. They 
conducted him, enfeebled as he was by consumption, 
to his bed. U I must sleep now," he said. In the 
morning he was found dead in his room. 

Von Weber had a tender conscience and a very 
religious nature, and it is to be regretted that his 
musical compositions led him much into the life 
of the theatre. His last days were a series of almost 
unequalled musical triumphs amid the burning fe- 
vers of pulmonary consumption. They were passed 
in London amid the society of the greatest living 
composers. His fairyland music, so much played on 
the piano and by the orchestra, was written amid a 
wearing eolith and hectic fevers. He once wrote to 
his wife after one of his great London musical tri- 
umphs: "My best beloved Caroline, through God's 
grace and assistance I have this evening met with the 
most complete success. The brilliancy and affecting 
nature of the scene of the triumph are indescribable. 
God alone be thanked for it" The extract shows his 
devout nature, although so much of his life was 



-JO ) Tl r LL Y ONWARD / MO I r £." 73 

passed amid most worldly scenes. He died in Lon- 
don, 1S26, aged forty. 

" Let me go back to my own (his family), and then 
God's will be done." Whether these words, uttered 
in his last days, led to the arrangement of the music 
to the words, we cannot say; in sentiment they belong 
to each other. 



"JOYFULLY, JOYFULLY ONWARD I MOVE." 

REV. A. D. MERRILL, 1796-1878. 

"I die at peace with God and all mankind," said 
the author of this once very popular hymn, when dy- 
ing. It was a triumphant close of a triumphant life, 
and the hymn was a voice of the life and prophetic of 
the death. 

Rev. A. D. Merrill, the author of this triumphal 
death-song, was born in Salem, N. H., 1796, and 
died April 29, 1S7S. He was a Methodist minister. 
He is still everywhere remembered by the denomi- 
nation to which he belonged in New Hampshire 
and Vermont. He rode over these States mingling 
in revival scenes many years. His picture, which 
has been shown us by one of his sons, a Boston 
business man, bears a closer resemblance to that of 
Washington than any other face that we ever saw, 
and he was somewhat famous for this resemblance. 
He was a patriarchal-looking man. After a remark- 
able religious experience he entered upon the min- 
istry with great zeal. His work was everywhere 

4 



74 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

blessed, and he has left an imperishable influence in 
New England. He composed both hymns and music. 
The above hymn and tune once formed one of the 
greatest favorites of the New England Methodists. It 
has proved the dying words of many who learned to 
sing it amid the old revival scenes: 

" Soon, with my pilgrimage ended below, 
Home to the land of bright spirits I '11 go." 

" Death, with thy weapons of war lay me low; 
Strike, king of terrors ; I fear not the blow. 
Jesus has broken the bars of the tomb, 
Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home." 

The words were claimed both for Mr. Merrill and 
Rev. Wm. Hunter. 



JUDGMENT HYMN. 

The London "Quiver" gives the following anal- 
ysis of this majestic choral: 

" 'Luther's Hymn ' is the popular name by which 
the hymn beginning 

1 Great God, what do I see and hear!' 

and its accompanying tune are known. 

11 The hymn is, however, incorrectly called Lu- 
ther's, and the tune cannot with probability be ascribed 
to him. The hymn has had a complicated history. 
It is founded upon one written by Bartholomew 
Ringwaldt, a village pastor in Prussia. Dr. Collyer, 
a dissenting minister in London at the beginning of 
the present century, met with a translation of the first 




yvU.f*«4 ***!&+ * 



1 f *% 



KNOCKING. 75 

verse made by some unknown person. He composed 
two additional verses; and this, with one or two 
changes, is the hymn which we possess. Though 
generally regarded as Luther's, the tune, as we have 
indicated, is not distinctly ascertained to be his. Win- 
terfield does not include it in his collection of ' Lu- 
ther's Spiritual Songs,' published at Leipzig in 1840; 
and although another editor gives it, he adds a widely 
credited story to the effect that Luther picked up the 
melody from the singing of a travelling artisan. The 
tune was first printed in 1535, but it had served before 
that as a second melody to the hymn, 

' Nun freut euch, lieben Christen G'mein,' 

written by Luther in 1523. The most, therefore, that 
can be said for the tune is that it is ascribed to the 
reformer with uncertainty. At one time it was fre- 
quently to be heard at musical festivals and sacred 
concerts in our own country. It was sung by Braham, 
and Harper, the celebrated trumpet player, accom- 
panied it with very telling fanfares between the lines, 
such as may be seen in the version of this tune given 
in 'Cheetham's Psalmody.'" 



KXOCKIXG. 

GEORGE F. ROOT, 1820. 



Music by Root, words by Harriet Beecher Stowc, 
written for the "Christian Watchman and Reflect- 
or," the subject being Holman Hunt's picture. 



76 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

LAB A IV. 

BY LOWELL MASON, USUALLY SUNG TO WORDS BY GEORGE HEATH. 

" My soul, be on thy guard." 



LAKE STREET. 

H. P. DANKS, 1834. 

Jones' "Handbook of American Musicians" 
gives the following account of Mr. Danks' early his- 
tory: 

"This well-known and very successful song-com- 
poser was born April 6, 1834, at New Haven, Conn. 
When he was eight years old his parents removed to 
Saratoga, N. Y. At an early age he showed the true 
bent of his nature, and was placed under the care of 
Dr. L. E. Whiting, of Saratoga, who was an excellent 
amateur musician as well as a physician. His prog- 
ress was so rapid that he was soon admitted to the 
choir of the First Presbyterian Church, over which 
Dr. Whiting presided. Some time after he accepted 
a similar position in the choir of the M. E. Church. 
About 1850 his parents removed again, this time to 
Chicago, where he was engaged as bass at the Clark 
Street M. E. Church, his voice having changed. Soon 
after removing to Chicago he began to try his hand at 
composing, but his father, who had no idea of his 
following music as a profession, looked upon all this 
as foolishness, and put the young man to work at his 
own trade, that of a builder. 



LAMPE S TUNES. 77 

"It was about this time that William B. Brad- 
bury, then in the height of his career, held a conven- 
tion in the city, which young Danks attended. Pluck- 
ing up courage, he presented to that excellent musi- 
cian a copy of his first hymn-tune, with a request that 
it be examined. Mr. Bradbury was so much pleased 
with it that he inserted it in his next book, the 'Jubi- 
lee,' under the name of ' Lake Street.' This decided 
Mr. Danks' future course, and he devoted himself to 
study and composition." 



LAMPE S TUXES FOR THE WESLEYS. 

JOHANN FREDERICK LAMPE, 1692-I75I. 

Many of the popular tunes employed by the early 
Methodists were composed or arranged by Frederick 
Lampe, a German musician, who has a most inter- 
esting religious history. The best account of Lampe 
and his musical work with the YVesleys that we have 
seen is found in S. W. Christopher's " Poets of Meth- 
odism," and we quote from that admirable work the 
references to Lampe and his friendships with the 
early Methodist preachers and writers. 

"The brothers availed themselves of musical com- 
position from any and every source, so that the peo- 
ple might be suitably and largely supplied with 'Ser- 
vice of Song.' These supplies sometimes came in a 
way beautifully illustrative of the harmony between 
the divine grace which they preached and the divine 



78 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Providence which guided their steps, their voices, and 
their pens. On March 29, 1746, Charles Wesley jots 
in his diary: C "I passed the afternoon at Mrs. Rich's, 
where we caught a physician by the ear, through the 
help of Mr. L,ampe and some of our sisters. This is 
the true use of music.' This little record gives an 
insight into the way in which early Methodists made 
their private social gatherings subservient at once to 
their own cultivation in psalmody and the spiritual 
benefit of casual visitors, while it affords a clew to 
some of the first retired springs of Methodist hymn- 
tunes. 

"Mr. Rich was the lessee of Covent Garden Thea- 
tre. His wife, a beautiful and accomplished actress, 
had on one occasion found her way into West Street 
Chapel, where Charles Wesley preached. She was 
arrested by the word, gave herself to the pursuit of 
divine mercy, and found the joys of salvation. Now 
came the conflict. Her husband required her usual 
presence on the stage; but, though enduring painful 
persecution, she firmly refused to appear unless it 
were to bear public testimony against theatrical amuse- 
ments. She conquered. Her husband soon left her 
a rich widow; and under her roof her spiritual father 
always found a welcome. In her home it was that 
Charles Wesley met with Frederick Lampe, a Ger- 
man musician, who was engaged by Mr. Rich as a 
composer of dramatic music. For many years he had 
been a Deist; but on reading John Wesley's 'Earnest 
Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion,' he too be- 



LAMPES TUNES. 79 

came a hearty believer in Christ, and consecrated his 
musical talent by setting tunes to many of the hymns 
of his now beloved friends, the Wesleys. The inter- 
esting relations between the members of this remark- 
able group are seen in happy light from a letter of 
Mrs. Rich to Charles Wesley on November 27, 1746, 
during her husband's life: 

11 'Dear and Rev. Sir: I am infinitely obliged 
to you for your kind letter. It gave me great comfort 
and at a time I had much need of it; for I had been 
very ill both in body and mind. 

u ' I gave a copy of the hymn to Mr. Lampe, who, 
at reading, shed some tears and said he would write 
to you, for he loved you as well as if you were his 
own brother. The Lord increase it; for I hope it is 
a good sign. 

11 'The enclosed is a copy of a song Mr. Rich has 
suno- in a new scene, added to one of his old enter- 
tainments, in the character of Harlequin Preacher, to 
convince the town he is not a Methodist. Oh, pray 
for him that he may be a Christian indeed, and then 
he will be more concerned about what he is called, 
and for me. 

" ' Your unworthy daughter in Christ.' 

"The hymn which brought tears to the musician's 
eyes and elicited his expression of love for the man 
whose hymns he helped the Methodists to sing, was 
one in which the happy change in the gifted tune- 



80 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

maker is charmingly sung, while the musician's hopes 
of future harmonies swell into longing ecstasy: 

'' Thou God of harmony and love, 
Whose name transports the saints above 

And lulls the ravished spheres, 
On thee in feeble strains I call 
And mix my humble voice with all 

The heavenly choristers. 

"If well I know the tuneful art 
To captivate a human heart, 

The glory, Lord, be thine; 
A servant of thy blessed will, 
I here devote my utmost skill 

To sound the praise divine. 

11 With Tubal's wretched sons no more 
I prostitute my sacred power 

To please the fiends beneath, 
Or moderate the wanton lay, 
Or smooth with music's hand the way 

To everlasting death. 

" Suffice for this the season past — 
I come, great God, to learn at last 

The lesson of thy grace ; 
Teach me the new, the gospel song, 
And let my hand, my heart, my tongue, 

Move only to thy praise. 

"Thine own musician, Lord, inspire, 
And let my consecrated lyre 

Repeat the Psalmist's part; 
His Son and thine reveal in me, 
And fill with sacred melody 

The fibres of my heart. 

" So shall I charm the listening throng 
And draw the living stones along 

By Jesus' tuneful name; 
The living stones shall dance, shall rise, 
And form a city in the skies — 

The New Jerusalem. 



LAMPES TUNES. 81 

"Oh! might I with thy saints aspire — 
The meanest of that dazzling choir — 

Who chant thy praise above! 
Mixed with the bright musician-band 
May I a heavenly harper stand, 

And sing the song of love. 

" What ecstasy of bliss is there, 
While all the angelic concert share, 

And drink the floating joys! 
What more than ecstasy when all, 
Struck to the golden pavement, fall 

At Jesus' glorious voice ! 

"Jesus — the heaven of heaven he is, 
The soul of harmony and bliss; 
And while on him we gaze, 
And while his glorious voice we hear, 
Our spirits are all eye, all ear, 
And silence speaks his praise. 

" Oh, might I die that awe to prove, 
That prostrate awe which dares not move 

Before the great Three-One; 
To shout by turns the bursting joy 
And all eternity employ 

In songs around the throne ! 

"Lampe's tunes became popular. In a letter to 
his wife Charles Wesley asks, 'How many of Lampe's 
tunes can you play? 1 and in an epistle from New- 
castle to his friend Blackwell, the good London bank- 
er, he says, 'His tunes are universally admired here 
among the musical men, and have brought me into 
high favor with them.' Like many a pious musi- 
cian, Lampe must have found it difficult to maintain 
the public exercise of his profession. It was more 
easy to throw his heart into a Methodist hymn-tune 
than to entertain the musical multitude. In October, 

The - _J.* 



82 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

1748, he was in Dublin, and his friend Wesley says, 
1 1 met at Mr. Lunell's an old Dutch Quaker who 
seemed to have deep experience of the things of God. 
At two Mr. Lampe and his wife called, and were 
overjoyed to see me. I cannot yet give up my hope 
that they are designed for better things than feeding 
swine — that is, entertaining the gay world.' 

"What curious associations are sometimes around 
these brothers in song — an old Dutch Quaker and a 
converted German musician and tune-maker ! The 
tune-maker realized his poetic friend's hope at last. 
His work of 'feeding swine' was over; he got some- 
thing better in the music way, more to his taste, and 
that for ever! With what a swell of poetic music 
and heavenward affection Wesley sings at his upward 
flight ! 

" T is done! The sovereign will \s obeyed, 

The soul, by angel-guards conveyed, 
Has took its seat on high; 

The brother of my choice is gone 

To music sweeter than his own 
And concerts in the sky. 

" His spirit, mounting on the wing, 
Rejoiced to hear the convoy sing 

While harping at his side; 
With ease he caught their heavenly strain, 
And smiled and sung in mortal pain- 
He sung and smiled and died. 

" Enrolled with that harmonious throng, 
He hears the unutterable song, 

The unutterable Name ; 
He sees the Master of the choir, 
He bows and strikes the golden lyre, 

And hymns the glorious Lamb. 



'&' 



LAMPES TUNES. S3 

" He hymns the glorious Lamb alone, 
No more constrained to make his moan 

In this sad wilderness: 
To toil for sublunary pay, 
And cast his sacred strains away, 

And stoop the world to please. 

" Redeemed from earth, the tuneful soul, 
While everlasting ages roll, 

His triumph shall prolong, 
His noble faculties exert, 
And all the music of his heart 
Shall warble on his tongue. 

" Oh, that my mournful days were past! 
Oh, that I might o'ertake at last 

My happy friend above ! 
With him the Church triumphant join, 
And celebrate in strains divine 
The majesty of love ! 

" Great God of love ! prepare my heart, 
And tune it now to bear a part 

In heavenly melody; 
I '11 strive to sing as loud as they 
Who sit enthroned in brighter day 

And nearer the Most High. 

11 Oh, that the promised time were come ! 
Oh, that we all were taken home, 

Our Master's joy to share ! 
Draw, Lord, the living, vocal stones, 
Jesus, recall thy banished ones, 

To chant thy praises there, 

" Our number and our bliss complete, 
And summon all the choir to meet 

Thy glorious throne around ; 
The whole musician-band bring in, 
And give the signal to begin, 

And let the trumpet sound." 



84 THE STORY OF THE TUNES, 



LANESBORO. 

WILLIAM DIXON, ABOUT 1790. 



LANSLNGBURG. 

A SUBLIME TUNE, PERHAPS BY REV. J. NEANDER, 161O-1680. 



LEAD, KIXDLY LIGHT. 

J. B. DYKES, 1S23-1S76. 

DYKES' MUSIC. 

" Veni, Creator." 

"Hark, hark, my soul!" 

" Come, Holy Ghost." 

"Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty." 

"Hollingside." 

" The day is past and over." 

"Ten thousand times ten thousand." 

"Thou whose almighty word." 

"Jesus lives." 

Considering the world-wide fame of the late 
Dr. Dykes' hymn-tunes, very little is known about 
their author. No memoir of him has been written, 
no authentic list or collection of his books has been 
compiled. 

John Bacchus Dykes was born at Hull, on the 
10th of March, 1823. He was the son of W. H. Dykes, 
and grandson of Rev. Thos. Dykes, for many years in- 



LEAD, KINDL Y LIGHT. 85 

cumbent of St. John's Church, Hull. During child- 
hood John Dykes showed a remarkable talent for 
music. His sister, Miss Dykes, write to us: 

"We were very nearly the same age, and I was 
always his companion in early life. Music seemed to 
come to him as by instinct. He really needed but 
little instruction, but could catch any air or play by 
ear long before he was able to play from note. He 
used to practise on the organ as a little child, and 
played at grandfather's church during service when he 
was ten years old." 

One of the greatest punishments that could be 
inflicted on him was to debar him from his favorite 
pastime of organ-playing. In 1840, when John was 
seventeen years of age, his father went to live at 
Wakefield, and here the son entered the West Riding 
Proprietary School, where he remained three years 
and was frequently a prizeman. In October, 1843, ne 
matriculated at St. Katharine's Hall, Cambridge, and 
a few weeks after was elected Yorkshire Scholar of his 
College. Previous to his arrival in Cambridge a small 
musical society had been formed at St. Peter's College, 
and this was now merged in a larger one, called the 
Cambridge University Musical Society, of which Mr. 
Dykes and Sir William Thompson, F. R. S., were 
leading members. Air. Dykes was unanimously cho- 
sen conductor of. the society, and under his manage- 
ment it greatly prospered. Mr. Dykes' musical skill 
made him a popular man with Town and Gown, and 
it speaks well for his staunchness that in spite of end- 



86 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

less social engagements he did not let his reading 
suffer. By husbanding his time he managed to ac- 
complish an extraordinary amount of study. 

In January, 1847, Mr. Dykes was ordained deacon 
and licensed to the curacy of Malton. In 1849 he was 
appointed by the Dean and Chapter of Durham to be 
Minor Canon and Precentor. This was owing to his 
musical skill and his success as conductor at Cam- 
bridge. Mr. Dykes found matters at Durham in a 
neglected state. A collection of chants was in use 
which paid no regard to the character of the Psalms, 
and led to jubilant words being sung to plaintive music, 
and vice versa. His cathedral duties were not heavy, 
and he had leisure to devote himself to the Precentor- 
shif), which was naturally a congenial task. He began 
his more important musical works by contributing an 
anthem, " These are they which came out of great 
tribulation," to Sir Frederick Ouseley's collection of 
anthems for special occasions. And for the cathedral 
use he wrote a burial service and other music. This 
also was a very productive period in regard to hymn- 
tunes. 

In 1861 the University of Durham conferred the 
degree of Mus. Doc. upon Mr. Dykes, in recognition 
of his talent. In 1862 he was presented to the vicar- 
age of St. Oswald's, a parish church in Durham. 
Here for fourteen years he discharged his duties with 
an earnestness and love that won for him the affection 
of many and the respect of all who came into contact 
with him. He died at St. Leonard's on Jan. 20, 1876. 



LEAD, KINDL Y LIGHT. 87 

Mr. Dykes' character, as all who knew him testify, 
was particularly sweet and attractive. Miss Dykes 
writes to us: 

11 His nature was bright, sunny, and joyous, and he 
had a wonderful power of making friendships. He 
was a most amusing and delightful companion, and 
one whom all loved and courted. His great charm 
was, however, his deep and sincere religion. This 
seemed to be the hidden spring of all his outer life," 

Dr. Dykes' sympathies were wide and his human 
hope strong. He was always gratified to learn how all 
Christian bodies used his tunes, and he heard ever 
with interest of the festivals of the Nonconformist 
church choirs of Durham and Northumberland which 
were conducted for so many years at Newcastle by 
James Hall. In the scrap-book which his son, the 
Rev. E. H. Dykes, has lent us, we find an address de- 
livered by Dr. Dykes at one of the Durham Church 
Institute Readings, in which he discourses as follows 
on the popular cultivation of music: 

14 1 earnestly hope that many of our young men 
will avail themselves of the opportunity thus offered 
them of obtaining, at a very reasonable cost, some 
practical knowledge of the delightful art of music. It 
always appears to me such a pity that an intelligent 
acquaintance even with the rudiments of music is so 
rare in this country. How very few, for instance, are 
able to sing correctly at sight even the simplest com- 
positions. Look at our parochial choirs. Is there a 
clergyman who does not experience the difficulty of 



88 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

finding in his parish men or boys capable of taking 
promptly and accurately the four separate parts even of 
the commonest chants or psalm-tunes, to say nothing 
of more difficult music ? How often is there no alto 
to be obtained, or no tenor or no bass; how frequently 
the boys are unable to read a note of music, and have 
to sing by ear. ' ' 

Dr. Dykes went on to vindicate the musicality of 
England in comparison with that of Germany, Italy, 
and France ; and then followed some wise words on 
part-singing: 

' ' There is certainly no more pleasant, rational, in- 
nocent, social, and I may add healthy indoor exercise 
and amusement than part-singing. And to those who 
master the preliminary difficulties I need hardly say 
what a well-ni^h exhaustless store of delightful music 
they will find awaiting their study and practice and 
enjoyment. I would specially instance our English 
glees, a class of compositions taking an intermediate 
position between the modern German part-song and 
the old and more scientific Italian madrigal, and par- 
taking of the merits of both. Many of these composi- 
tions are of exceeding beauty. n 

Dr. Dykes concluded his address by hoping that the 
singing-class would indirectly contribute to the im- 
provement of the choral worship of the churches: 

" Public worship, our sacrifice of praise and thanks- 
giving, is a sacred exercise which should engage the 
activities not of our ears only, but of our whole being, 
body, soul, and spirit; it is an oblation of heart and 



LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT. 89 

voice to God; an offering of the best of what we are 
and what we have to him, onr ever blessed Creator, 
Redeemer, and Sanctifier. And if people love an 
attractive service and ceremonial, we must always 
remember that it is God Almighty who first taught 
them to love it and encouraged us to employ it." 

We have already remarked that no complete 
collection of Dr. Dykes' tunes has been published. 
The task would indeed be difficult. Dr. Dykes was 
in the habit of composing tunes here, there, and every- 
where, and would often make a present of the manu- 
script to a friend, keeping no copy. The number of 
tunes composed by him must be very great. Dr. 
Dykes' nephew, Mr. Levett, of Hull, writes: 

"A clerical admirer of the revered composer, with 
whom I have long kept up a correspondence on the 
subject of hymn-tunes, has counted those written by 
Dr. Dykes (both in print and manuscript) which are 
in his possession, and his musical library is extensive. 
He found the total number of tunes to be 242, inclu- 
ding the carols which my uncle wrote for the Bramley 
and Stainer collection. But this gentleman had not 
then got all the discovered tunes, and a good many 
more have turned up since the time he made the col- 
lection. I discovered two fresh ones only a few weeks 
ago. I know of others which I have not yet been 
able to procure, but which I hope to get eventually." 

With reference to Dr. Dykes' habits of composi- 
tion Miss Dykes writes to us: 

"Many of his best tunes seemed to come to the 



90 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

words to which they were composed as impromptu 
suggestions, and for this reason he always much pre- 
ferred keeping them for the hymns to which they 
were originally written. He wrote his tunes quite 
independently of the piano, often in solitary walks or 
in a railway train." 

His son, the Rev. E. H. Dykes, informs us that 
his father "used to write his tunes mostly in his 
study, going to the piano to satisfy himself about 
some of the harmonies. He often used railway trav- 
elling, too, for writing his tunes, though the only 
tune I know for a fact that he wrote in a train was 
one to 'Come, Holy Ghost,' called ' Veni, Creator' in 
a book edited by Mr. John Grey. The tune to ' Hark, 
hark, my soul!' was composed as he was going to 
Skiddaw. As children we often used to sing over 
some of his new tunes on Sunday evening; nor did we 
fail to criticise them, and not infrequently some of our 
suggestions were accepted. He used to say that he 
always made a practice of offering up some short 
prayer before he wrote anything. With regard to 
congregational singing, he was a great advocate of it, 
and often used to ur^e it in his sermons." 

In mentioning Dr. Dykes' tunes we speak natural- 
ly of the hymns to which they are set, rather than of 
their names. This is what he most desired, that they 
should never be separated from the words which in- 
spired them. In the last edition of " Hymns Ancient 
and Modern" there are no less than fifty-four of his 
tunes, and the student of psalmody who takes the 



LEAD, KINDL V LIGHT. 91 

trouble to turn up these tunes and play them over 
will find the occupation a profitable one. No exer- 
cise can better impress us with the change which has 
come over the hymn-tune of late years — a change of 
which Dr. Dykes, more than any one else, may be 
called the author. The old tunes, of which our books 
are full, are solid, regular, and cast in a uniform 
mould. We apply them freely to hymns of corre- 
sponding sentiment in the same metre, and we find 
that they have a wonderful capacity for suiting many 
hymns. By no means have we done with these tunes. 
We shall always sing them, and admire their stately 
form and their strength of structure, which time does 
not affect. But we have begun to unite with them 
tunes in which the attempt is made to embody and 
express the sentiment of one particular hymn. Such 
tunes it was that Dr. Dykes took the lead in writing, 
and the novelty of a close sympathy between music 
and verse has proved a welcome addition to the re- 
sources of psalmody. For example, we all feel how 
truly the tune " Hollingside " breathes the spirit of 
" Jesus, lover of my soul;" how full of repose and 
calm is "The day is past and over;" how weighted 
with grief is "Oh, come and mourn with me a 
while;" how strongly descriptive is "Fierce raged 
the tempest;" how solemn are the wailing minor 
chords of " Day of wrath, O day of mourning!" 

Dr. Dykes brought the fruit of his wide reading of 
modern music to bear upon all he wrote. He must 
have been an especial student of Spohr, for his com- 



92 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

positions bear traces of the manner of- that writer. 
Smoothness is a great characteristic of Dykes' tunes; 
he moves the parts as little as possible, and he suc- 
ceeds best with quiet or plaintive words. His setting 
of Dean Alford's "Ten thousand times ten thousand" 
is perhaps the most joyful and rousing of his tunes; 
but here, as in "Thou whose almighty word" and 
"Jesus lives," we feel that he has been surpassed in 
strength and boldness by contemporaries like Sulli- 
van, Smart, and Guantlett. To speak more particu- 
larly of his style, we must be for a moment technical, 
and remark on his use of related minor modes, his 
fondness for passing notes and second inversions, and 
for harmonic sequences. In almost every tune there 
is some progression that strikes the ear and is remem- 
bered as congenial to the hymn. This free employ- 
ment of the licenses of modern harmony gives a 
warmth and color to his tunes which is the true secret 
of their popularity. Generally, but not always, Dr. 
Dykes kept in view the singing powers of the congre- 
gation. All his tunes presuppose an organ accom- 
paniment, without which their progressions must be 
ineffective. He had, however, a very good idea of 
how what he wrote would sing, and was a perfect 
master of vocal effects, which are entirely distinct from 
instrumental. His tunes generally may be recom- 
mended to the student as good models of form and de- 
sign; in this respect "Hollingside" ("Jesus, lover of my 
soul ") and "Sanctuary " (" Hark ! the sound of holy 
voices") arc prominent. It will be noted how he 



LEAD, KINDL Y LIGHT. 93 

carries his harmonic idea through a whole phrase, and 
not merely from chord to chord, as did the old tunes. 
A funeral hymn, "Now the laborer's task is o'er," 
he has beautifully set; and his setting of " In the hour 
of trial," in "The Hymnary," is in the same strain. 
Dr. Dykes was not always successful. His tune to 
"Art thou weary?" has been entirely set aside by 
the simple melody of Sir Henry Baker, and his tunes 
for "The pilgrims of the night," and "O paradise!" 
have not carried all before them. The latter two are, 
indeed, somewhat weak. He was fond of setting 
Iambic hymns in triple time, beginning on the first 
of the bar, an arrangement which upsets the accent 
of the first foot of every line. The prayer for those at 
sea, "Eternal Father, strong to save," is deservedly 
one of the most popular of Dr, Dykes' tunes; in this 
case we must give due credit to the words, which 
embody a truly English feeling, which had not before 
found expression in our hymnody. 

Looking back on the labors of Dr. Dykes, we can- 
not but rejoice in them and give thanks for the church 
musician, as we have always done for the church 
hymnodist. The extent to which Dr. Dykes had by 
his tunes touched the heart of the nation was shown 
by the raising of over ^10,000 as a memorial of him 
at his death. This sum, it is said, has really left his 
family in more comfortable circumstances than they 
were in during his lifetime. 

From "Tonic Sol Fa Magazine," London, 1887. 



94 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 



LEONI. 



A HEBREW MELODY. 



An ancient Hebrew melody that Rossini doubt- 
less had in mind when he wrote the famous " Prayer " 
of "Moses in Egypt." It is still sung in England, 
and always in Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle on Hebrew 
Day. 

The srtory of its haunting the mind of Olivers (see 
"Story of the Hymns"), and of his writing to it the 
majestic hymn, "The God of Abrah'm Praise," is 
thus told in a recent English publication. We have 
alluded to the hymn elsewhere, but here, following 
the work from which we quote, we give the words 
entire. 

"The God of Abrah'm praise, 

Who reigns enthroned above, 
Ancient of everlasting days, • 

And God of love : 
Jehovah — great I Am — 

By earth and heaven confessed ; 
I bow and bless the sacred name, 

For ever blest. 

"The God of Abrah'm praise, 

At whose supreme command 
From earth I rise, and seek the joys 

At his right hand : 
I all on earth forsake, 

Its wisdom, fame, and power, 
And him my only portion make, 

My shield and tower. 



LEON/. 95 



" Tho God of Abrah'm praise, 

Whose all-sufficient grace 
Shall guide me all my happy days 

In all my ways : 
He calls a worm his friend, 

He calls himself my God! 
And he shall save me to the end, 

Through Jesus' blood. 

" He by himself hath sworn ; 

I on his oath depend; 
I shall, on eagle's wings upborne, 

To heaven ascend : 
I shall behold" his face, 

I shall his power adore, 
And sing the wonders of his grace 

For evermore. 

"Though nature's strength decay 

And earth and hell withstand, 
To Canaan's bounds I urge my way 

At his command : 
The watery deep I pass 

With Jesus in my view, 
And through the howling wilderness 

My way pursue. 

"The goodly land I see, 

With peace and plenty blessed; 
A land of sacred liberty 

And endless rest: 
There milk and honey flow 

And oil and wine abound ; 
And trees of life for ever grow, 

With mercy crowned. 

"There dwells the Lord our King, 
The Lord our righteousness, 
Triumphant o'er the world and sin, 
The Prince of Peace: 



96 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

On Zion's sacred heights 
His kingdom still maintains ; 

And glorious, with his saints in light, 
For ever reigns. 

" He keeps his own secure, 

He guards them by his side, 
Arrays in garments white and pure 

His spotless bride: 
With streams of sacred bliss, 

With groves of living joys, 
With all the fruits of paradise 

He still supplies. 



"Before the great Three-One 

They all exulting stand, 
And tell the wonders he hath done 

Through all their land : 
The listening spheres attend, 

And swell the growing fame, 
And sing, in songs which never end, 

The wondrous Name. 

"The God who reigns on high 
The great archangels sing, 
And ' Holy, holy, holy,' cry, 

'Almighty King! 
Who was, and is, the same, 
And evermore shall be; 
Jehovah, Father, great I Am, 
We worship thee. 

"Before the Saviour's face 

The ransomed nations bow; 
O'erwhelmed at his almighty grace, 

For ever new : 
He shows his prints of love, 

They kindle to a flame, 
And sound through all the worlds above 

The slaughtered Lamb. 



LEONI. 97 

"The whole triumphant host 

Give thanks to God on high; 
' Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' 

They ever cry : 
Hail, Abrah'm's God — and mine! 

I join the heavenly lays, 
All might and majesty are thine, 

And endless praise." 

It is said that while Olivers was visiting his friend 
John Bakewell, the hymnist, he went to a Jewish 
synagogue, and was so deeply impressed with an old 
Hebrew melody sung by Dr. Leoni that on his return 
he produced the stanzas which are metrically adapted 
to the admired tune. A distinguished hymn-writer 
may be taken as a critic of authority. "There is not 
in our language," says James Montgomery, "a lyric 
of more majestic style, more elevated thought, or 
more glorious imagery; its structure, indeed, is unat- 
tractive; and, on account of the short lines, occasion- 
ally uncouth; but, like a stately pile of architecture, 
severe and simple in design, it strikes less on the first 
view than after deliberate examination, when its pro- 
portions become more graceful, its dimensions ex- 
pand, and the mind itself grows greater in contem- 
plating it. The man who wrote this hymn must 
haze had the finest ear imaginable; for on account 
c^ the peculiarity of the measure, none but a person 
of equal musical and poetic taste could have pro- 
duced the harmony perceptible in the verse." 

Olivers lived to see the issue of at least thirty 
editions of his hymn. But he did not live to hear all 
the soul-music which his hvmu has awakened amonir 

The su>r> >r the Tui 5 



9 S THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

the spiritual children of faithful Abraham on their way 
from every scene of mortal life to their home beyond 
the flood. Holy women and consecrated men have 
made it their song in the land of their pilgrimage; 
and portions of it have formed their final utterances 
of triumph in crossing the border of their inheritance. 
The saintly wife of that saintly man who, in his 
simple faith, came so near to Abraham himself, Wil- 
liam Carvosso, of Ponsanooth, in Cornwall, was called 
for the last eighteen months of her life to extreme 
suffering. But her consolations abounded ; so that 
her sweet singing was not silenced even by strong 
pain. Often were parts of her favorite hymn heard 
ringing through the house. Now it would be, 

" The God of Abrah'm praise, 

At whose supreme command 
From earth I rise, and seek the joys 

At his right hand : 
I all on earth forsake, 

Its wisdom, fame, and power, 
And him my only portion make, 

My shield and tower." 

And then frequently, 

" He by himself hath sworn; 
I on his oath depend ; 
I shall, on eagle's wings upborne, 
To heaven ascend." 

Depending on that divine oath, she herself passed into 
heaven. 

In a little snug retreat under a hillside, near Cal- 
lington, in the west of England, the Methodist preach- 
ers used to be entertained with a motherly affection 



LEON/. 99 

by the aged wife of Mr. Geake, a veteran Methodist 
leader and local preacher. When the good woman 
was young she was always ready, in the warmth of 
her zeal, to go from place to place assisting the preach- 
ers by the use of her fine voice in singing. And now, 
when beyond eighty, she would say, "My voice is 
weak, but I can sing still; my heart sings; and often 
of an evening I lift up my song." 

"Can't you give me a morning song?" said a 
friend one day. 

"Yes, I think lean." 

And then, in a thin, tremulous tone, she sang her 
favorite hymn, which she said Dr. Adam Clarke had 
taught her while a girl, when he used to preach in 
her father's parlor. It was, 

" The God of Abrah'm praise." 

The Rev. William Worth, when about to finish his 
Methodist itineracy, had been lying for some time 
in silence, as though he were listening attentively. 
At length he said, "Hark, do you hear that sweet 
music?" "Yes," he added, speaking to the unseen, 
"precious Saviour, thou art mine." Then, breaking 
forth into praise, he exclaimed, 

" I shall behold his face, 
I shall his power adore, 
And sing the wonders of his grace 
For evermore." 

"Hark!" he cried again. "Hallelujah! glory! 
glory for ever and ever!" 



ioo THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

It was his last shout as he passed up to "behold 
His face." 

The great Methodist theologian, too, Richard Wat- 
son, after a life of holy familiarity with "the cheru- 
bim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat," came to 
the end frequently giving out his elect song, 
" I shall behold His face." 

u When," said he, "shall I leave this tenement of 
clay for the wide expanse? When shall the nobler 
joys open, and I see my God?" And then the song 
broke forth afresh: 

" I shall behold his face, 
I shall his power adore, 
And sing the wonders of his grace 
For evermore." 

From Rev. S. W. Christopher's " Poets of Methodism," London : Haughton 
&Co. 



"LET THE LOWER LIGHTS BE BURNING." 

P. P. BLISS, I 838-1876. 

On a dark, stormy night, when the waves rolled 
like mountains and not a star was to be seen, a boat, 
rocking and plunging, neared the Cleveland harbor. 

"Are you sure this is Cleveland?" asked the cap- 
tain, seeing only one light from the lighthouse. 

"Quite sure, sir," replied the pilot. 

"Where are the lower lights?" 

" Gone out, sir." 

" Can you make the harbor?" 

" We must, or perish, sir!" 



"LIFE IS WEARY, SA VIOUR, TAKE ME." 101 

And with a strong hand and a brave heart, the old 
pilot turned the wheel. But alas, in the darkness he 
missed the channel, and with a crash upon the rocks 
the boat was shivered and many a life lost in a watery 
erave. Brethren, the Master will take care of the 
great lighthouse: let us keep the lower lights burning: 

D. L. MOODY. 

This event led to the composition of the hymn: 

Brightly beams our Father's mercy 

From his Lighthouse evermore; 
But to us he gives the keeping 

Of the lights along the shore. 
Chorus. 
Let the lower lights be burning! 

Send a gleam across the wave ; 
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman 

You may rescue, you may save. 



"LIFE IS WEARY, SAVIOUR, TAKE ME." 

GEORGE NEUMARCK, l62I-l68l. 

There is a remarkable history, one which sig- 
nally illustrates the special providence of God, at- 
tached to a beautiful German hymn. About 1650 
George Neumarck, a writer of hymns and a musi- 
cian of Hamburg, fell sick. He had picked up a 
scanty living by playing on the violoncello in the 
public streets, a custom not then unusual with poor 
students. The sickness prevented Neumarck from 
going his usual rounds. He was soon reduced to 
such poverty as compelled him to part with his in- 
strument, his only means of support. 



102 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

He pawned the violoncello to a Jew, who lent him 
on it a sum much below its value. The loan was to 
run two weeks, and if the instrument should not be 
redeemed within that time, it would be forfeited. As 
Neumarck handed it to the Jew, he looked at it lov- 
ingly, and with tears in his eyes said, 

" You don't know how hard it is to part with it. 
For ten years it has been my companion. If I had 
nothing else, I had it, and it spoke to me and sang 
back to me. Of all sad hearts that have left your 
door, there has been none so sad as mine. Let me 
play one more tune upon it?" 

Gently taking hold of the instrument, he played 
so exquisitely that even the Jew listened in spite of 
himself. A few more strains, and he sang to his own 
melody the hymn written by himself, 

" Life is weary, Saviour, take me." 

Suddenly he changed the key, and his face lighted 
up with a smile as he sang, 

" Yet who knows the cross is precious." 

Laying down the instrument, he said, "As God 
will; I am still," rushed from the pawnbroker's shop, 
and stumbled against a stranger who had been listen- 
ing at the door. 

" Could you tell me," asked the stranger, "where 
I could obtain a copy of that song? I would will- 
ingly give a florin for it." 

"My good friend," replied Neumarck, "I will 
give it to you without the florin." 

The stranger was the valet of the SwedisTi am- 



MAGNIFICAT ANIMA ME A DOMINUM. 103 

bassador, and to him the singer told his sad story. 
He told his master, who, becoming interested in Neu- 
marck, appointed him his private secretary. With 
his first money he redeemed his instrument, and call- 
ing in his landlady and friends, sang his own sweet 
hymn, of which this is a part: 

To let God rule who 's but contented, 

And humbly in him hopeth still, 
Shall marvellously be prevented 

In every sorrow, every ill. 
Who leaneth on God's mighty hand, 
He hath not built his house on sand. 

For what is all our heavy yearning, 

And wherefore make we such ado ? 
What prospers it that every morning 

We o'er our sorrow wail anew? 
Whereunto works our clamor vain 
But to increase our grief and pain? 

Then must we for a time content us, 

And for a little while be still, 
Await what through God's grace is sent us, 

What worketh his omniscient will. 
God, who our helper deigns to be, 
Well knoweth our necessity. 



"LIFT THINE EYES." 

FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, 1809-1847. 

See " If with all your hearts." 



MAGNIFICAT ANIMA ME A DOMINUAf. 

Luke 1:46. "And Mary said, * My soul doth 
magnify the Lord,' " etc. 

An ancient chant of the Latin Church. 



104 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

MAJESTY. 

WILLIAM BILLINGS, 1764-1800. WORDS BY THOMAS STERNHOLD, 1480-I549. 

" William Billings, of Boston, a natural genius 
with no education," is the brief biography which we 
have already quoted from one work on music. If 
Billings lacked education, he did not lack enthusi- 
asm. He felt it in his very boyhood and his work 
has outlived his critics', art perishes, but genius is 
immortal. 

Billings was the pioneer in American music. Dur- 
ing one hundred and fifty years of New England his- 
tory, music scarcely had a voice; then came Billings. 
He was born in Boston, October 7, 1746. He was the 
author of the tunes " Majesty " and " Christ the Lord 
is risen indeed," but is best known by "Rock of 
Ages." He was influential in forming the Stoughton 
Choral Society, which has celebrated its hundredth 
anniversary, and was in one sense the parent of the 
Boston Handel and Haydn Society. Moore, in his 
"Cyclopaedia of Music," gives some interesting inci- 
dents of Billings' history. 

"His first publication was exceedingly deficient 
in all the constituent requisites of good melody as 
well as good harmony, and particularly as to accent. 
It will not bear criticism, and it may amuse the 
reader to see the remarks of the author himself on his 
own work. In the preface to his second publication 
he said, ' Kind reader, no doubt you remember that 
about ten years ago I published a book entitled "The 



MAJESTY. 105 

New England Psalm Singer;" and truly a most mas- 
terly performance I then thought it to be. How lav- 
ish was I of encomiums on this my infant production! 
Said I, "Thou art my Reuben, my first-born, the be- 
ginning of my strength;" but to my great mortifica- 
tion I soon discovered it was Reuben in the sequel 
and Reuben all over. I have discovered that many 
pieces were never worth my printing or your inspec- 
tion.' Of course in his second work, which at length 
obtained the name of 'Billings' Best,' and which 
professed to be an abridgment of the first, he omitted 
altogether a great proportion of the tunes, and amend- 
ed very much .those he retained, particularly in the 
point of accent. This work, as well as his fourth, 
called the ' Psalm Singer's Amusement,' became very 
popular, and no other music for many years was heard 
throughout New England. Many of the New Eng- 
land soldiers, who during the Revolutionary War 
were encamped in the Southern States, had many of 
his popular tunes by heart, and frequently amused 
themselves by singing them in camp, to the delight 
of all who heard them. A gentleman in Philadel- 
phia, distinguished for his great literary attainments, 
as well as for his musical taste, often spoke of the 
great pleasure he enjoyed from this source during that 
period, and said that the name of Billings had been 
dear to him and associated with the happiest recol- 
lections ever since. Finally, whatever may be said 
of Billings' music, and however deficient it may now 
be thought to be in good taste as well as in many 

5* 



106 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

other respects, it certainly gave great delight in its 
day, and many now living, who were accustomed to 
hear it in their youth, are much inclined to prefer it 
to the more elaborate and learned music of the pres- 
ent time." 

He died in 1800, and was buried in the Granary 
Burying Ground. No stone marks his grave. It 
would seem that the musical circles of Boston owe a 
monument, or a memorial of some kind, to his mem- 
ory, for, like a prophet of old, he led the way of those 
who have made Boston a musical city. 



MARSEILLAISE HYMN. 

This French revolutionary song has been so much 
used in churches to words written for missionary meet- 
ings that its real origin is worthy of note among 
church tunes. A recent investigation in London 
shows that the song owes its inspiration to the Ger- 
man composer Holtzmann, though its development, 
form, and patriotic use are due to Rouget de Lisle. 
The following account of its true origin is translated 
from the German, and was published in " Education" 
in 1886: 

The revolutionary hymn known by the name of 
Marseillaise, at the sound of which the pillars of the 
French monarchy fell like the walls of Jericho before 
the trumpets of Joshua, was not composed, as it has 
been supposed heretofore, by the French poet, De 
Lisle, but by a worthy German named Holtzmann, 



MARSEILLAISE HYMN. 107 

who was the organist at the royal court of the Palat- 
inate. It is the same Holtzmann of whom Mozart 
wrote to his father from Mannheim with so much 
commendation, and by whom a religious cantata was 
presented during Mozart's stay in Paris. 

When this organist of the royal court composed 
the melody of the Marseillaise, he little thought to 
sound a trumpet whose tones should thrill the world, 
nor could he have anticipated that the child of his 
muse would be so entirely turned from the use to 
which it was appropriated as to become the leader of 
an atheistical republican army. Who would imagine 
it? That hymn, around which so many bloody remi- 
niscences cluster, was originally the music composed 
for a Credo of a mass some twenty years before the 
French Revolution. 

The manuscript from which this discovery was 
made bears the date 1776. During my stay in Meers- 
burg, the former residence of the Bishop of Constance, 
and where I was appointed organist and musical di- 
rector of the cathedral, I examined carefully the some- 
what extensive musical library which was under my 
care. I was much interested in certain manuscripts 
which had been received by Prince Dalberg from 
Salem Cloister, and by him entrusted to the keeping 
of the church. They were mostly masses, vespers, 
etc. , by Italian and German masters. Among these I 
found six masses with this title: "VI Short Masses, 
written in an elegant style, in accordance with mod- 
ern taste, composed by Holtzmann." These interested 



108 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

me, especially by reason of their beautiful airs, flow- 
ing melodies, pure sentences, and easy instrumenta- 
tion. I examined them the more carefully, therefore, 
and was not a little surprised to find in No. IV. (in G) 
the complete melody of the Marseillaise. Please no- 
tice that I do not speak of a similarity of reminiscence 
which, perchance, might have occurred unintention- 
ally; but there is, note for note, a conformity in mel- 
ody, harmony, time, and tone. De Lisle must have 
had a copy of HolUmann's masses before him when 
he set his words to music. This may be easily ex- 
plained. De Lisle wished the hymn which he had 
written to be sung at once; but, as there was no com- 
poser at his command, he arranged it for himself. He 
played or sang, probably, in the churches and con- 
vents; so that Holtzmann's masses, which had found 
their way, by means of copies, to the Rhine, Alsatia, 
and to the bishoprics of Speier and Strasburg, were 

familiar to him. j. b. Hamma. 

* 

MARTYN, 1834. 

SYMEON B. MARSH, 1798-1875. 

The words most frequently sung to this tune are 
perhaps "Jesus, lover of my soul." They are often 
sung to Lowell Mason's missionary hymn, "Watch- 
man, tell us of the night," and to Dykes' tune "Hol- 
lingside." Holbrook's also is used in many collec- 
tions. 

In the "Story of the Hymns" several stories that 



MAXIM'S MELODIES. 109 

have been told in regard to the origin of this hymn 
are given. The following account is regarded as 
most authentic: " Charles and John Wesley and Rich- 
ard Pilmore were driven by a mob from a common 
where they were holding a meeting, and hid from 
violence in a spring-house. There Charles Wesley 
wrote with a pencil the immortal hymn. 



MAXIMS MELODIES. 

GRANVILLE MAXIM. 

These were local, a part of the anonymous songs 
of the old New England revival. Says the "Lewis- 
ton (Maine) Journal:" 

Among the early inhabitants of Buckfield was one 
Granville Maxim, a man of marked ability, but of 
very eccentric habits. He early manifested an ardent 
love of music, and, for that day, was said to have 
acquired a very thorough knowledge of its principles. 
He was an eminent composer and author of many of 
the most popular melodies of that day, which are now 
known as continentals, and by long and continued use 
have become so firmly established in the heart of not 
only the people of this State, but throughout this 
Union, as to render their author's name almost a 
household word. 

In early life, as tradition tells us, he met with a 
very serious disappointment in love. Tired of life 
and disgusted with the world, he one morning took a 



no THE STORY OF THE TUNES, 

stout rope and wandered into the deep forest between 
the Owl's Head and Streaked Mountain with the 
fixed purpose of putting an end to his existence. He 
continued his way till he came to a deserted logging- 
camp, where he sat down to rest and think the matter 
over. On the old hovel sat a lone sparrow uttering 
her lament at the disturbing of her nest by some ruth- 
less marauder. He sat for a long time listening to 
the plaintive song of the bereaved bird. At last he 
thought to leave some memento, which might chance 
to meet the eyes of his lady-love, and in some measure 
remind her of his sufferings. Going to a birch-tree he 
removed a piece of bark, on which he wrote the fol- 
lowing lines: 

" As on some lonely building top 
The sparrow tells her moan, 
Far from the tents of joy and hope 
I '11 sit and grieve alone." 

He then commenced to write a plaintive melody 
of most exquisite sweetness in the minor scale, justly 
befitting the language. When he had finished this 
he had become so interested in his work that he be- 
gan to affix the other parts, and his whole mind and 
energies seemed wrapped up in the work before him. 

Evening had begun to cast its shadows over the 
valley ere his task was completed. When the whole 
was adjusted to his liking, his lively imagination, to 
his infinite delight, pictured the glorious harmony 
which must arise from his subject when performed by 
his competent choir. His love of life returned, and 



ME R TON. in 

his idea of suicide vanished. Throwing his rope into 
the adjacent bushes, he hastened homeward, and be- 
came a very popular and useful man. 



MERTON. 

HENRY K. OLIVER, 1S00-1SS5. 

Gen. Oliver was an organist in Salem from 1828 
to 1849. O ne Sunday morning in 1843 the hymns of 
the day were given him. One of them was: 

Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell, 

With all your feeble light ; 
Farewell, thou ever-changing moon, 

Pale empress of the night. 

And thou, refulgent orb of day, 

With brightest beams arrayed, 
My soul that rises o'er thy sphere 

No more demands thy aid. 

The stars are but the shining dust 

Of my divine abode, 
The pavement of those heavenly courts 

Where I shall dwell with God. 

He could find no suitable tune to these words. 
During the afternoon sermon, however, a tune to the 
sublime hymn came floating into his mind. We con- 
tinue the story as told in "Olden-Time Music," edited 
by Henry M. Brooks: 

Taking paper and pencil, he secured it, adding 
the parts in the score for his own use, and then giving 
to each singer his part on a slip. The singers were of 



ii2 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

rare excellence, both in voice and skill; and the new 
tune, given with earnestness and effect, took at once. 

The next day Gen. Oliver accidentally met Dr. Bra- 
zer, who inquired about the new tune, its author, and 
where it could be found, adding that he did not re- 
member ever to have heard it before. 

" I never did myself," replied its author; and then 
confessing that he had employed his time otherwise 
than in attending to the sermon, asked the good min- 
ister to forgive him his neglect. 

"Oh, yes," said Dr. Brazer; "but look a moment: 
have I not a right to complain that you, a member of 
my church, a teacher in my Sunday-school, and the 
leader of my choir, should have set so bad an example 
as to be seen by the singers writing music, instead of 
listening to my preaching?" 

"Yes, yes; I have done evil, in that view of the 
case," was the reply. "But the thought came sud- 
denly, and had I not pencilled it down it would have 
been lost; and now, being secured, it may possibly do 
some good in its way. I accept the reproof; but tell 
me, suppose that while we were leading the worship 
at our end of the church, and the people and their 
minister were joining therein, either in voice or in 
spirit, as they should do, some new thought which 
had not occurred to you during your work at the ser- 
mon in your study should suddenly suggest itself, 
would you not just quietly pencil it down on the mar- 
gin of your notes, so that we, the people, might have 
the benefit of it?" 



MISSIONAR Y HYMN. 1 1 3 

"Oh, yes," replied Dr. Brazer; "I have done that 
many times, and with good effect too." 

11 Yes, yes," was the retort; "so I have heard. 
Now don't yon think it wrong for the minister of the 
parish, seated as he is in open sight of all the wor- 
shippers, to be seen scribbling marginal notes while 
the choir is endeavoring to lead the people in their 
songs of praise? Hey, doctor, whose notes are the 
more sinful — yours of the margin or mine of the 
score? So, in the way of rebuke, let's call it an even 
thing, and if sin it be, let's sin no more." 

A hearty laugh followed. 



MILLENNIAL DAWN. 

GEORGE JAMES WEBB, 1803-18S7. 

Usually sung to the words, by Rev. S. F. Smith, 

" The morning light is breaking." 

Among the musical friends of Dr. Mason was 
George James Webb, the well-known author of the 
hymn-tune "Millennial Dawn." He was born in 
Wiltshire, England, 1803. He was, with Dr. Mason, 
one of the founders of the Boston Academy of Music, 
of which a very popular music-book of nearly half a 
centurv a^o bears the name. 



MISS ION A RY H YMN. 

The popular story of the composition of this tune, 
which has so powerfully aided the cause of foreign 

The Stoiy of the Tunes. 



ii4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES, 

missions, is confirmed by a letter from the venerable 
widow of Dr. Mason, and is as follows: 

A lady in Savannah, Ga., was struck with the 
beauty of Bishop Reginald Heber's noble hymn, 

"From Greenland's icy mountains." 
She could find, however, no tune that seemed to suit 
her. She remembered a young bank clerk, Lowell 
Mason, afterwards so celebrated, who was just a few 
steps down the street, and who had a reputation as a 
musical genius. So she sent her son to ask him to 
write a tune that would go with the hymn. In just 
half an hour the boy came back with the music, and 
the melody dashed off in such haste is to this day sung 
with that song. 



MONSON. 



SAMUEL R. BROWN, iSlO-Ii 



This tune was composed by Rev. Dr. Samuel R. 
Brown, the son of Phoebe Brown, who wrote the 
hymn which in most collections begins, 
"I love to steal a while away." 
This is one of the rare instances of a son setting to 
music a mother's hymn. 

The tune "Brown" was written for it by Wm. B. 
Bradbury. * 

We were recently reading an account of the rapid 
progress of Christian thought in Japan. The old 
superstitions of thousands of years in the flowery 
* See " Hinsdale." 



MONSON. 115 

kingdom are crumbling before the silent march of the 
Cross. I had occasion to speak of this wonderful 
intellectual and spiritual change at a missionary con- 
cert. After the concert a young man came to me 
with the question, 

"Who was the first American missionary to 
Japan?" 

"Brown," I said; "Dr. Brown, of Yokohama. He 
was sent out by the Reformed Dutch Church." 

"What was his early history?" asked the young 
man. 

" I do not know," I said. " I have heard that Dr. 
Brown once remarked that he owed all that he was to 
the influence of his mother. You may know the 
hymn-tune 'Monson.' It was written by Dr. Brown; 
and his grandfather, I believe, wrote the hymn-tune 
4 Hinsdale.'" 

The question, to which I could then give but an 
imperfect answer, haunted me. I found myself ask- 
ing, "What was the influence behind the beginning 
of American missionary work in Japan ? What was 
the early inspiration of the pioneer?" 

There was once an infant Sunday-school in Mon- 
son, Mass., under the spiritual guidance of a very 
humble woman, whose name was Phcebe Hinsdale 
Brown. This quiet woman, of a simple home and 
very limited means, gave her heart and prayers to 
this infant-class; and her lessons were so intelligently 
and conscientiously prepared that they were in part 
published by the Massachusetts Sunday-school Society. 



n6 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Mrs. Brown was born in Canaan, New York, 1783. 
Her maiden name was Hinsdale. She married Timo- 
thy H. Brown, a house-painter, a poor, hard-working 
man; and they began their home at Ellington, Tol- 
land Co., Conn. 

While living at Ellington Mrs. Brown wrote a 
poem, a part of which is now generally familiar to 
the whole Christian world. It began: 

Yes, when the toilsome day is gone, 

And night with banners gray 
Steals silently the glade along 

In twilight's soft array, 

I love to steal a while away 

From little ones and care, 
And spend the hours of setting day 

In gratitude and prayer. 

I love to feast on nature's scenes 

When falls the evening dew, 
And dwell upon her silent themes, 

For ever rich and new. 

I love in solitude to shed 

The penitential tear, 
And all his promises to plead 

Where none but God can hear. 

In the "Friend," published in Honolulu, in 1879, 
appeared a history of this hymn, the facts of which 
were furnished by Dr. S. R. Brown, of Yokohama, the 
son of Mrs. Brown, and the pioneer missionary to 
Japan. The history includes Mrs. Brown's recollec- 
tions of it. 

"It was at Ellington" (1818), she says, "that I 
wrote the 'Twilight Hymn.' My baby daughter was 
in my arms when I wrote it." 



MONSON. 117 

It was her custom to go out alone at twilight and 
walk near or in a neighbor's garden, to engage in 
silent prayer. Her neighbor spoke to her of such 
conduct being strange. This wounded her feelings, 
and led to the writing of the hymn, which was a poem 
of apology. 

"I had four little children," she says, "a small 
unfinished house, a sick sister in the only finished 
room, and there was not a place where I could retire 
for devotion. There was no retired room, rock, or 
grove where I could go, as in former days; but there 
was no dwelling-house between the house and the one 
where that lady lived. Her garden extended down a 
good way below her house, which stood on a beauti- 
ful eminence. I often walked up that beautiful gar- 
den, and felt I could have the privilege of that walk 
and a few moments of uninterrupted communion with 
God; but, after knowing that my steps were watched 
and made the subject of remark and censure, I could 
not enjoy it as I had done." 

Mrs. Brown removed to Monson, Mass., where she 
lived some thirty years; hence the name of the hymn- 
tune "Monson," written by her son. She died at 
Henry, 111., 1861. Her infant Sunday-school at Mon- 
son was the field of her simple missionary work. It 
was poor in all its resources, and, in a worldly view, 
an unpromising effort; but it was rich in prayer, faith, 
and spiritual knowledge — and here was the motive 
power behind the impulse that sent the first American 
missionary to Japan. 



n8 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"Her record is on high," says Dr. Brown of his 
mother, "and she is with the Lord whom she loved 
and served as faithfully as any person I ever knew; 
nay, more than any other. To her I owe all I am; 
and if I have done any good in the world, to her, un- 
der God, it is due. She seems even now to have me 
in her hands, holding me up for work for Christ and 
his cause with a grasp I can feel." 

David Hogg, the Sunday-school teacher of Dr. 
Livingstone, was a very humble man, but he had 
spiritual experience and knowledge. Phoebe H. 
Brown did not learn to read until she was eighteen 
years of age, but she became a student of the Bible 
and understood spiritual truth. It is spiritual knowl- 
edge whose influence is the most potent in forming 
character, and that lives the longest in the world. It 
is the unseen influences that are eternal. 

Such incidents as these have an eloquent and in- 
spiring lesson to the teacher in the smallest country 
Sunday-school. The hand that leads the child to 
spiritual knowledge grasps the future, wherever the 
work may be done. One would be surprised to find 
how large a number of our public men, members of 
Congress, mayors of cities, leaders of thought in all 
the professions, have been trained in the country 
Sunday-school. New England can boast many men 
whose higher spiritual thoughts were guided by some 
God-fearing man or woman in a schoolhouse Sunday- 
school; and how many ministers and missionaries can 
trace the beginning of their spiritual quickening to as 



"MORE TO FOLLOW." 119 

humble an influence as the steadfast old Scottish Sun- 
day-school teacher, David Hogg! 

Sow, and leave the harvest to the future. The 
autumn sun will come to the sky. It is one of the 
sweetest attainments of spiritual growth to love, to 
trust God, and wait his will. 

" Do thou thy work: it shall succeed, 
In thine or in another's day ; 
And if denied the victor's meed, 
Thou shalt not miss the toiler's pay." 



"MORE TO FOLLOW r 

WORDS AND MUSIC BY P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

This hymn was suggested by the following inci- 
dent: 

A vast fortune was left in the hands of a minis- 
ter for one of his poor parishioners. Fearing that it 
might be squandered if suddenly bestowed upon him, 
the wise minister sent him a little at a time, with a 
note saying, u T/iis is tJiine; use it wisely; tliere is more 
to follow." Brethren, that's just the way God deals 

With US. D. L. MOODY. 

Have you on the Lord believed ? 

Still there 's more to follow ; 
Of his grace have you received ? 

Still there 's more to follow. 
Oh, the grace the Father shows ! 

Still there 's more to follow; 
Freely he his grace bestows, 

Still there 's more to follow. 



120 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Chorus. 
More and more, more and more, 

Always more to follow ; 
Oh, his matchless, boundless love ! 

Still there 's more to follow. 



MT. VERNON. 

DR. LOWELL MASON, 1792-1872. 

The beautiful hymn-tune 
composed by Dr. Lowell Mason on the inspiration of 
the moment, under the influence of feelings excited 
by the death of a pupil, Miss M. J. Crockett, aged six- 
teen, of the Mt. Vernon School, Boston, July, 1833. 
Rev. J. S. C. Abbott thus tells the story: 

When the hour appointed for the music lesson 
arrived in the school where the pupil died, and where 
Dr. Mason taught, and the pupils had arranged their 
desks and prepared themselves for the lesson, the im- 
pression seemed deepened, for the missing one had 
been, perhaps, peculiarly distinguished for her pro- 
ficiency in music and for the interest which she had 
taken in the lesson. 

At the appointed moment Mr. Mason entered and 
walked to his usual position at the blackboard. He 
immediately commenced the lesson, writing upon the 
board, as was his custom, a series of simple exercises 
for the pupils to sing, but all now of a plaintive char- 
acter. He made few remarks and gave little oral 
instruction, but wrote in succession upon the board 
strains harmonizing, in the expression of sadness and 



■r=£# 




MUHLENBERG. 121 

solemnity which characterized them, with the feel- 
ings appropriate to the occasion. 

In what he said he made no allusion to the occa- 
sion itself or to the loss which all present felt that 
they had sustained. He went on in this way until 
the close of the hour began to draw near. Then he 
combined the passages which had been sung sepa- 
rately as exercises, or strains in harmony with them, 
and formed the tune "Mt Vernon" as it is now printed 
in the books, and the pupils sang it by note. 

After repeating it two or three times, till the air 
had become in a measure familiar to all, he wrote 
beneath it the words by which it is now usually 
accompanied, beginning, 

"Sister, thou wast mild and lovely, 
Gentle as the summer breeze." 

After the class had sung the four stanzas, Mr. Ma- 
son closed the lesson in his usual manner and left the 
room. It would be difficult for one not present at the 
time to conceive of the deep but quiet solemnity of 
the effect produced by this delicate and gentle mode 
of dealing with the emotions of young hearts on such 
an occasion. 



MUHLENBERG. 
" I would not live ahvay." 

Tins hymn is often sung to the old melody u Af- 
ton. n The words are by the Rev. W. A. Muhlen- 

6 



122 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

berg, D. D. The hymn appeared June 3, 1826, in 
the "Episcopal Recorder." 

The late Dr. Muhlenberg, of New York, was the 
first to introduce large choirs of male voices into that 
city. He used them to lead the worship of the 
Church of the Holy Communion, of w 7 hich he was 
pastor. There were two choirs, one up stairs, called 
"the upper choir," and one below, near the chancel, 
known as "the lower choir." They chanted the 
Psalter antiphonally, the lower choir leading the con- 
gregation. 

During the cholera season, Fred, one of the boy- 
choristers, was attacked by the terrible disease. The 
good pastor hastened to his bedside. With a last 
effort the little fellow threw his arms around the doc- 
tor's neck, kissed him, and expired. 

A week or two later a messenger came for him to 
see another of his boy-choristers. He found the child 
dying. The family were kneeling around the bed. 

"There, doctor, is your little chorister," said the 
distracted mother, as the pastor entered the room. 

He began to pray with the mourners, but ere he 
had finished, the boy breathed out his spirit. 

"Do you remember, doctor," asked the mother, 
gazing on her dead boy, "that a few days ago you 
said to me, 'Willie is now ready to take Fred's place; 
he must go into " the upper choir " '? " 

"I do," answered the pastor, 

"Your words seemed prophetic — 'the upper 
choir'!" 



MUHLENBER G. 123 

The good doctor went home and wrote in his jour- 
nal: 

"Willie was to have sung the alto in * Arise and 
shine,' on Twelfth Night— just as Fred began last 
year. Down stairs, too, he had been sitting precisely 
in Fred's place. So God takes my boys. I have often 
thought of dressing them in surplices, but he arrays 
them in his own white robes." 

The good doctor, who wrote the well-known hymn, 

" I would not live alway," 

has himself gone to the " upper choir." His hymn, 
that will "live alway," showed that his heart and 
thought were there. 

They who "turn many to righteousness" shall 
shine "as the stars," and happy are the workers in 
answer to human needs whose thoughts mingle with 
the hopes, aspirations, and joys of the " upper choir." 

Dr. Muhlenberg in old age was pastor of St. 
Luke's Hospital, where not only the bodies but the 
souls of the sick are ministered to. He resided in the 
house, and welcomed the lowliest offices of love as 
opportunities of ministering to the Lord's sick. 

One day a poor, purblind man, just discharged 
from another hospital, sought the pastor. After giv- 
ing the old man a dinner in his own study, the clergy- 
man was met by the maid-servant, carrying back the 
empty plates to the dining-room. 

"O doctor, doctor !" she exclaimed, "why did you 
not call me to get these?" 



i2 4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"No, no," was the reply, "I am a servant in the 
Lord's hotel." 

The devoted man's mere presence was a bene- 
diction. "There will never be another such Chris- 
tian within these walls," sobbed a poor woman, as she 
took grateful leave on her recovery. His example has 
proved a precious treasure to the church. 

Youth's Companion. 
MY AIN COUNTRIE. 

P. P. BLISS. 1838-1876. FOUNDED ON A SCOTCH MELODY. 

Words by Mrs. Mary Lee Demarest, written in 
1861, and published in the "New York Observer" 
over the signature " L." 

Mr. Bliss lived to do good by uplifting those who 
had fallen. Gifted with a genius for writing "gospel 
songs" which took hold of the popular heart, he set 
them to stirring music and sang them from place to 
place. To hundreds they proved songs of good news. 

On one Sunday he sang a number of his sacred 
songs at a Sunday-school in Minneapolis, prefacing 
each with appropriate remarks, such as moved all to 
unite in expressing the sentiment of the words and 
music. 

Among these was the touching spiritual song, 
"My Ain Countrie." Home, its sacred associations, 
satisfying joys, familiar scenes, was the theme with 
which he prefaced the quaint words and touching 
melody. Sympathetic tears glistened in many eyes 
as he spoke of his own home in Chicago, and the de- 



MY AIN CO UN TRIE. 1 25 

light with which he would even then run up the 
steps and hear his little son, rushing to the door, ex- 
claim, " Papa 's come ! papa 's come !" 

"But, children," he added, "there's another home 
to which I expect to go bv-and-by. I don't know 
when it will be, and I am willing to wait; for I love 
to tell you about the dear Saviour and the mansions 
he is preparing for all who love him. Oh, how glad 
and happy I shall be when I get to that blessed home; 
and I want to meet all of you there." 

Then, with a voice of tenderness, he sang "My 
Ain Countrie," whose fourth stanza seems almost 
prophetic of the sudden death, the quick keeping 
" tryst," that awaited the sweet singer. 

I am far frae my hame, an' I 'm weary aftenwhiles 

For the langed-for hame-bringing an' my Father's welcome smiles; 

I '11 ne'er be fu' content until my e'en do see 

The gowden gates o' heaven an' my ain countrie. 

The earth is flecked wi' flowers, mony-tinted, fresh, and gay; 

The birdies warble blithely, for my Father made them sae; 

But these sichts an' these soun's will as naething be to me 

When I hear the angels singing in my ain countrie. 

I Ye his gude word o' promise that some gladsome day the King 

To his ain royal palace his banished hame will bring ; 

Wi' e'en an' wi' hearts running ower we shall see 

" The King in his beauty," in our ain countrie. 

My sins hae been mony, an' my sorrows hae been sair, 

But there they '11 never vex me, nor be remembered mair ; 

For his bluid hath made me white, an' his- hand shall dry my e'e 

When he brings me hame at last to my ain countrie. 

Sae little noo I ken o' yon blessed bonnie place; 
I ainly ken it's hame, whaur we shall see his face ; 
It wad surely be eneuch for ever mair to be 
In the glory o' his presence in our ain countrie. 



126 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Like a bairn to its mither, a wee birdie to its nest, 

I wad fain be ganging noo unto my Saviour's breast, 

For he gathers in his bosom witless, worthless lambs like me, 

An' he carries them himseP to his ain countrie. 

He is faithfu' that hath promised; he '11 surely come again : 
He '11 keep his tryst wi' me, at what hour I dinna ken ; 
But he bids me still to wait, an' ready aye to be 
To gang at ony moment to my ain countrie. 
So I 'm watching aye, an' singing of my hame as I wait 
For the soun'ing o' his footfa' this side the gowden gate. 
God gie his grace to ilk ane wha listens noo to me, 
That we a' may gang in gladness to our ain countrie. 

It was a terrible, horrible disaster, to human think- 
ing, amid which the good man was in a moment 
called " to gang" to his "ain countrie." But to his 
"watching" heart the crash of the bridge, the fall 
of the train, the roar of the flames, seemed but the 
whirlwind and the chariot of fire. Not in sorrow 
but in gladness the singer heard "the soun'ing o' his 
footfa'" which announced then and there the Lord's 
keeping of his " tryst." 

"God gie his grace 

That we a' may gang in gladness to our ain countrie." 



NINETY AND NINE. 



IRA D. SANKEY. 



Elizabeth C. Clephane, a lady in Melrose, Scot- 
land, was led to see the beauty of the character of 
Christ in the parable of the Good Shepherd. She 
possessed genius, and sometimes expressed her best 
thoughts in verse. The vision of Christ leaving the 



NINETY AND NINE. 127 

glories of heaven and becoming a seeker of men who 
had gone astray, like an Eastern shepherd seeking a 
wandering sheep in perilous places, touched her heart 
with poetic fervor, and she wrote the hymn beginning: 

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

One of the stanzas most vividly and tenderly expressed 
her clear view of divine sympathy and compassion: 

" But none of the ransomed ever knew 

How deep were the waters crossed, 
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through 

Ere he found his sheep that was lost. 
Out in the desert he heard its cry — 
Sick and helpless and ready to die." 

The poem was published in a local paper, and the 
lady soon afterwards died, and went to the Good Shep- 
herd whose love for the wandering and perishing had 
gained the affections and service of her life. She was 
buried in one of the churchyards in beautiful Melrose. 

The efforts of a sincere life always meet some needs 
of others, and are often given, under Providence, a 
special mission in the world. The simplicity and 
fervor of the little poem gained for it an unexpected 
recognition. 

The American evangelist, Mr. Sankey, was one 
day returning from Edinburgh to Glasgow, to hold a 
farewell meeting there. Glasgow had been the scene 
of the most signal triumphs in the work of Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey, and this farewell gathering prom- 
ised to be one of thanksgiving and tears, of wonderful 
interest, power, and feeling. 



128 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Mr. Sankey, on this occasion, desired to introduce a 
new hymn which would represent Christ as a compas- 
sionate and all-sufficient Saviour. " Before getting on 
the train," he says, "I went to the news-stand and 
bought two or three papers — some secular, some reli- 
gious — and in one of them I found these verses: 

" ' There were ninety and nine that safely lay 
In the shelter of the fold.' 

"I said to my brother Moody, 'That's just the 
hymn I have been wanting. I think the Lord has 
really sent it to us !' 

" Next day this little tune or chant that it is set to 
came to me. 

41 We went into the noon meeting, and dear Dr. 
Bonar, who has written so many beautiful hymns, was 
there, and the thought came to me, 'We must sing 
now this new hymn that the Lord has sent us.' 

"The tune had scarcely formed itself in my head 
yet, but I just cut the words from the paper, put it in 
front of me on the organ, and began to sing them, 
hardly knowing where the tune was coming from; and 
what a blessed meeting we had !" 

The meeting was a very crowded one, and tender 
feelings were awakened in all hearts, bringing vividly 
to all minds, as it did, the fact that the world is full of 
farewells. The imagery of the hymn — the Shepherd, 
the sheep-fold, the dark night on the hills, the anxious 
search and the joyful return — was in harmony with 
Scottish associations and touched the best feelings of 



" NO THING TR UE B UT I IE A VEN" 1 29 

the converts and inquirers. Christ stood revealed in 
the song. 

Away in the gallery there sat a lady who was at 
first startled and then deeply affected by the -hymn. 
She was unable to speak to the sweet singer in the 
confusion that followed the close of the meeting, but 
she soon after wrote to him from Melrose and said, " I 
thank you for having sung, the other day, my deceased 
sister's words. She wrote them five years ago. She 
is in heaven now." 



NORTHFIELD. 

JEREMIAH INGALLS, I764-1S38. 

It is related of Mr. Ingalls that as he was travelling 
in Massachusetts he became very hungry, stopped at 
an inn, and ordered his dinner, which was long de- 
layed. The delay led him to think of his spiritual 
hunger, and give him time to compose this tune. 



"NOTHING TRUE BUT HEAVEN." 

OLIVER SHAW, 1778-1848. 

"Mary's tears." 
" Home of my soul." 
"Down in the Sunless Retreats." 
Music by Oliver Shaw, born in 1778. He was a 
music teacher in Providence, R. I., where he was 

The Story of the Tunes. 6* 



i 3 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

greatly beloved for his amiable life and Christian 
character. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

G. F. ROOT, 182O. 

" O Church of Christ, our blest abode, 
Celestial grace is thine ; 
Thou art the dwelling-place of God, 
The gate of joys divine. 

Chorus. 
" Where'er for me the sun may set, 
Wherever I may dwell, 
My heart shall nevermore forget 
Thy courts, Immanuel. 

"O Church of Christ, O Church of Christ, 
I came to thee for rest, 
And found it more than earthly peace 
To be Immanuel's guest. 

"Whene'er I come to thee in joy, 
Whene'er I come in tears, 
Still at the gate called Beautiful 
My risen Lord appears. 

This hymn originally appeared in the Cantata of 
" Under the Palms." The cantata was written for the 
service of the church choir and Sunday-school, and 
published by John Church & Co., Cincinnati. It met 
with great success in England, and the above hymn 
found a place in Mr. Spurgeon's congregation, and in 
others both in America and England. 



OLD H VXD RED. 131 

OLD HUXDRED. 

GU1LLALME FRANCK, 152O-157O. 

This is sometimes attributed to Martin Luther, but 
was probably written by William (Guillaume) Franck, 
one of fifty musicians who composed tunes for the 
French version of the Psalms. These tunes were 
printed in Strasburg, 1545, shortly before Luther's 
death. 

Some say that Louis Bourgeois, a Frenchman who 
perished at the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 
24, 1572, composed Old Hundred. 

Mr. Whitefield was one day preaching in Boston 
on the wonders of the Creation when a tempest arose. 
The storm became terrific, and the great preacher fell 
on his knees and repeated the hymn : 

" Hark ! th' Eternal rends the sky ! 
A might)- voice before him goes! — 
A voice of music to his friends, 
But breathing thunder to his foes ! 
Come, children, to your Father's arms : 
Hide in the chambers of my grace 
Till the fierce storm be overblown 
And my revenging fury cease." 

"Let us devoutly sing to the praise and glory of 
God the 7th hymn: Old Hundred." 

The whole congregation instantly arose and poured 
forth the sacred song, in which they were nobly sec- 
onded by the scientific and respected Mr. , on 

the full organ, in a style of pious grandeur and heart- 
felt devotion that was never surpassed. By the time 



132 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

the hymn was finished the storm was hushed, and the 
sun, bursting forth, showed through the windows to the 
enraptured assembly a magnificent and brilliant arch 
of peace. The preacher resumed his desk and his dis- 
course with this apposite quotation: 

"Look upon the rainbow, and praise him that 
made it; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof! 

''It compasseth the heaven about with a glorious 
circle, and the hands of the Most High have bended 
it." Ecclus. 43:11, 12. 

The remainder of the services were well calcula- 
ted to sustain that elevated feeling which had been 
produced; and the benediction with which the good 
man dismissed the flock was universally received with 
streaming eyes and hearts overflowing with tenderness 

and gratitude. Boston "Telegraph," 1824. 

A beautiful and familiar passage (Psa. 126:5) in 
the Hebrew reads, " They that sow in tears shall reap 
in singing." 

To some brave souls in trouble, as to Paul and Silas 
in prison, the singing even takes the place of the 
tears and anticipates the harvest of joy, as the story of 
David Corrie touchingly illustrates. 

David Corrie was a Scotch boy, trained in the 
Covenanters' faith, and early taught both to say the 
Catechism and to sing the Psalms. 

Many of the grand melodies of Luther and the 
German Reformers had found their way among the 
harsher tunes of his native land, and through all his 
childhood and youth he had heard them and joined in 



OLD HUNDRHD. 133 

them by the fireside and at the kirk, till they were as 
familiar as his own name. 

But David Corrie had a restless spirit, and as he 
grew to manhood he could not abide at home. 

He shipped as a sailor, and for years had his will of 
wandering, while the license of sea-life gradually wore 
out the pious impressions of his earlier days. 

Then a sudden sorrow checked him in his erring 
ways and shut him up to reflection. His ship fell 
into the clutches of the Algerines, and he was carried 
in chains to Oran and sold as a slave. 

For a time this affliction, so terrible to his restless, 
loving nature, almost crushed him, but the old memo- 
ries and the holy lessons of his youth returned at 
length, and became his only comfort. 

Time passed, and the galling hardship of his servi- 
tude never lightened, and no deliverance seemed near. 
But he suffered on in patience, and every day, when 
his task was done, and he lay in his guarded quarters, 
he thought over the sacred texts he had learned in 
boyhood, and "sang the Lord's songs in a strange 
land." 

One lovely moonlight night, as an English man-of- 
war lay to in the harbor off the shore where David 
was confined, some sailors heard in the distance the 
strains of "Old Hundred " stealing over the sea. 

Recent events, the time, the character of the place, 
all quickly suggested the explanation: there was a 
British subject in captivity. Ever ready for an 
adventure, the generous tars manned a boat, and fol- 



i 3 4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

lowing the sound of the song, reached the spot where 
the prisoner lay, and, with one bold stroke in the 
king's name, wrested him from his Moslem guards- 
men's hands and carried him under the protection of 
the English flag. 

Restored to liberty, David Corrie returned to his 
dear old Scottish home, where he found his mother 
still living. Humble gratitude inspired him from that 
day, and, mindful of his strange deliverance, through 
all his life of piety and peace he sang from an over- 
flowing heart the old refrain, 

" Be thou, O God, exalted high." 

" Youlh's Companion." 



OLIVET. 

LOWELL MASON, 1792-1872. 

The "Christian Union," New York, of April 7, 
1887, just after the death of Dr. Palmer, gave the fol- 
lowing account of the hymn and tune. (See Palmer, 
in " Story of the Hymns.") 

"The Rev. Ray Palmer, D. D., whose name and 
hymns are known wherever the voice of Christian 
praise is raised to God, died at his home in Newark, 
N. J., on Tuesday of last week, at the age of seventy- 
nine. His last incoherent words seemed to be an at- 
tempt to repeat verses. 

"Dr. Palmer was born in 1808 in Rhode Island, 
was educated at the Andover School, at Yale College, 
and at the Yale Theological Seminary. He was grad- 



OLIVET. 135 

uated from Yale in 1830, and began his life-work as a 
teacher in New York. Here, when he was but twenty- 
two years old, he wrote his first and most popular 
hymn, beginning, 

" ' My faith looks up to thee, 

Thou Lamb of Calvary, 

Saviour divine!' 

"This familiar hymn has been translated into a 
dozen foreign languages, and is known and sung in 
every civilized land. It might never have been pub- 
lished but for Dr. Lowell Mason, who met Mr. Palmer 
in Boston a year or two after the verses were written 
and asked him for some sacred lyric to be set to music. 
Mr. Palmer gave him ' My faith looks up to thee,' and 
a day or two later, when Dr. Mason met him on the 
street, he said to him, 

" ' Mr. Palmer, you may live many years and do 
many things, but you will always be best known as the 
writer of that hymn.' 

" Dr. Mason composed for it the favorite tune of 
'Olivet,' to which it is generally sung." 

The list of hymns written by Ray Palmer is a long 
one. Among the first lines are the following: 

c< Come, Holy Ghost, in love." 

" Fount of everlasting love." 

"Away from earth my spirit turns." 

"Jesus, these eyes have never seen." 

"Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts." 

"Oh, sweetly breathe the lyres above." 

" Come, Jesus, Redeemer, abide thou with me." 



136 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

OLMUTZ. 

GREGORIAN. WORDS BY JAMES MONTGOMERY. 

" Servant of God, well done." 

As a rule it is the best that survives. The best 
music lives; but genius outlives art, and that is the 
best in which the musical faculty is inspired by an 
earnest and devout soul. In church music certain 
characteristic forms have from time to time appeared, 
and those which have best proclaimed a truth or ex- 
pressed a sentiment have lived until a better expres- 
sion came. The greatest of these, perhaps, is the 
Gregorian chant, with its many variations, from the 
stately mass to simple u Olmutz n or "Hamburg." 
Like a triumphal march it has led the church through 
many years. It had its origin in ancient music, per- 
haps as old as the Hebrew temple. It took new 
phases from the musical church of Ambrose, from 
Pope Gregory, from Palestrina. Modern music has 
not supplanted it by any deeper expression of devo- 
tion or more majestic ascription of humble and devout 
praise. 

Gregory the Great was born at Rome, of an illus- 
trious family, about 540. He was the nuncio of Pope 
Pelagius II. to Constantinople. On returning from 
this mission he desired to retire from the world for 
his spiritual good and to pass his life in seclusion. 
But he had a sympathetic nature. Rome was visited 
by a direful plague; people were dying everywhere, 



OLMUTZ. 137 

and everywhere crying for help. Gregory felt im- 
pelled to leave his retreat and go to the people with 
a message of faith and hope. How? Strangely 
enough, by music. He came forth from his retreat, 
the voice of one crying in the wilderness of the great 
plague. He organized musical processions and 
inarched through the plague-stricken streets followed 
by choirs singing litanies. The music calmed the 
terror of the people, revived a strong religious senti- 
ment, and the plague was stayed. 

Gregory w T as soon after elected pope, and it was 
due to the missionary efforts of the pontiff that Eng- 
land received Christianity. Instead of the life of re- 
tirement and meditation of which he had dreamed, 
he became one of the most active potentates of his 
own time or any age; yet he was an invalid during 
most of his life. 

About five half-centuries before the time of Greg- 
ory, the musical church of St. Ambrose in Milan had 
begun to delight the world with the gospel of song. 
Out of it had come the Te Dcum Landamus, said to 
have been first sung at the baptism of Augustine. 
The Ambrosian music had continued until this time, 
and a need now be^an to be felt of an enlargement of 
sacred song. Gregory revised the old music and es- 
tablished a oreat music school to sinq- from the "An- 
tiphonarium," as the first great church music book 
was called. He used to superintend this music 
school lying on his bed, and for centuries the rod was 
preserved with which he used sometimes to prompt 



138 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

dull pupils and correct mistakes. It was thus that 
the Ambrosian chant passed into the Gregorian, and 
many grand tunes, like "Olmutz," are adapted from 
the Gregorian and Ambrosian music. 

The hymn usually sung to Olmutz, commencing 

" Servant of God, well done," 

was written about 1825, on the death of Rev. Thomas 
Taylor, a Wesleyan minister. He became very poor 
for the gospel's sake. He died suddenly of old age. 
In a sermon delivered shortly before his death he said, 
"I should like to die like an old soldier, sword in 
hand." Hence the hymn. 

The early part of the present century found Eng- 
land as full of poets as her greenwoods are full of 
singing birds. There is a strange sadness in the last 
days of many of these sweet singers, for at the close 
of life they looked back on the past with bitter and 
gloomy sorrow. Byron wrote, 

" The worm, the canker, and the grief 
Are mine alone;" 

and Shelley, 

"Alas! I have not hope nor health, 
Nor peace within, nor calm around." 

But there was one poet, not greatly valued in his 
early career, whose life came to a triumphant conclu- 
sion. At the age of eighty-two he could say, "Good- 
ness and mercy have followed me all the days of my 
life." He thus paints the prospects that unfolded 
before his mind in his last calm and expectant years: 



OLMUTZ. 1 39 

"My Father's house on high, 
Home of my soul, how near 
At times to faith's foreseeing eye 
Thy golden gates appear." 

Who has not sung his hymns, "Sow in the morn 
thy seed," ' k A poor, wayfaring man of grief," "Oh, 
where shall rest be found ?" "Servant of God, well 
done," "For ever with the Lord"? 

This poet was born in a humble cottage in Ayr- 
shire, a quaint parsonage, a place where pilgrims 
have long loved to go to gather helpful memories. 
His father was a Moravian minister, a poor man, but 
one who carried the love of God in his heart. 

The Moravians at this time believed God called 
them to plant missions in the parts of the world where 
white men could not long expect to live — missions to 
which they would become martyrs — as in Greenland 
and Africa. Some of them offered to sell themselves 
into slavery, that they might the better labor for the 
spiritual good of slaves. 

The Moravian minister and his wife, the parents 
of our poet, heard the call. They resolved to go to 
the West Indies, and leave their sons, James and Rob- 
ert, "to God and the Moravian brethren." They 
soon found the martyrdom they expected. 

"My father bowed his aching head 
About my mother's dying bed; 
From lip to lip, from heart to heart, 
Passed the few parting words — ' We part,' 
But echoed back, though unexpressed, 
' We meet again !' rose on each breast. 



140 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Amid the elemental strife, 

That was the brightest hour of life: 

Eternity outshone the tomb, 

The power of God was in the room." 

That poet was James Montgomery. His Moravian 
father and mother, who sleep in unmarked graves, did 
not trust him to Providence in vain. He grew up to 
sing the songs of the missionary church for all time, 
and when he was borne to his grave a great city 
silenced its business, and the titled and the poor alike 
filled the streets with uncovered heads. 

There are many honored spots in England and 
Scotland, but few that gather to themselves holier 
associations than the old cottage at Ayrshire, the 
birthplace of James and Robert Montgomery. 



"ONE SWEETLY SOLEMN THOUGHT!' 

DR. EBKN TOURJEE, 1834. 

This simple, beautiful, and sympathetic melody 
was composed by Dr. Eben Tourjee. It is often sung 
on funeral occasions. It was written about the year 
1873, in one of the rooms of the building of the Bos- 
ton Music Hall, where the New England Conserva- 
tory of Music was first established. Dr. Tourjee was 
impressed with the spiritual beauty of the words of 
the hymn, which had been set to light music. He 
said, "That hymn ought to have a more serious set- 
ting," and produced this tune whose sentiment so well 
fits the words. 



"ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS." 141 

"ONLY remembered:' 

P. P. BLISS, 183S-1876. WORDS BY DR. BONAR. 

Mr. Bliss wrote a number of tunes to other words 
than his own. Among them are "What hast thou 
done for Me?" by Frances Ridley Havergal ; "What 
shall the harvest be?" by Mrs. Emily L. Oakey; 
"Precious promise," by Nathaniel Niles; "Etern- 
ity," by Ellen H. Gates; "Arise and shine," by Mary 
A. Lathbury; "It is well with my soul," by H. G. 

Spofford. 

♦ 

"ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS." 

SIR ARTHUR S. SULLIVAN, 1842. 

Author of much light music and several sacred 
cantatas; born in London, 1842. He was one of the 
first composers to depart from the old style of setting 
all the stanzas of a hymn to the same music. His 
most popular sacred compositions are "The Prodigal 
Son" and "The Light of the World." 

Mr. Stanley, in his "Dark Continent," gives a 
touching illustration of the influence of souq-s when 
the mind is troubled or depressed. The party had 
been in great danger, and had passed through severe 
fighting. Frank Pocock, the sunniest of them all, 
and the best loved, broke into a strain of singing: 

"The true home-land ! I long to meet 
Those who have gone before ; 
The weeping eyes and weary feet 
Rest on that happy shore." 



142 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Mr. Stanley said, "Frank, you will make every 
boy cry with such tunes as that. Choose some heroic 
tune." 

"All right, sir," he replied, with a bright face, 
and struck up — 

" Brightly gleams our banner, 
Pointing to the sky, 
Waving wanderers onward 
To their home on high." 

"Ah, Frank," said Mr. Stanley, "it isn't the 
heavenward way you mean, is it? I should think you 
would prefer the homeward way." 

" How do you like this, sir? 

" ' My God, my Father, while I stray 

Far from my home, on life's rough way, 
Oh, teach me from my heart to say, 
Thy will be done.' " 

"Frank, you are thinking too much of the poor 
fellows we have lately lost. Sing, my dear Frank, 
your best song." 

He responded by singing — 

"Onward, Christian soldiers, 
Marching as to war, 
With the cross of Jesus 
Going on before." 

Mr. Stanley adds, "I saw that he was in a serious 
and religious vein of mind, and refrained from dis- 
turbing him farther." "Youth's companion." 



"0 PARADISE!" 143 

"(9 PARADISE!" 

JOSEPH BARNBY, 1838. 

The words of this hymn, beginning, 

" O Paradise, O Paradise ! 

Who doth not crave for rest ? 
Who would not seek the happy land 

Where they that loved are blest; 
Where loyal hearts and true 

Stand ever in the light, 
All rapture through and through, 

In God's most holy sight?" 

were by F. W. Faber. 

The author of the tune, Joseph Barnby, an English 
composer, born in York, 1838, an active worker in the 
advancement of musical art, has been connected with 
the leading musical movements of the time. One of 
the most popular writers of music, and a represen- 
tative leader, he yet holds music to be a servant of 
religion, and maintains that its influence in helping 
the spiritual life is a first consideration. At the 
Church Congress in Bath, England, in 1873, he 
claimed that each church should secure for itself that 
style of music which is most in harmony with the 
culture and tastes of the people and best expresses 
and promotes true spiritual worship. On one point 
he well says, " But of all the errors the worst is per- 
petrated in the endeavor to draw a new congregation 
to a church, or to fill up the thinned ranks of a de- 
creasing flock, by the exhibition of startling novelties, 
and what I should term a musical tour dc force. The 



144 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

evil of making the musical part of the service a means 
of counteracting the deficiencies of the rest, strikes at 
the very root of church morals. No one, I am sure, 
will suspect me of depreciating my art or of holding 
music in anything but the highest honor. But for 
that very reason I should wish music to occupy its 
rightful place, and no other; nor can I see aught but 
disadvantage and ultimate failure in the attempt to 
make the musical part of the church service more 
than an accessory, to be regulated by the precept that 
enjoins the doing of all things connected with public 
worship 'decently and in order.' " 



ORTONVILLE. 

DR. THOMAS HASTINGS, 1784-1872. 

Dr. Thomas Hastings, the author of some six 
hundred hymns, and the compiler of many popular 
church music books, was also distinguished as a com- 
poser of hymn-tunes. He was born in 1784 at Wash- 
ington, and gave his life to church music. In 1832, 
upon the invitation of twelve New York churches, he 
made his home in the city of New York. He lived 
to be nearly ninety years of age. 

Dr. Hastings was the author of the popular tune 
"Zion" ("On the mountain-top appearing") and of 
one ("Toplady") of the several well known tunes of 
"Rock of Ages," also of numerous other sweet and 
popular tunes. 



"6> SACKED HEAD! NOW WOUNDED" 145 
"O SACKED HEAD! NOW WOUNDED." 

ARRANGED BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, 1685-1750. 

The music in A minor was adapted from a secular 
song by Hans Georg Hassler, 1564-1612. He was a 
German organist. It was harmonized by Johann Se- 
bastian Bach in 1729, and introduced into the Passion 
music. 

The original German hymn, u O Haupt voll Blut 
und Wunden," was written in 1659 by Paul Gerhardt, 
about whom a beautiful story is told in reference to 
his hymn of trust. (See "Story of the Hymns.") 
The story, like most legends of the kind, has been 
questioned, as it is claimed by a critic that Gerhardt 
was not out of favor with the court at the time when 
he wrote the hymn. 

u O sacred Head! now wounded," was founded 
on the original Latin hymn of St. Bernard, "con- 
taining five verses of ten lines each, addressed K ad 
facicm Christi in cruce pendentisj the best of Bernard's 
seven passion -hymns. 'This classical hymn has 
shown an imperishable vitality,' says SchafT ('Christ 
in Song'), 'in passing from the Latin to the German, 
and from the German into the English, and proclaim- 
ing in three tongues, and in the name of three con- 
fessions, with equal effect, the dying love of our Sa- 
viour and our boundless indebtedness to him.' Alex- 
ander's translation consists of ten eight-line verses. 

"St. Bernard, the 'best and greatest man of his 
age,' who is distinguished as St. Bernard of Clair- 

Tlie Story of the Times. 7 



146 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

vaux, was born in Fontaine, Burgundy, in 1091. His 
father was a nobleman. He was educated at the Uni- 
versity of Paris, and entered, at the age of twenty-two, 
the Cistercian monastery of Citeaux, in Burgundy. 
By means of the remarkable influence over others 
which afterwards so distinguished him, he induced 
his five brothers and several companions to enter the 
monastic life. At the age of twenty-five he was ap- 
pointed abbot of a new monastery at Clairvaux, in 
Champagne. This position he continued to hold, 
though high preferment was repeatedly offered him. 
Kings and popes not seldom made him a court of 
appeal and yielded to his decisions. Six councils of 
the church are attributed to him. It was through his 
persuasion that the king of France undertook the 
crusade of the year 1146. Luther calls him ' the best 
monk that ever lived.' He was a great theologian, 
following Augustine in his doctrines. His works are 
numerous and varied in character. He died in 1153. 

"Paul Gerhard t was born in Saxony in 1606. 
Studying during the time of the Thirty Years' War, 
he did not enter on his ministry till the war was at an 
end. His first pastorate was at Mittenwalde, whither 
he went in 1651. In 1657 he removed to St. Nich- 
olas' Church, Berlin. There he became known as a 
hymn -writer, and published his first collection in 
1666. As a preacher and pastor he was held in high 
honor. In 1666 he was deposed from his spiritual 
office because of his unyielding adherence to Luth- 
eran doctrine. He also suffered severely from domes- 



PALESTRINA. 147 

tic bereavement. In 1668 he became archdeacon in 
Liibben, Saxony, where he remained till his death in 
1676. He left 123 hymns. In German sacred poetry 
of the older school Gerhardt ranks next to Luther. 
ScharT terms him 'the prince of German hymnists.' 
His hymns, which are the expression of a simple but 
sublime faith in God, combine simplicity with depth 
and force. His portrait, in the church of Liibben, 
bears the inscription, ' Theologus in cribro Satanae 
versatus;' i. e., 'A divine sifted in Satan's sieve.' " 



PALESTRINA. 



GIOVANNI PALESTRINA, 1 524-1594. 

There is a spiritual beauty about the life of Pales- 
trina that gives sympathy and color to his music, 
which was always written to help the aspirations of 
the soul. His life, like Dante's, was a case of moral 
recovery. He was born in Italy, about the year 1524. 
He became a famous composer of songs for the popular 
taste. u In former years," he once said, "I threw 
away my songs and poems on unholy and idolatrous 
love, and feel ashamed of it." He turned away his 
thoughts and aims from the gay world towards the 
spiritual life and its hopes and promises, and became 
the founder of the Italian school of religious music. 
He gave his genius wholly to the Latin Church and to 
religious themes. He became greatly honored by the 
dignitaries of the church and beloved in Rome and 
Italy. 



148 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

The following account of his death and burial 
affords a picture of the fruits of his consecrated life: 

4 'February 2, 1594. This morning died the most 
excellent musician, Signor Giovanni Palestrina, our 
dear companion, and maestro di capella of St. Peter's 
Church, where his funeral was attended, not only by 
all the musicians of Rome, but by an infinite concourse 
of people, when ^ Libera me, Dominef was sung by the 
whole college." 

No change of time shall ever shock 

My trust, O Lord, in thee ; 
For thou hast always been my Rock, 

A sure defence to me. 

Thou my deliverer art, O God ; 

My trust is in thy power : 
Thou art my Shield from foes abroad, 

My Safeguard and my Tower. 

Then let Jehovah be adored, 

On whom our hopes depend ; 
For who, except the mighty Lord, 

His people can defend? 



PALM BRANCHES. 

JEAN BATISTE FAURE, ABOUT 1844. 

In the early part of the present century an almost 
unknown boy was found drawing crowds around him 
in the streets of Paris by his marvellous voice. He 
found friends and received an education at the Conser- 
vatoire. His voice became more pure, sympathetic, 
and beautiful, and was greatly applauded wherever it 



PLEYELS HYMN. 149 

was heard. Every one said that there was a fortune in 
it, and the youth deemed himself the possessor of the 
key to wealth. In the midst of his early triumphs he 
lost his wonderful voice, and thought that the mission 
for which he had seemed destined was closed to him. 
Mouths passed, but his voice did not return, and he 
gave himself up to the study of instrumental music, a 
disappointed man. He longed for his voice and for his 
former influence again. 

One day his thoughts turned to prayer. "Give 
me back my voice," he prayed, "and I will use it for 
charity and for good, and I will daily visit the 
church." His voice began to return, and he became 
the great church singer of Paris and the famous bari- 
tone of Europe. He never forgot his vow, but has 
given his voice to charity. He himself has written an 
ode to charity which has been sung in all lands; it is 
one of the most beautiful songs of the century. 

The man whose history we have outlined is Jean 
Batiste Faure, the author of " Palm Branches," which 
the church numbers among its musical treasures. 



PLEYELS HYMN. 

IGNATIUS PLEYEL, 1757-1851. 



One of the hymns most frequently sung to this 
tune is that beginning, 

"Children of the heavenly King!" 



150 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

PORTUGUESE HYMN. 



SEE ADESTE FIDELES. 



"PULL FOR THE SHORE." 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

A popular hymn on the sea. It was suggested 
by the following incident in "Things New and 
Old." 

" We watched the wreck with great anxiety. The 
life-boat had been out some hours, but could not reach 
the vessel through the great breakers that raged and 
foamed on the sand-bank. The boat appeared to be 
leaving the crew to perish. But in a few minutes the 
captain and sixteen sailors were taken off, and the ves- 
sel went down. 

" ' When the life-boat came to you, did you expect 
it had brought some tools to repair your old ship ?' I 
said. 

u * Oh, no, she was a total wreck. Two of her 
masts were gone, and if we had stayed mending her 
only a few minutes, we must have gone down, sir.' 

"'When once off the old wreck and safe in the 
life-boat, what remained for you to do?' 

" ' Nothing, sir, but just to pull for the shore.' " 

"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature : old things are passed away ; behold, all 
things are become new." 



"RESCUE THE PERISHING." 151 

REDEMPTION HYMN. 

J. C. D. PARKER, 1828. 

James C. D. Parker was born in Boston, 1828, 
and graduated at Harvard College. He had an ardent 
love for music when young, but studied law. Subse- 
quently, however, he returned to the profession for 
which he had early shown a preference. After study- 
ing at Leipzig he returned to Boston, and became 
the organist of Trinity Church. The "Redemption 
Hymn " was composed in 1877, and was first given by 
the Handel and Haydn Society. 



"RESCUE THE PERISHING:' 

WILLIAM HOWARD DOANE. MUS. DOC. 1831. 

Dr. Doane was born 1831. He is a Baptist, lives 
in one of the beautiful suburbs of Cincinnati, and has 
long been a contributor to the musical publications of 
Biglow & Main. His gospel hymn-tune "I love to 
tell the story" is universally known. 

He has done some of his most successful work in 
association with "Fanny Crosby," the blind writer of 
gospel hymns, also a frequent contributor to the musi- 
cal publications of Biglow & Main. It was he who 
suggested to her the hymn theme, "Safe in the arms 
of Jesus," and he wrote the music for it. 

Mrs. Frances Jane (Crosby) Van Alstyne was born 
at South-East, N. Y., in 1823. At the age of six she 



152 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

lost her sight through wrong medical treatment of a 
trouble with her eyes. She became an inmate of the 
New York Institution for the Blind and a teacher in 
the same institution. 

She wrote many popular songs for Dr. George F. 
Root, among them " Hazel dell," "There's music in 
the air," and " Rosalie, the prairie flower," also words 
for cantatas. She has written some five thousand 
Sunday-school songs, some of which are very widely 
known. " Safe in the arms of Jesus " was written in 
some twenty minutes. 

"Rescue the perishing" has become the favorite 
song of workers among the tempted and unschooled 
classes in all Christian lands. 

A writer in the New York " Evangelist " gives the 
following interesting picture of Miss Crosby and her 
work : 

Miss Crosby says of all the hymns she has written, 
" Safe in the arms of Jesus " is her favorite. To be 

" Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe on his gentle breast," 

must be to her, as she tries to feel her way through 
the darkness and amid danger, a sweet protecting rest 
to look forward to. To many a sorrowing soul whose 
eye of faith has become dim by the mysterious going 
away of some loved one, has this hymn brought com- 
fort and life. To feel that our loved ones are "safe 
in the arms of Jesus" is indeed a precious thought. 
Walking through a village cemetery a few months 
since, I heard some sweet voices singing that hymn. 



u RESCUE THE PERISHING." 153 

It was beside a baby's new-made grave. Just as the 
young mother was turning away with tearful eyes 
from the resting-place of her little one, these sweet 
words burst upon her ear. Out of her own loving 
arms, but safe in the arms of Jesus. How many other 
hearts have found comfort in that assurance, and in 
the thought that by-and-by — 

" There by his love o'ershaded, 
Sweetly my soul shall rest." , 

You would naturally suppose that such a person 
must be very unhappy and gloomy, but Fanny Crosby 
is one of the most cheerful, happy persons in the 
world. When we saw her she was knitting an intri- 
cate piece of lace, which, on examination, was found 
not to have a misplaced stitch in it. Her fingers 
moved busily while she talked in a modest way of the 
talent God had given her, and what a comfort it had 
been to her that she had been enabled to write words 
that had helped other souls on to heaven. Her whole 
face was illumined with a light reflected from His face 
(so we thought) as she told us the story of "Rescue 
the perishing," and the satisfaction it gave her to 
know it had been the means of bringing many wan- 
dering ones home to God. In a mission meeting she 
attended one evening the hymn was sung, and at its 
close a young man arose and said that that hymn 
brought him to Jesus. Then he told of his wander- 
ings, and how he had wasted his time and money in 
drink and those other vices that are sure to follow; 
but passing along the street one night without a cent 

7* 



i 5 4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

in his pocket, ragged, cold, and hungry, he heard 

some voices singing: 

" Rescue the perishing, 
Care for the dying, 
Snatch them in pity 
From sin and the grave." 

He followed the sound of the voices until he came to 

a building where there was a mission meeting. He 

went in and sat down in the back seat and listened 

to the words of that hymn. "I was just ready to 

perish that night," he said, "but that hymn by the 

grace of God saved me." Loving hands ministered 

to him in Jesus' name after he had told them that he 

wanted to leave the evil life and become a good man. 

The workers for Christ "wept o'er the erring one, 

lifted the fallen, and told him of Jesus, the mighty to 

save." 

When the young man finished his story he said, 
that he had a great desire to meet the writer of that 
hymn and tell her what it had done for his soul. It 
was a singular coincidence that his wish was to be 
gratified that very night, and what a great joy must 
have filled the author's heart when she was led up to 
the speaker and could take his hand and say, "I 
wrote that hymn." 

After a day's jostling through the city streets, 
guided by some loving hand, when Miss Crosby re- 
turns to her quiet room it is not strange that she pours 
forth her soul in song. It was at such times as those 
that she wrote 

"All the way my Saviour leads me," 



and 



RETREAT. 

" Saviour, more than life to me, 
I am clinging close to thee," 

" Through this changing world below 
Lead me gently as I go." 



00 



REST FOR THE WEARY. 



REV. \VM. MCDONALD. 



The music is by Rev. Wm. McDonald, of the 
"Christian Witness," and the author of the popular 
revival hymn "I am coming to the cross" (' l I am 
trusting, Lord, in thee"). The author heard the re- 
frain words, "There is rest for the weary," at_ a reli- 
gious meeting in Portland, Me., and was inspired by 
them to write the tune. Finding a hymn by an un- 
known author (Rev. Mr. Harmer), he set it to this 
tune, with the refrain "There is rest for the weary." 
It was published as a leaflet, and some 300,000 copies 
were used. The author of the tune has heard it suns: 
in most parts of the world and among the missions of 
India. 



RETREAT. 

DR. T. HASTINGS, 1784-1S72.. 

OF all the innocent blood shed in the " Cawnpore 
Massacre" (1858) by the brutal Nana Sahib, none 
cried more loudly to heaven than that of the eight 
Christian missionaries and two little children who 
had fled for safety from Futtighur down the Ganges. 



156 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

On the fifth day of their flight, after passing 
through fearful peril and even receiving bullet 
wounds from Sepoy enemies on the shore, the little 
party became wearied out by the difficulties of a shal- 
low current, and moored their boats under an island 
six miles above their destination. There they learned 
to their horror that the English fort at Cawnpore, 
where they expected to find refuge, was surrounded by 
an army of traitors, and all hope of reaching their 
friends was cut off. 

Soon after they were fired upon by a gang of Sepoy 
rebels, and driven from their boats to seek shelter on 
the island. The trees and the long grass concealed 
them, but only for a little while. 

Distressed with heat and thirst and spent with 
continual alarm, they believed their last day had 
come, for they knew the bloodthirsty Sepoys would 
pursue them to the death. They could only look up 
to God for strength to meet their fate with martyr 
resignation. Earth was fading now, and heaven was 
near. 

Who but the believer in Christ can understand 
what lifts the soul, in terror's supreme moment, above 
all the powers of them that kill the body ? The oldest 
missionary read some passages from his pocket Bible, 
and then all joined in singing a hymn: 

From every stormy wind that blows, 
From every swelling tide of woes, 
There is a calm,. a sure retreat ; 
'T is found beneath the mercv-seat. 



RETREAT. 157 

Ah, whither could we flee for aid 
When tempted, desolate, dismayed, 
Or how the hosts of hell defeat, 
Had suffering saints no mercy-seat? 

There, there, on eagle wings we soar, 
And sin and sense molest no more : 
And heaven comes down our soul to greet, 
While glory crowns the mercy-scat. 

Then they spoke together of Jesus and the riches of 
his grace, and prayed to the dear Friend whom now 
they expected so soon to see. The party were at 
prayers when the Sepoys seized them and dragged 
them from their hiding-place. They were tied with 
cords and taken away to Nana Sahib, at Cawnpore. 

One of the children, little Willie Campbell, asked 
in a frightened voice, "Pa, what are these men go- 
ing to do with you and ma and sister and the rest of 
us?" 

The innocent question made tears flow from the 
sufferers' eyes. They were confined over night in a 
dismal prison, and in the morning were marched out 
by Nana's orders to the parade-ground, the parents 
holding their children in their arms. The death-signal 
was given, and the martyrs fell, pierced with bullets 
from the Sepoys' muskets. 

These missionaries were all Americans. They were 
Rev. Albert O. Johnson and wife, Rev. John E- Free- 
man and wife, David E- Campbell and wife, and 
their two little ones, Fannie and Willie, and Mr. and 
Mrs. McMullin. They died as their Master died, 
praying for their murderers. They were more to be 



158 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

envied than those whose bloody hands set free their 

souls — 

" on eagle wings to soar 
Where sin and sense molest no more." 

" Youth's Companion." 



ROCK OF AGES. 

SEE MAJESTY, TOPLADV, AND HASTINGS. 



SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS. 

W. H. DOANE, 1831. 

Dr. DoanE says, " 'Safe in the arms of Jesus' I 
wrote in the railway carriage while Thane Miller and 
myself were on our way from Cincinnati to Newark, 
N. J., to attend a national Sunday-school convention." 
The habit of composing hymn-tunes while travelling 
is not uncommon. The Wesleyan period is full of 
such examples. 

"It was a singular tribute to the place that gospel 
music has taken in the hearts of the people that when 
that solemn array which attended the remains of Gar- 
field from the eastern porch of the Capitol was de- 
scending the steps, it was not to the ' Dead March in 
Saul,* but to the melody, by the band, of 

" ' Safe in the arms of Jesus ' 
and 

" ' Sweet by-and-by.' 

And the authors of such pieces can afford to let the 

great musical world laugh, if God has such uses for 

them in his kingdom." "Golden Rule." 



SCOTCH MINOR TUNES. 159 

SALVE REGINA: THE HYMN OF COLUMBUS. 

This old Latin hymn, though it has no place in 
Protestant hymnology, has an historic interest in our 
country, because it was sung every evening by Colum- 
bus and the crew on his ship during the first voyage of 
discovery. It was the first Christmas song in the 
New World. The burden of it was an address to the 
Virgin Mary to save the exiles on the sea. 

The Virgin was believed by mystical Catholics to 
be prophesied in the words, "And the gathering to- 
gether of the waters called he seas' 1 — Latin maria. 
Gen. 1 : 10. Hence poetic license and superstition 
made her the "star of the deep," and this tender fig- 
ure became the favorite theme of the Genoese sailors. 
u Ave, Maris Stella" is commonly known as "the 
Columbus hymn," although it seems to have been a 

gradual growth. 

" Gentle star of ocean, 
Portal of the sky." 

Mrs. Hemaus' and Miss Browne's "Ave Sanctissima " 
is really an outgrowth of the hymn of the old Italian 
sailors. It is sometimes called "The Italian Girls' 
Hymn to the Virgin." 



SCOTCH MINOR TUNES. 



The Scotch hymn-tunes and ballads best express a 
tender sadness and that retrospective love that soothes 
while it brings tears to the eyes. Among these hymn- 
tunes are "Dundee" (originated in music of Franck, 



160 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

composer of "Old Hundred"), "Martyrs," and "El- 
gin." 

" Perhaps ' Dundee's ' wild warbling measures rise, 
Or plaintive 'Martyrs,' worthy of the name, 
Or noble ' Elgin ' leads the heavenward flame, 
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays." 

The song "Ye banks and braes of Bonnie Doon " 
is often used as a hymn-tune, and "Auld I^ang Syne," 
which see. 



SEEKING TO SA VE. 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 



Suggested to Mr. Bliss by Dr. Wordsworth, of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Mobile, Ala., upon the 
unity of the parables in L,uke 15. 



"SHALL WE GA THER A T THE RIVER ?" 

REV. ROBERT LOVVRY, D. D. 

In response to a letter of inquiry Dr. L,owry writes 
in regard to his tunes: 

41 It is not so easy to find an inspiration for tunes as 
for hymns. The latter are likely to be the product of 
intellectual suggestion; the former, more vagrant and 
spontaneous, come often unbidden, and without being 
able to account for themselves. Nevertheless, tunes 
may owe their life to an occasion, a mood, a strain, a 
chord, a metrical line, and thus take their place in 
historv. For instance, 'Shall we gather at the river?' 



"SHALL WE GA TITER A T THE RIl W ER /" 161 

was the issue of a mood — words and music struggling 
together for birth, and so closely allied in twinship 
that the author never could tell which was born first." 

He also furnishes us with the following article by 
another in regard to his popular tunes: 

"Rev. Robert Lowry, D. D., was born in the city 
of Philadelphia, March 12, 1826. At the age of seven- 
teen he joined the First Baptist Church of Philadel- 
phia. In his Sunday-school, as pupil, afterwards as 
chorister and teacher, he very early manifested a zeal 
for religion. At the age of twenty-two he gave him- 
self to the work of the Christian ministry, and entered 
upon a course of study at the University of Lewis- 
burgh, Pa. At the age of twenty-eight he was grad- 
uated from this school with the highest honors of his 
class. 

u In the same year he entered upon the full work of 
the ministry. He served as pastor at Westchester, Pa., 
1854-58 ; in New York city, 1858-61 ; in Brooklyn, 
1861-69; Lewisburgh, Pa., 1S69-75. Since 1876 he has 
been pastor of Park Avenue Church, Plainfield, N. J. 
In each of these fields his work has been crowned with 
marked success. While pastor at Lewisburgh he was 
also professor of Belles Lettrcs in the university there. 
From this university he received the honorary degree 
of D. D. in 1875. 

"While he has achieved distinguished success and 
stands eminent as a minister of the gospel, he is per- 
haps more widely known as a composer of music. He 
possesses marked genius in this latter direction, which 

The Story of the Tunis. 



1 62 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

manifested itself very early. Before he was twenty-one 
years of age he wrote a number of songs, which were 
used on special occasions in the Sunday-school of 
which he was a member. At the first Commencement 
of his Alma Mater (1851), he wrote the ' Parting Song ' 
for the graduating class — words and music — which was 
sung by the college choir. 

"His musical genius has not remained inactive, 
though no special pains have been taken to secure its 
highest development and cultivation. In connection 
with his ministerial work he has ever been closely 
identified with the song service, drilling the Sunday- 
school, leading the prayer-meeting, writing an anthem 
for the choir, sometimes preparing an entire musical 
service for a set occasion. Many of his hymns were 
written after the Sunday evening service, when the 
body was weary with the day's labor and the mind re- 
fused to rest. 

" ' Shall we gather ' came like an outburst. ( Com- 
ing by-and-by ' sprang from the excitement attending 
a sermon he had just preached. ' Nothing but the 
blood of Jesus ' was the echo of a deep religious feel- 
ing in his church. ' Linger no longer ' was only 
repeating what he had said so often to inquirers. 
'The world is moving on,' came to him in the agita- 
tion of a great reform movement. ' Oh, work while 'tis 
day,' was written for a Young People's Association. 
( A brighter day is breaking,' was suggested by the 
missionary outlook. 'Where is my boy to-night?' was 
the result of a tender conversation concerning homes 



"SHALL WE GA THER A T THE RIVER f" 163 

made desolate by the drink evil. A large number of 
hymns on the Advent and the Resurrection were in- 
spired by the approach of the Christmas and Easter 
festivities. 

"The hymns and music which are most popular 
with the public are the ones for which Mr. Lowry 
himself cares least. His favorite of all the pieces he 
has written is 'Weeping will not save me.' He re- 
gards it as being the most evangelical thing he ever 
wrote. We give it in full: 

" Weeping will not save me — 

Though my face were bathed in tears, 
That could not allay my fears, 
Could not wash the sins of years, 
Weeping will not save me. 

" Working will not save me — 
Purest deeds that I can do, 
Holiest thought and feeling too, 
Cannot form my soul anew, 
Working will not save me. 

" Waiting will not save me — 
Helpless, guilty, lost, I lie; 
In my ear is mercy's cry ; 
If I wait I can but die — 
Waiting will not save me. 

"Faith in Christ will save me — 
Let me trust thy weeping Son, 
Trust the work that He has done ; 
To His arms, Lord, help me run — 
Faith in Christ will save me. 

Chorus. 
"Jesus wept and died for me ; 
Jesus suffered on the tree ; 
Jesus waits to make me.free ; 
He alone can save me." 



1 64 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

" ' Shall we gather?' is, perhaps without question, 
the most widely popular of all his songs. Of this Mr. 
IyOwry says, "It is brass-band music, has a march 
movement, and for that reason has become popular, 
though for myself I do not think much of it.' Yet he 
tells how on several occasions he has been deeply 
moved by the singing of that hymn. 

"'Going from Harrisburgh to Lewisburgh once, 
I got into a car rilled with half-drunken lumbermen. 
Suddenly one of them struck up, "Shall we gather 
at the river ? n and they sang it over and over again, 
repeating the chorus in a wild, boisterous way. I did 
not think so much of the music then as I listened to 
those singers, but I did think that perhaps the spirit of 
the hymn, the words so flippantly uttered, might some- 
how survive, and be carried forward into the lives of 
those careless men, and ultimately lift them upward to 
the realization of the hope expressed in my hymn. A 
different appreciation of it was that evinced during the 
Robert Raikes centennial. I was in London, and had 
gone to a meeting in the Old Bailey to see some of the 
most famous Sunday-school workers in the world. 
They were present from Europe, Asia, and America. 
I sat in a rear seat alone. After there had been a 
number of addresses delivered in various languages, I 
was preparing to leave, when the chairman of the 
meeting announced that the author of "Shall we 
gather at the river?" was present, and I was requested 
by name to come forward. Men applauded and women 
waved their handkerchiefs as I went to the platform. 



"SHALL WE GA THER A T THE RIVER t" 165 

It was a tribute to the hymn; but I felt after it was 
over that I had perhaps done some little good in the 
world, and I felt more than ever content to die when 
God should call.' 

"On 'Children's Day' in Brooklyn, in 1865, this 
song was sung by over 40,000 voices. 

"We find in Mr. Lowry's songs the expression of 
earnest, deep devotion : we feel through them the 
throbs of a warm, tender heart. The spirit of his 
hymns draws us close to him and makes us feel akin. 
For what he is in himself we learn to love him. For 
what he has done for us through his songs in heighten- 
ing our aspirations and quickening our joys we cherish 
a heartfelt gratitude. 

"One expression from Mr. L,owry gives us the 
highest possible admiration of his character. He says, 
1 Music with me has been a side issue, an efflorescence, 
while preaching has been my fruitage. I had rather 
preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative, receptive 
congregation than write a hymn. I have always 
looked upon myself as a preacher, and I felt a sort 
of meanness when I began to be known as a composer. ' 

"This expression seems extraordinary. It is a 
great thing to write the hymns of a people — to be able 
to express the gospel in songs that will go all around 
the world and stir the hearts of millions. One of the 
most distinguished ministers of Virginia has said, ' I 
would rather be the author of that hymn, " Shall we 
gather?" than to be the preacher of all the sermons I 
have ever heard or ever delivered.' Mr. Lowry will 



166 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

doubtless continue to preach the gospel in his hymns 
long after his sermons have been almost forgotten, and 
that, too, to thousands who have never known him as 
a preacher. But he esteems the preaching of the gos- 
pel the most exalted calling among men. He who has 
received this calling of God can wish for no nobler 
service, and faithfulness in this service secures the 
highest possible reward." 



SHINING SHORE. 

DR. GEORGE F. ROOT, 1820. 

The "Shining shore" originated in the following 
manner. One day in 1856 when Dr. Root was com- 
posing and compiling a music book at his old home, 
his mother came to him quietly and laid before him a 
newspaper, in the poetical column of which were the 
words of that hymn. "There are some words, George, 
that I would like you to set to music," she said. Dr. 
Root wrote the music, put it aside, and nearly forgot the 
circumstance. Some time afterward, needing or being 
asked for something for a new book, he recalled the 
circumstance and the music. He published it, and it 
flew over the world. 

Dr. Root was born at Sheffield, Mass., 1820, the 
eldest of a family of eight children. His youth was 
spent on a farm, where his heart was filled with 
music. He went to Boston as a pupil and became a 
teacher there and the director of music in Winter 



SI LOAM. 167 

Street and Park Street churches. He afterwards, un- 
der the influence of Jacob Abbott, went to New York 
as a teacher, and there had charge of the music in 
Dr. Deems' Church of the Strangers. He studied a 
year in Europe, and in the summer of 1852 founded 
the Normal Musical Institute, New York, the faculty 
consisting of Dr. Thomas Hastings, Dr. Lowell Ma- 
son, Wm. B. Bradbury, and Dr. Root. His cantatas 
have been very popular, especially "The Haymak- 
ers," which is distinctively American, representing 
life in a hayfield on a summer day, and "Under the 
Palms," of which some 30,000 copies have been sold 
in London alone. 



SICIL Y. 

SEE GREENVILLE. 

SILO AM. 

I. B. WOODBURY, 1819-1858. 

I. B. Woodbury, author of the hymn-tune "Si- 
loam," which has become a universal favorite, and 
also of the hymn-tunes "Rakem," "Eucharist," "Sa- 
lena," "Tamar," and "Ozrem," belongs to the school 
of popular gospel musicians already referred to in con- 
nection with Dr. Doane (author of the tune "Safe in 
the arms of Jesus") and entered into their convention 
system of work. 

He was born in Beverly, Mass., 1819. He was 



i68 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

apprenticed to a blacksmith in Boston, and musical 
inspiration came to him at the forge. He found his 
way to Europe, studied, returned to sing his life-songs, 
and died in the South at the early age of thirty-nine. 



ST. ANDREW'S. 

BARNBY, 1S38. SEE " O PARADISE !' 



.ST. MARTIN'S. 

WILLIAM TANSUR, 1699-1770. 

This grand old tune, often sung at College Com- 
mencements to the words "Let children hear the 
mighty deeds which God performed of old," was writ- 
ten by William Tansur, who was born in England, in 
1699, and died at about 1770. His son was a chorister 
in Trinity College, Cambridge, England. 



S WEE T BY- A ND-B Y. 

J. P. WEBSTER, 1819-1875. 



One of the most popular religious ballads ever 
written. The words are by S. F. Bennett, 1836. The 
music was written by Air. Webster in 1868. 



SWEET HOUR OF PR A YER. 

W. B. BRADBURY, 1816-1868. 



TALUS' EVENING HYMN. 169 

TALUS' EVENING HYMN. 

MUSIC BY THOMAS TALL1S, — I5S5. WORDS BY BISHOP KEN. 

Glory to thee, my God, this night 
For all the blessings of the light ; 
Keep me, oh, keep me, King of kings, 
Beneath thine own almighty wings. 

Be thou my guardian while I sleep, 
Thy watchful station near me keep ; 
My heart with love celestial fill, 
And guard me from th' approach of ill. 

Teach me to live that I may dread 
The grave as little as my bed: 
Teach me to die, that so I may 
Rise glorious at the judgment day. 

Ix "English Church Composers" we find the fol- 
lowing account of the writer of this tune: 

"The particulars of his early education are indefi- 
nite. He was a pupil of Thomas Mulliner, and fel- 
low chorister of John Redford, of St. Paul's. It is 
supposed that as soon as his voice broke he was nomi- 
nated organist at Waltham Abbey, but nothing cer- 
tain is known beyond the fact that he held the place 
in 1540, when the last abbot, Thomas Fuller, sur- 
rendered to Henry VIII. He was appointed a Gentle- 
man of the Chapel Royal about the year 1542, and 
served King Henry VIII., King Edward, Queen Mary, 
and Queen Elizabeth in that capacity, his stipend be- 
ing sevenpence a day. On the strength of the title of 
the ' Cantiones Sacrae ' he is said by some writers to 
have been organist to the Chapel to the first three of 
these sovereigns, but this could only have been in his 

8 



170 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

turn. The earliest lay organists appointed were ( Dr. 
Tye, W. Blitheman, Thomas Tallis, and William 
Byrde,' and none received such appointments until 
the reign of Elizabeth. It was anciently the custom, 
where an organ existed, for the instrument to be 
played by some ecclesiastic or by one of the musical 
members of the choir in rotation. There are many 
cathedrals and collegiate churches where organs are 
known to have existed, and provision has been made 
in their statutes for payment to organ-makers, as well 
as to those whose duty it appears to have been to blow 
the organs, when there is no mention of an organist 
as a distinct officer of the church. * * * * 

u Among the other works of Tallis may be men- 
tioned the collection of hymns and other compositions 
for the service of the church which he published in 
conjunction with his pupil, William Birde, in 1575. 
Each voice part was printed separately. It is upon 
the statement here made that Tallis is described by 
some writers as organist to the four sovereigns; he 
was so only to one, Queen Elizabeth. This work was 
the first printed and published by Thomas Vautrollier, 
under a special patent granted by the queen. The 
terms of the document, and the privileges it conferred, 
show the high estimation in which the patentees were 
held. 

" It would be an easier task to collect the titles of 
the books printed under this patent than to give a 
list of the compositions of Tallis for the church. St. 
Paul's Cathedral was at one time well supplied with 



TALL IS" EVENING HYMN. 171 

copies of his anthems. The Rev. James Clifford, 
Minor Canon of St. Paul's in the reigns of Charles I. 
and II., in his book of the words of 'The Divine Ser- 
vices and Anthems usually sung in the Cathedrals 
and Collegiate Choires in the Church of England,' 
1663, the first collection of the kind ever made, gives 
a list of ten, of which perfect copies of two only are 
now in existence, namely, 'I call and cry,' and 'Hear 
the voice and prayer,' and there were several printed 
in Barnard's collection, 1641, with the music. All 
these motets or anthems were originally written to 
Latin words, and it is not known for certain whether 
he or some one else adapted them to English words 
for the altered service. In the shifting times immedi- 
ately following the Reformation, when the law alter- 
nately permitted the use of Latin and English in the 
worship of the church, a series of services and an- 
thems which could be sung in either tongue was use- 
ful and necessary, and both Tallis and his pupil Birde 
wrote after this manner, without apparently any strain 
of conscience. It is supposed that Tallis, though out- 
wardly conforming to the changes made from time to 
time, retained his ancient convictions, as well as his 
position and influence at court; and, although partic- 
ulars of his life are scanty and uncertain, it is stated 
that he was in attendance upon Queen Elizabeth at 
her palace at Greenwich when he died, at about sev- 
enty years of age, for he was buried in the old parish 
church there in November, 1585. Strype, who wrote 
a continuation of Stowe's 'Survey of London,' pub- 



172 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

lislied in 1720, gives the epitaph which he found en- 
graved upon a brass plate in ancient Gothic letters in 
the chancel. 

" Enterred here doth ly a worthy wyght, 

Who for long time in musick bore the bell: 
His name to shew was Thomas Tallis hyght; 
In honest vertuous lyff he dyd excell. 

" He served long tyme in chappel with grete prayse, 

Fower sovereygnes reignes, (a thing not often seene ;) 
I mean King Henry and Prince Edward's dayes, 
Quene Marie, and Elizabeth our quene. 

" He maryed was, though children he had none, 
And lyv'd in love full three and thirty yeres 
With loyal spowse, whose name yclept was Jone, 
Who, here entombed, him company now bears. 

" As he dyd lyve, so also dyd he dy, 

In myld and quyet sort, O happy man ! 
To God ful oft for mercy did he cry ; 

Wherefore he lyves, let Deth do what he can." 



«TE DEUM LAUDAMUSy 

SEE OLMUTZ, AND STORY OF THE HYMNS. 

Since the morning when Peter and John looked 
into the empty sepulchre there has perhaps been no 
Easter so noteworthy as that of A. D. 387. 

Then Ambrose, the great bishop of Milan, bap- 
tized Augustine, the greatest theologian of the Chris- 
tian Church. 

Augustine was born in North Africa, A. D. 354. 
His father was a pagan and poor. Monica, his Chris- 
tian mother, impressed on his childhood the prin- 



" TE DEUM LA UDAMUSr i 73 

ciples of Christianity. He neglected them, forsook 
them, but they were never effaced. 

Such were his talents that, having graduated when 
nineteen from the University of Carthage, he became 
at once a popular teacher of rhetoric. 

Neither as a boy nor as a young man was Augustine 
chaste. He gave rein to his passions and to his ambi- 
tion. He laid aside the sacred Scriptures; they were 
too simple in matter and style for the professor of rhet- 
oric, and he became a disciple of the heretical sect of 
the Manicheans, who taught that matter and evil 
were independent of God. 

Monica wept over her brilliant but apostate son. 
4 'Let him alone," said a pious priest, "and he will 
come out of it himself. It is not possible that the 
child of these tears should perish." The words proved 
prophetic. 

At length Augustine abandoned Carthage for 
Rome. The Government sent him to teach rhetoric 
in Milan. There he met Ambrose, who years before, 
while governor of the city, had been made its bishop. 

The people had met in the Basilica to choose a 
successor to their dead bishop. A division arose, and 
Ambrose, fearing a riot, entered the church to allay 
the storm. While he was speaking a child cried out, 
u Let Ambrose be bishop!" "Amen! Amen!" shout- 
ed the people. Reluctantly he submitted to the peo- 
ple's choice, laid aside his patrician robes, distributed 
his property among the poor, and became Milan's 
chief pastor. 



i 7 4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

The eloquence of Ambrose at first attracted Augus- 
tine. "How eloquently he speaks!" was his first 
thought. Then as the bishop's arguments removed 
Augustine's objections to Christianity, he said, "How 
truly he speaks!" 

But the moral obstacle to his reception of the doc- 
trines of Christ remained. He would not give up his 
life of sinful pleasure. His wretched prayer was, 
"Give me purity and temperance — only not yet." 

Walking in the garden one day in tears, he threw 
himself at the foot of a fig-tree. "Why not now?" 
he moaned. "Why not at this hour make an end of 
my waywardness and disobedience?" 

Suddenly he heard from a neighboring house the 
voice of a child chanting, "Take up and read." 

He had left a roll of the New Testament in an ar- 
bor. Rising, he sought the roll, opened it, and his 
eyes fell on these words: 

" Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chamber- 
ing and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but 
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not pro- 
vision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Rom. 

i3 : *3> 14- 

He had no need to read a word more. A light of 
serenity was infused into his heart. The darkness of 
doubt vanished. He sought his mother. Her heart 
leaped for joy as she listened to the story of the prodi- 
gal's return. The child of many tears had at last 
come to himself and to his Father's house. 

Augustine determined to devote his life to the ser- 



" TE DEUM LA UDAMUSr 175 

vice of God. He abandoned his lucrative profession 
and prepared for baptism. 

Ambrose received the young disciple with open 
arms, and on Easter eve, A. D. 387, baptized him in 
the presence of a vast throng that crowded the Ba- 
silica of Milan. 

Tradition says that the bishop, seeing with a 

prophet's eye that all Christendom would to the end 

of time be influenced by that baptism, chanted with 

upraised hands and in the exultation of rapture: 

" We praise thee, O God ; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. 
"All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting." 

He paused; from the baptized disciple came back 

the response: 

" To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers 
therein. 

"To thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, 

" Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; 

" Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory." 

On that day, says the legend, the Te Dcum Latida- 
mtcs sprang from the inspired lips of Ambrose and 
Augustine. The legend at least seized the poetry of 
the great event. Ambrose did compose the Te Dcum. 
Its first public chanting may have been associated 
with the baptism of him whom the whole church 
reveres. 

The great theologian wrote volumes, but the key- 
note of his theology is the famous sentence in the 
11 Confessions " — 

"Thou madest us for thyself, and our heart is 
restless till it rests in thee.' 1 "Youth's Companion." 



176 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"TELL ME THE OLD, OLD STORY: 1 

W. H. DOANE, 1831. 

Dr. Doane thus tells the story of this popular 
gospel song: 

"I want to tell you now about my little favorite, 
'Tell me the old, old story.' I did not write the 
words, and there are very few persons who know how 
they originally came into my possession or by whom 
they were written. They were produced by Miss 
Kate Hankey, an English lady of distinction. In 
1867 I was attending the international meeting of the 
Y. M. C. A. at Montreal. Among those present was 
Major-General Russell, then in command of the Eng- 
lish forces during the Fenian excitement. He arose 
in the meeting and read the words of the song from a 
sheet of foolscap paper, the tears streaming down his 
bronzed cheeks as he read. I was much impressed, 
and immediately requested the privilege of making a 
copy. He gave me the copy from which he had read. 
I wrote the music for the song while on the stage- 
coach, one hot summer afternoon, between the Glenn 
Falls House and the Crawford House in the White 
Mountains. That evening we sang it in the parlors 
of the hotel, and thought it pretty, though we scarcely 
anticipated the popularity which was subsequently 
accorded it. It was afterwards published in sheet 
form in Cincinnati." Miss Hankey was the daughter 
of an English banker. 



THE MESSENGER BIRD. 177 

THE BETTER LAXD. 

The music was composed by Mrs. Arkwright, sis- 
ter of Mrs. Hemans. The words are by Mrs. He- 
mans. 



"THE BREAKING WAVES DASHED HIGH:' 

The music was written by Miss Browne, sister of 
Mrs. Hemans, afterward Mrs. Arkwright. Moscheles, 
on visiting Sir Walter Scott, promised the latter that 
"he would find a publisher for some pretty songs set 
to music by a Miss Browne, with words by her sister, 
Felicia Hemans." This was one of the songs. 



11 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD IS JESUS." 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

Written in the summer of 1875 at ^ Ir - Bliss' 
home, 664 West Monroe St., Chicago. The words 
and music came to him simultaneously. 



THE MESSENGER BIRD. 

The joint production of Mrs. Hemans and Mrs. 
Arkwright. These sisters composed a number of 
songs and music together, the most famous of which 
still live. This song begins, 

"Thou art come from the spirit land, sweet bird." 

The Story of the Tunes. 3* 



178 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"THERE IS A HAPPY LAND." 



AN EAST INDIAN AIR. 



The writer of the religious song "There is a hap- 
py land, far, far away" is still alive (1889), a man 
eighty years of age, vigorous in mind and body, and 
having all that sympathy for children without which 
it is impossible to influence the little ones for good. 
It is about fifty years ago since these words were writ- 
ten to the music of an Indian air, and they have since 
been translated into nineteen languages. The verses 
are such as, to use Beaconsfield's words, " touch the 
heart of nations and appeal to the domestic sentiments 
of mankind." Yet the writer who shot this arrow 
into the air has been forgotten even where he was 
ever known. Mr. Andrew Young, now after nearly 
fifty-one years, may find this song in the hearts of a 
million friends. It has been said to draw tears even 
from the eyes of one who has been called a cynic, 
that man of the world, Thackeray. He once stopped 
in the street to hear it sung by a group of ragged 
children, and never afterward forgot it or alluded 
without emotion to the impression that it made upon 
him. 



TOP LADY. 

DR. THOMAS HASTINGS, 1784-1872. 



Composed for the hymn "Rock of Ages," and 
named for its author. 



"WELCOME, HAPPY MORNING!" 179 

V/EBB. 

Dr. Root in his "Recollections," published in the 
1 ' Musical Visitor, ' ' gives the following pleasing picture 
of the famous author of the tune " The morning light 
is breaking," who was a musical teacher in Boston: 

"I was glad enough, however, to take lessons of 
Geo. James Webb, the best vocal teacher in Boston, an 
elegant organist, an accomplished musician, and a 
model Christian gentleman. He received me with 
great kindness, and after trying my voice in various 
ways, gave me some exercises to work upon. At my 
next lesson, after I had sung what he had given me 
to practise, he looked up with an expression of pleased 
surprise and said, ' Well, Mr. Root, I believe you will 
learn to sing.' I replied, 'Of course; that is what I 
fully intend to do.' ' Ah, but,' he responded, 'at 
your first lesson I thought it extremely doubtful 
whether it would be worth your while to try.' Of 
course he had reference to solo singing, and not to 
joining in a chorus, which I could then do fairly well. 
My lessons went on with him for months — a year, 
perhaps — and I came not only to delight in them, but 
in the friendly atmosphere of his pleasant home," 



"WELCOME, HAPPY MORNING!" 

J. BAPTISTE CALKIN, 1827. 

This is the old processional hymn of the Latin 
Church for Easter. Jerome of Prague sang it at the 



180 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

stake. It was translated by Cranmer, who sent it to 
Henry VIII. The present music is by John Baptiste 
Calkin, born in London, 1827; ne was an organist 

and composer. 

♦ 

WELLESLEY. 

LIZZIE S. TOURJE'E. 

This tune, which has found a place in many recent 
collections, was composed by Miss Lizzie S. Tourjee, a 
daughter of Dr. E. Tourjee, Director of the New Eng- 
land Conservatory of Music. She was a member of the 
Newton High School when it was written. A gradu- 
ates' hymn had been written, and Miss Tourjee had 
been asked to set it to music. Returning home from 
school she took the hymn to her father, saying that she 
did not know how to compose appropriate music for it. 
1 ' Sit down to the piano, ' ' said her father, ' ' and put the 
words before you and try." She did so, when the tune, 
named by her father u Wellesley," and published by 
him in the "Tribute of Praise," came floating into 
her mind and found expression on the keys. 



"WE'RE GOING HOME TO-MORROW." 

P. P. BLISS, 1 838-1 876. 

The words are by " Paulina," supposed to be Mrs. 
Bliss, but really Mrs. Griswold, of Chicago. Mrs. 
Griswold was a friend of the gospel singers, and espe- 
cially of Dr. Root and Mr. Bliss. She wrote the 



14 WHA T SHALL THE HAR I EST BET 1S1 

hymns, "I will love Jesus," "Hold fast till I come," 
and " Who is on the Lord's side?" 

This song is interesting from the tradition that it 
was sung by Mr. and Mrs. Bliss when perishing amid 
the wreck of the train at Ashtabula. 



11 WE SHALL MEET BEYOXD THE RIVER." 

HUBERT P. MAIN. 

The words were written by Rev. John Atkinson, 
D. D., in 1867, soon after the death of his mother. 
He had been engaged in revival work, and one night 
in his study "that song in substance seemed," he 
says, u to sing itself into my heart." He said to 
himself, "I would better write it down, or I shall 
lose it." 

"There," he adds, "in the silence of my study, 
and not far from midnight, I wrote the hymn." 



" WHA T SHALL THE HARVEST BE ?" 

P. P. BLISS, 1S38-1876. 

One night a man, staggering through the streets 
of Chicago, noticed the people entering a large, lighted 
building. Ignorant that it was the Tabernacle, where 
Messrs. Moody and Sankey were holding religious 
meetings, he staggered in and sat down near one of 
the posts which supported the roof. 

In a sort of drunken stupor he leaned his head 
against the post. Something roused him. The happy 



182 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

faces of the people disturbed him. l ' This is no place 

for me," he said to himself, and arose to go out. 

Just then Mr. Moody gave out the hymn, u What 

shall the harvest be?" The first strains arrested the 

man's attention. He sat down and listened. With a 

thrill of emotion he heard the lines, 

" Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame." 

''That's me," he said to himself. "That's what 
I have been doing, 'sowing the seed of a tarnished 
name. ' My name is gone, and now I am ' sowing the 
seed of eternal shame!' " 

He was so disturbed that as soon as the singing 
ended he went out, determined to drown out those 
convicting lines with rum. He entered a saloon, 
called for a drink, raised the glass to his lips, and set 
it down untasted. 

" As I attempted to drink," he said, when subse- 
quently he told his story, "I could see written on 
the walls of the bar-room, ' What shall the harvest 
be?' " 

He sought his home. In the darkness, as he tossed 
to and fro on his bed, he saw on the walls of the bed- 
room, "What shall the harvest be?" 

The next day found him in the Tabernacle again, 
with that solemn question ringing in his ears. A 
Christian gentleman addressed him and heard his 
pathetic story. They prayed together, and the trem- 
bling drunkard listened to the good news that even he 
might be saved from the "eternal shame." 



"WHEN JESUS COMES:' 183 

He believed, he entered upon the right way, and 
walked therein. The staggering drunkard stood firmly 
on his feet, a reformed, Christian man. 

One day just before Mr. Sankey — from whose nar- 
rative w T e have condensed this story — left the city, the 
man came to him. "Here is a letter," he said, "I 
want to read you. It is from my little girl. My wife 
and I have been separated; for eight years I have not 
seen them." 

Then with tears he read, " Papa, I knew that you 
would come back to us some time. I knew that the 
Lord would find you, for I have been praying for you 

all these years. ' ' " Youth's Companion." 



" WHEN JESUS COMES. 11 

P. P. BLISS, 1838-1876. 

In regard to this highly spiritual hymn, J. S. Ells- 
worth, of the family of Mr. Bliss, writes to us: 

U I do not think I exaggerate when I say that the 
hymns and tunes all came from intimate communion 
with God through his Word and by prayer. None of 
the immediate family can ever forget the light of 
heaven irradiating his noble features as he sat down 
to the organ to sing one of his hymns, written while 
alone with God. At such times he would often call 
in members of the family to sing and rejoice with him 
over what God had given. 

" You ask particularly concerning the hymn-music 
'When Jesus comes/ It was written in Peoria, 111 i- 



1 84 THE STORY OF' THE TUNES. 

nois, in 1872, and was suggested by a conversation on 
the subject of our Lord's return — a subject near to his 
heart. A short time after this conversation he was 
coming down stairs from his room, his mind deeply 
impressed by the subject. Spontaneously the words 
and music came to him, and as he descended the 
stairs he sang them and at once wrote them down." 



« WHEN, MARSHALLED ON THE NIGHTLY PLAIN" 

AIR "BONNIE DOON." JAMES MILLER. WORDS BY HENRY KIRKE WHITE. 

Burns writes: " ' Ye banks and braes o' Bonnie 
Doon' might, I think, find a place" — in a collection. 

" Do you know the history of the air? It is curi- 
ous enough. A good many years ago Mr. James Mil- 
ler, writer in your own town, was in company with 
our friend Clarke, and talking of Scottish airs. Miller 
expressed an ardent ambition to be able to compose a 
Scottish air. Mr. Clarke, partly by way of a joke, 
told him to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord 
and preserve some sort of a rhythm, and he would 
infallibly compose a Scottish air. In a few days Mil- 
ler produced the rudiments of this air." 



"WHOSOEVER WILL." 

P. P. BLISS, 1 838-1876. 

" Whosoever will may come" was written dur- 
ing the winter of 1869 and '70, after hearing Henry 



-WHOSOEVER WILL." 1S5 

Moorhouse, of England, preach from the text, " God 
so loved the world that he grave his onlv-bejjotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life," John 3:16. Mr. Moor- 
house preached every night for a week from this same 
text, and the new views of the freeness and fulness of 
the invitation of the gospel to sinners that many Chris- 
tians in Chicago at that time received are well ex- 
pressed in Mr, Bliss' hymn: 

" WHOSOEVER WILL." 

" Whosoever heareth," shout, shout the sound, 
Send the blessed tidings all the world around ; 
Spread the joyful news wherever man is found, 
" Whosoever will may come." 

Chorus. 
"Whosoever will, whosoever will," 
Send the proclamation over vale and hill ; 
T is a loving Father calls the wand'rer home, 
" Whosoever will may come." 

Memoir of P. P. Bliss. 



iV^issiorfary Praise SerVice- 



iS- 



" } ES t MY NA TIVE LAND, I LOVE THEE." i8g 

THE MISSIONARY PRAISE SERVICE. 

The music for missionary meetings and praise 
service is not extensive, but much of it is very spir- 
itual aud beautiful. The "Missionary Hymn," by 
Heber and Lowell Mason, is well known and is always 
inspiring. An old collection of music called the 
"American Vocalist" contained much missionary 
music that met the wants of the work, among the 
pieces being the "Missionary's Farewell," "The 
faithful Sentinel," and Washburn's beautiful hymn, 
"The burial of Mrs. Judson." 

For the use of the choir no better missionary hymn 
and tune are found than Lowell Mason's "Watch- 
man, tell us of the night." It has the form of dia- 
logue, and the impression is spiritual, hopeful, and 
inspiring. It gives the right spirit and tone to the 
opening of the missionary meeting. 



« YES, MY NATIVE LAND, 1 LOVE THEE." 

This beautiful hymn, written by S. F. Smith 
many years ago, on the departure of missionaries, 
deserves to live and to be often used. It breathes the 
spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice. 

Yes, my native land! I love thee; 

All thy scenes, I love them well ; 
Friends, connections, happy country. 

Can I bid you all farewell ? 
Can I leave you, 

Far in heathen lands to dwell ? 



i 9 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Yes, I hasten from you gladly, 
From the scenes I loved so well : 

Far away, ye billows, bear me ; 
Lovely native land, farewell ! 

Pleased, I leave thee, 
Far in heathen lands to dwell. 

In the desert let me labor, 
On the mountains let me tell 

How He died— the blessed Saviour— 
To redeem a world from hell ! 

Let me hasten 
Far in heathen lands to dwell. 

Bear me on, thou restless ocean, 
Let the winds my canvas swell ; 

Heaves my heart with warm emotion 
While I go far hence to dwell. 

Glad I bid thee, 
Native land, farewell, farewell ! 



It is usually sung to " Rousseau's Dream" ("Green- 
ville"), of which mention has already been made. 

Some fifty years ago there took place in a rural 
town in New York a simple service that touched the 
hearts of all who witnessed it. It had reference to the 
departure of a missionary for Oregon. The missionary 
was a young lady, greatly beloved in the town of her 
residence. 

She was a member of the choir. A hymn then 
familiar was given out by the minister, beginning, 

"Yes, my native land, I love thee." 

As it was being sung many of the singers were deeply 
affected, and one by one ceased to sustain the simple 



" YES.ffr NATIVE LAND \I LOVE THEEr 191 

melody. The young missionary found herself at last 
singing nearly or quite alone: 

44 Scenes of sacred peace and pleasure, 
Holy days and Sabbath bell, 
Richest, brightest, purest treasure, 
Glad I bid you all farewell." 

Years afterwards this incident was distinctly re- 
called when it was announced that the woman's influ- 
ence as the wife of the pioneer missionary had much 
contributed in bringing to the United States a territory 
larger in extent than Great Britain and Ireland and 
nearly four times as large as New England. This vast 
region is now known as Oregon, Washington, and 
Idaho. 

In the spring of 1836 two newly married mission- 
aries and their wives began a bridal tour from New 
York to Walla- Walla, a distance of thirty-five hundred 
miles. The expedition is now famous in history as 
Whitman and Spaulding's, after the names of the two 
clergymen who with their wives then started on horse- 
back for the Rocky Mountains and the regions beyond. * 

They passed Cincinnati — a village; Pittsburgh — a 
simple backwoods town. Chicago had not yet heard 
the whistle of the locomotive. They arrived at Coun- 
cil Bluffs ; then they began to ascend the mountain 
stairs of the grand divide of the waters of the conti- 
nent. 

In this sublime journey into the regions of nature's 
most stupendous monuments the health of Mrs. Spaul- 
ding failed. "Do not put me on the horse again," 



i 9 2 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

she said one morning. "Leave me here, and save 
yourselves for the great work. Tell mother that I am 
glad I came." 

But her strength revived, and she went on. Twen- 
ty-five hundred miles from home the party looked 
down upon the Pacific slope and beheld a new em- 
pire. 

It was a July day under a blazing sun. The 
crowns of mountains filled the air around them. Be- 
fore them lay the vast and mysterious rivers of the 
Platte, Yellowstone, and Columbia, with their luxu- 
riant valleys. 

The missionaries rested. " Let us have a season of 
devotion," said their leader. 

They lifted the American flag in the clear air. 
They then laid a Bible beneath it on the ground, 
and opened it. Then they knelt under the flag and 
around the open Bible and took formal possession of 
the western side of the continent for the Christian 
church. 

Our history has few pictures that are more poetic. 
It was like Balboa at Panama or La Salle on the Mis- 
sissippi. 



ZINZENDORES MISSIONARY HYMN. 

SEE ZINZENDORF, IN " STORY OF THE HYMNS." 

This is sung to several long metre tunes, among 
them Lowell Mason's "Hebron" and "Ashwell," 
and the " Doxology" attributed to John Huss. 



ZINZENDORF'S MISSIONAR Y HYMN. 193 

The words were written on Zinzendorf's return 
voyage from his first missionary work in America in 
the Antilles. 

The following is John Wesley's translation of the 

hymn: 

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, my glorious dress ! 
'Mid flaming worlds, in these arrayed, 
With joy shall I lift up my head. 

Bold shall I stand in thy great day, 
For who aught to my charge shall lay ? 
Fully absolved through these I am 
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. 

The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb, 
Who from the Father's bosom came, 
Who died for me, even me, to atone, 
Now for my Lord and God I own. 

Lord, I believe thy precious blood, 
Which at the mercy-seat of God 
For ever doth for sinners plead, 
For me — e'en for my soul — was shed. 

Lord, I believe were sinners more 
Than sands upon the ocean shore, 
Thou hast for all a ransom paid, 
For all a full atonement made. 

When from the dust of death I rise 
To claim my mansion in the skies, 
E'en then this shall be all my plea : 
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me. 

Thus Abraham, the Friend of God, 
Thus all heaven's armies bought with blood, 
Saviour of sinners thee proclaim — 
Sinners, of whom the chief I am. 

The Story of the Tones. n 



i 9 4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Jesus, be endless praise to thee, 
Whose boundless mercy hath for me, 
For me, and all thy hands have made, 
An everlasting ransom paid. 

Ah ! give to all thy servants, Lord, 
With power to speak thy gracious word, 
That all who to thy wounds will flee 
May find eternal life in thee. 

Thou God of power, thou God of love, 
Let the whole world thy mercy prove ! 
Now let thy word o'er all prevail ; 
Now take the spoils of death and hell. 

Says Ziruendorf in reference to his missionary 
journeys: 

"That place becomes our home where the most 
can be done for the Saviour at the time." 

"I have no plan; I follow Christ from year to 
year; I seek out as many of the heathen as I can; I 
love the pulpit, and I have labored to unite all the 
children of God who do not dwell together." 



DOXOLOGY OF JOHN HUSS. 

John Huss, burned alive at Constance in 1415, 
died singing amid the flames, after praying thus: 
"Assist me, that with a firm mind, by thy most pow- 
erful grace, I may undergo this most awful death to 
which I am condemned for preaching thy most holy 
gospel." 

The English processional music — "Miles Lane" — 

to 

"All hail the power of Jesus' name," 

well serves the missionary concert. 



C^ristit|as Carols. 



ADESTE EIDEEES. 197 

CHRISTMAS CAROLS. 

Most churches and Sunday-schools seek for the 
best Christmas carols on the approach of the season 
that celebrates the Nativity. What are the best 
Christmas carols for Christmas eve, for the Christmas 
concert, or for the use of the choir ? What collection 
of carols would make a devout and inspiring service 
of song ? A special charm, in this retrospective ser- 
vice, endears to us the words and music which have 
expressed the worship of past ages, and are thus hal- 
lowed by sacred associations. We mention a few 
such. 



ADESTE EIDELES, OR PORTUGUESE HYMN. 

Oh, come, all ye faithful, 

Joyful and triumphant, 

Come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem! 

Come and adore him, 

Born the King of angels ! 

Oh, hasten to adore him, 

Oh, hasten to adore him, 

Oh, hasten to adore him, 
Christ our Lord! 

Sing, choirs of angels, 

Sing in exultation ! 

Come, all ye citizens of heaven, rejoice ! 

Glory to God be, 

Glory in the highest! 

Oh, hasten to adore him, 

Oh, hasten to adore him, 

Oh, hasten to adore him, 
Christ, our Lord ! 



198 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"SILENT NIGHT/ HOLY NIGHT/ 11 

J. M. HAYDN, 1737-1808. 

The following, with its music, forms one of the 
most beautiful carols ever written. It is a translation 
of an old German Christmas song. 

Silent night ! Holy night ! 

All is calm, all is bright: 

Round yon virgin mother and child, 

Holy infant so tender and mild, 

Falls a heavenly peace, 

Falls a heavenly peace. 

Silent night ! Holy night ! 
Shepherds quake at the sight ; 
Glories stream from heaven afar, 
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia! 
Christ the Saviour is born, 
Christ the Saviour is born. 

Silent night! Holy night! 
Son of God, love's pure light 
Radiant beams from thy holy face, 
With the dawn of redeeming grace, 
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, 
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth. 



THE ENDLESS HALLELUJAH/ 

JOSEPH BARNBY, 1838. WORDS BY REV. J. ELLERTON. 

Sing Hallelujah forth in duteous praise, 
O citizens of heaven, and sweetly raise 
An endless Hallelujah. 

Ye next, who stand before the Eternal Light, 
In hymning choirs reecho to the height 
An endless Hallelujah. 



BALL. 199 

The Holy City shall take up your strain, 
And with glad songs resounding wake again 
An endless Hallelujah. 

In blissful antiphons ye thus rejoice 
To render to the Lord with thankful voice 
An endless Hallelujah. 

Ye who have gained at length your palms in bliss, 
Victorious ones, your chant shall still be this, 
An endless Hallelujah. 

There, in one grand acclaim, for ever ring 
The strains which tell the honor of your King, 
An endless Hallelujah, 

This is the rest for weary ones brought back ; 
This is the food and drink which none shall lack, 
An endless Hallelujah ; 

While thee, by whom were all things made, we praise 
For ever, and tell out in sweetest lays 
An endless Hallelujah. 

Almighty Christ, to thee our voices sing 
Glory for evermore ; to thee we bring 
An endless Hallelujah. Amen. 



BALL. 

W. B. BRADBURY, l8i6-lS6S. 

This tune has been frequently sung in Wellesley 
College chapel. 
The words, 

" When verdure clothes the fertile vale," 

are by Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears, born 1S10. 



200 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

This hymn and tune are among the best Christ- 
mas compositions of recent years. 



LUTHER'S SONG. 

SUNG IN THE STREETS WHEN A BOY. 

Foxes to their holes have gone, 

Every bird into its nest; 
But I wander here alone, 

And for me there is no rest ; 
Yet I neither faint nor fear, 
For the Saviour Christ is near. 

If I live he '11 near me be, 

If I die, to him I '11 go : 
He '11 not leave me, I will trust him, 

And my heart no fear shall know. 
Sin and sorrow I defy, 
For on Jesus I rely. 



FOLSOM. 

J. C. W. A. MOZART, 1756-I79I. 

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, 
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid. 

Star of the East, the horizon adorning, 

Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid. 

Bishop Reginald Heber. 

MOZART. 

J. C. W. A. MOZART. 

Hark ! the herald angels sing, 
"Glory to the new-born King! 
Peace on earth and mercy mild, 
God and sinners reconciled !" 

Charles Wesley, 1739. 



LATIN CHURCH CHILDREN'S CAROL. 201 
ANTIOCH. 

GEO. FR. HANDEL. ARRANGED BY LOWELL MASON. 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! 

Let earth receive her King, 

Let every heart prepare him room, 

And heaven and nature sing. 

Isaac Watts. 



CHRISTMAS. 

HANDEL, I6S4-1759. 



While shepherds watched their flocks by night, 

All seated on the ground, 

The angel of the Lord came down, 

And glory shone around. 

Tate and Brady. 



LATIN CHURCH CHILDREN S CAROL. 

Angels we have heard on high, 
Sweetly singing o'er the plains, 

And the mountains in reply 
Echo back their joyous strains. 

Shepherds, why this jubilee? 

Why your rapturous strains prolong? 
Say, what may the tidings be 

Which inspire your heavenly song ? 

Come to Bethlehem, come and see 
Him whose birth the angels sing ; 

Come adore on bended knee 
The infant Christ, the new-born King. 

See within a manger laid 
Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth ; 

Mary, Joseph, lend your aid, 

With us sing our Saviour's birth. 

Gloria in excelsis Deo, 
Gloria in excelsis Deo. 



202 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

A THENS. 

FELICE GIARDINI, I716-I796. WORDS BY EDMUND H. SEARS. 

It came upon the midnight clear, 

That glorious song of old, 
From angels bending near the earth 

To touch their harps of gold: 
" Peace on the earth, good-will to men 

From heaven's all-gracious King!" 
The world in solemn stillness lay 

To hear the angels sing. 



GEORGE MOORES CHRISTMAS. 

George Moore, the eminent English philan- 
thropist, who recently died, began life in extreme 
poverty. His biographer gives a pitiful account of 
his crying in the streets of London because he had 
no friends and could not find work. * 

His middle life was passed in well-earned afflu- 
ence, and his last years were spent in the grand old 
castle of the ancient Percys, which he had gazed upon 
in awe in boyhood, and which his great wealth at last 
enabled him to purchase for a home. 

He was exposed to great temptations in youth, but 
when he came to feel that the tendency of his life was 
wrong in any direction, he arrested the wrong course 
by prompt decision. It was these decisions, these 
constant turnings from evil courses into life's best 
ways, that led him at last to a career of worldly suc- 
cess, piety, and philanthropy. 

He thus describes one of the dangerous periods of 
his first apprenticeship: 



GEORGE MOORE'S CHRISTMAS. 203 

" My master gave way to drinking and set before 
me a bad example. I lodged in the public house 
nearly all the time, and saw nothing but wickedness 
and drinking. I played cards almost every night — 
sometimes the whole night through. Gambling was 
my passion, and it might have been my ruin." 

It was Christmas morning. The apprentice lad 
had spent the night at the card-table. He had retired 
long after midnight, with a conscience ill at ease and 
the prospect of dismissal from his master's service be- 
fore him. 

Suddenly his ear was arrested by strains of music. 
The gray light was breaking, and the waits, as is the 
custom in England, were abroad playing carols. The 
music brought before his mind, like a vision, his old 
home, the future dangers of his present course, and, 
in contrast with his own eclipsed life, the luminous 
Bethlehem story. 

u Better thoughts," he says, "came over me with 
the sweet carols. I felt overwhelmed with remorse 
and penitence. I thought of my dear father, and 
feared that I might break his heart and bring his 
gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. I resolved to give 
up card-playing and gambling. This resolve, by the 
grace of God, I have firmly carried out." 

Many years passed, and George Moore's life be- 
came an expression of gratitude to God for the grace 
that had been given him at these critical periods of 
youth. "George Moore's Christmases" of charities 
to the poor became a famous feature of London. 



20 4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES, 

CHRISTMAS DOXOLOGY. 

PILESGROVE. JOHN STICKNEY, 1742-1826. 

The music and words of the following carol, a 
version from Luther, are among the most beautiful in 
modern psalmody: 

All praise to thee, eternal Lord, 
Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood ; 
Choosing a manger for thy throne, 
While worlds on worlds are thine alone. 

Once did the skies before thee bow ; 
A virgin's arms contain thee now ; 
Angels who did in thee rejoice 
Now listen for thine infant voice. 

Thou comest in the darksome night 
To make us children of the light, 
To make us in the realms divine 
Like thine own angels round thee shine. 

All this for us thy love hath done ; 

By this to thee our love is won ; 

For this we tune our cheerful lays 

And shout our thanks in ceaseless praise. 



Old Revival Melodies. 



L O VING-KINDNESS. 207 

OLD REVIVAL MELODIES. 

With the popular so-called Old Folks' Concerts 
this book has nothing to do, as that kind of entertain- 
ment is not within its purpose. But many churches 
like from time to time to revive the old tunes at their 
Praise Services; such tunes recall sacred scenes and 
associations and brinQf back memories of the sweetest 
religious experiences. 

Some of the old tunes that are now almost wholly 
omitted from collections were very spiritual. Among 
them the following: 

UNION HYMN. 

WILLIAM BILLINGS, 17^6-lSoO. 

From whence doth this union arise, 
That hatred is conquered by love ? 

It fastens our souls in such ties 
As nature and time can't remove. 

The words of the above hymn were written by 
Thomas Baldwin, D. D., 1 753-1825. It was composed 
during a night journey from Newport, N. H., to Ca- 
naan, N. H. There had been trouble in the church at 
Newport, and his visit had restored brotherly love. 



LOVING-KINDNESS. 

WILLIAM CALDWELL, TKNN., 183O. 

Awake, my soul, to joyful lays, 
And sing thy great Redeemer's prj 



208 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

He justly claims a song from me : 
His loving-kindness, oh, how free! 
Loving-kindness, loving-kindness, 
His loving-kindness, oh, how free ! 

The words are by Rev. Samuel Medley, 1 738-1 799. 



" THERE ARE ANGELS HOVERING ROUND." 

HUSBAND. 

The author of this tuue was a clerk of Surrey 

Chapel, London. 

♦ 

THE GARDEN HYMN. 

JEREMIAH INGALLS, 1764-1838. 

The Lord into his garden comes ; 
The spices yield a rich perfume, 
The lilies grow and thrive, 
The lilies grow and thrive : 
Refreshing showers of grace divine 
From Jesus flow to every vine, 
Which makes the dead revive, 
Which makes the dead revive. 

A hymn of the Wesleyan revivals. 



THE OLD NEW ENGLAND ANTHEM FOR EASTER. 

BILLINGS, 1746-1800. 

The words were from Young's "Night Thoughts:" 
" The Lord is risen indeed, Hallelujah !" 



WA TCH NIGHT. 

JAMES LUCAS, OF ENGLAND, 1762-1800. 

The words of this old Wesleyan hymn and tune 
began thus: 



HENLEY. 209 

Come, let us anew our journey pursue, 

Roll round with the year, 
And never stand still till the Master appear! 
His adorable will let us gladly fulfil, 

And our talents improve, 
By the patience of hope and the labor of love. 



"OH, HOW HAPPY ARE THEYT 

TUNE BY R. D. HUMPHREYS, OF THE SOUTH, 1$20. 

The favorite old Wesleyan hymn of pioneer Meth- 
odism in America. 

Oh, how happy are they 

Who the Saviour obey, 
And have laid up their treasure above ! 

Tongue can never express 

The sweet comfort and peace 
Of a soul in its earliest love ! 



HENLE V. 

MUSIC BY LOWELL MASON. " THE HALLELUJAH." 

This was an old home tune greatly beloved a half- 
century ago. 

Words by Miss Catherine A. Waterman, of Phila- 
delphia (Mrs. Esling), born 181 2. She was a member 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Come unto me, ye who are heavy laden, 
Come unto me, ye who are sore oppressed, 

The white-haired sire, the young and tender maiden, 
Come unto me, and I will give you rest. 



J of the Turns. 



A^ors of Preludes, 



A UTHORS OF PR EL UDES. 2 1 3 

THE AUTHORS OF PRELUDES, INTER- 
LUDES, AND POSTLUDES. 

Preludes, Interludes, and Postludes form a part 
of the service of nearly every church. When pro- 
grammes are printed, as is often the case for festivals 
like Christmas, Easter, and anniversaries, the names of 
the authors of these musical services appear, as Han- 
del, Bach, Cherubini, Batiste, Guilmant, YVeley, 
Buck, etc. A large proportion of the worshippers 
seem to regard these services as mere musical exer- 
cises, useful chiefly to excite a devotional mood of 
thought, to continue it, and to conclude an hour of 
worship and dismiss an assembly. To devout and in- 
structed people these are truly parts of the service, 
not mere mechanical exercises; and they are very ele- 
vating and helpful to those prepared to receive them. 

Few people remain in the church during the post- 
lude. The few who do so are usually people of a very 
religious nature or of especial culture. The number 
who linger will indicate often the devoutness as well 
as the taste of the congregation. 

"There was one thing Mendelssohn could never 
do," said a musician. 

u And what was that?" asked a friend. 

l< Play a congregation out of a church." 

The inspiration of this great master was sufficient 
to continue the attention till the last note fell upon 
the unwilling ears. 

" The only way to empty the church while he is 



2i4 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

on the organ seat," said a sexton, "is to stop the bel- 
lows," which he one day did. 

There are but few organists who can make the 
organ teach and preach, and who regard their work 
as a spiritual calling. Batiste, the organist of the his- 
torical St. Eustache, Paris, used to make himself ac- 
quainted with the service of the Sabbath before he 
went to the organ. He then sought the mood of the 
service, and when he began to improvise he arrested 
all wandering thoughts and feelings and brought 
them into sympathy and harmony with the subject 
and the occasion. 

"I never sit down to the organ," said the beloved 
Christian organist of the musical Ruggles Street 
Church, Boston, "without doing my best, whether 
the audience be lar^e or small." The music in this 
church is a service, and the organ is brought into har- 
mony with the thought and subject of the service and 
is made to preach the gospel. The people usually re- 
main until after the postlude, and many come to be 
prepared for the service by the prelude. 

Is your organ consecrated to its work? Is it 
played for a musical display, or does it speak for God ? 
Does it voice the spirit of the gospel, the sermon, and 
the occasion ? 

It is unnecessary to speak of the great tone masters, 
like Bach, Mozart, Handel, as the authors of these mu- 
sical services. We will here speak of those organ 
poets whose works and aims are not so well known. 

The French Revolution produced the French Acad- 



WELEY. 215 

emy of Music as a school of martial music and patriotic 
song. Out of it grew the Conservatoire, under the 
direction of Cherubini, and out of the Conservatoire a 
popular school of organ poets arose, such as Batiste, 
Weley, Guilmant, and Saint-Saens. There are few 
organ programmes for any special occasion on which 
the names of these pupils of Cherubini do not appear. 



CHE RUB I XL 



Cherubini, who may be regarded as the founder 
of the poetic school of organ music, was born at Flor- 
ence, 1760. After filling Europe with music he was 
appointed director of the Conservatoire in 1S22, a 
position which he continued to hold for twenty years. 
He made it one of the finest schools for the composition 
and execution of sacred music. He published his 
famous "Requiem" for male voices when he was 
seventy-six years of age. He died in 1842. 

Few teachers were ever so beloved by their pupils 
as was Cherubini. He had a very affectionate and 
spiritual nature, which was inspiring to all who came 
under its influence. His favorite pupil was the great 
organ-teacher Halevy, who attended him to the last 
like a son. Among his other famous pupils were Au- 
ber and Zimmerman. 



WELEY. 



Weley, whose pastoral music and descriptive 
thunder-storm have made his work familiar even to the 



216 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

popular ear, was born in 1 817. His father was organ- 
ist of St. Roche. The boy learned the scale before he 
knew the alphabet. At the age of eight he could play 
a whole mass. His master was Halevy. At the age 
of fifteen he gained prizes for organ counterpoint and 
fugue. He began to improvise on the organ of St. 
Roche, and soon became famous for his inspirational 
playing. This power of producing musical moods 
placed him at the head of a new school of organ mu- 
sic, which combined melody and sentiment with 
science. In 1847 ne was appointed organist of the 
Madeleine. 

He was severely criticised by the advocates of the 
more severe methods of music, for his playing often 
violated all the mechanical rules of art. His whole 
aim was to make the organ express the spirit of the 
occasion, to influence, mellow, preach. Rossini said to 
him one day, " People seem to like you as much for 
your artistic faults as for your good qualities." 

His playing exhausted him. He experienced a 
great loss of nervous force in his musical moods. One 
day, after his health had begun to fail, a friend desired 
him to play at his wedding. " I will do so if I can," 
he promised. He went to the church with much ex- 
ertion. As he stood at the foot of the organ stairs, he 
heard the signal that the wedding procession was com- 
ing. A long flight of steps led up to the organ. He 
felt unequal to the exertion, but with sudden resolution 
flew up the steps. He stopped at the top, had a 
coughing spell and a hemorrhage, and then threw 



WHITING. 217 

himself upon the organ-seat and gave to friendship 
one of his last efforts. 



BA TISTE. 



Axtoixe Edouard Batiste was born in Paris, 
1820. He was admitted to the Conservatoire in 1828. 
He was a page of the Chapel Royal, became a lover of 
organ music, and was appointed teacher of lyric and 
sacred music at an early age. He became organist of 
St. Nicholas', and subsequently of the old historic 
church of St. Eustache. 



WHITING. 



America has a creditable record in the production 
of organ preludes and postludes. Conspicuous among 
the writers of such compositions are Geo. E. Whiting 
and Dudley Buck. Mr. Whiting was born at Hollis- 
ton, Mass., 1842. He began to study music at five 
years, with his brother, who was an organist at Spring- 
field. At the age of thirteen he appeared in public as 
an organist. Two years later he succeeded Dudley 
Buck as organist in Hartford, Conn. He studied with 
Morgan, went to England, and became a pupil of Best. 
He afterwards studied in Berlin, under Riidecke. In 
1874 he became the organist of the famous grand organ 
at Music Hall, Boston, and was the principal organ 
teacher in the New England Conservatory. He went 



TO 



218 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

to Cincinnati as organist of the College of Music, but 
returned to Boston to the New England Conservatory. 
He has published several works for the organ which 
are rich in preludes, and these preludes are played 
everywhere and have become an almost universal call 

to devotion. 

♦ 

DUDLEY BUCK. 

Dudley Buck was born in Hartford, 1839. Musi- 
cal inspiration filled his youth, and "what the boy 
admired, the youth desired, and the man acquired." 
He studied in Leipzig under the greatest masters, and 
subsequently in Dresden, giving special attention to 
the works of Bach. After three years in Germany he 
went to Paris, and acquainted himself with organists 
and music of the melodious school. He returned to 
America, served as organist in several conspicuous 
positions, and among them in Boston Music Hall. His 
music is much employed in the playing of preludes, 
interludes, and postludes. 



FELIX ALEXANDRE GUILMANT. 

This organ poet was born at Boulogne, 1837. His 
"Cradle Song," "Wedding March," and "Chant 
Seraphic" are well known. The last beautiful com- 
position was written for the dedication of the great 
organ in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, and was in- 
scribed to the memory of the composer's mother. 



DEVOTIONAL PRELUDES. 219 

An organist can often lead the devotional thought 
by introducing some old melody like one of Luther's 
chorals, or some once-loved revival hymn, and impro- 
vising upon it. Among the writers of such music the 
late Mr. Rider, of Tremont Temple, Boston, may be 
mentioned for his highly devotional work. "Old 
Hundred " may be so used, or "Olmutz," or Billings' 
11 Majesty," or the "Star of Bethlehem." "Nearer, 
my God, to thee " is always appropriate for variations 
of melody that rightly elevate the thought. 

How can congregations be made to appreciate pre- 
ludes, interludes, and postludes? Only by education. 
But how can this be secured? 

Have in each church a series of lectures on the 
writers of organ music. Let these lectures be illustra- 
ted on the organ, as "An evening with Handel," "An 
evening with Rossini," "An evening with Cherubini," 
"An evening with German composers," "An evening 
with American composers." When a congregation 
understands what a prelude means, that prelude be- 
comes to them a religious poem. It conveys to them 
the same religious thought and feeling as the playing 
of Gregorian music, or the old choral, or the "Adeste 
Fideles," or "Old Hundred." People unwillingly 
listen to what they do not understand, and gladly to 
what they comprehend. 

Let a selection from the "Messiah," "Elijah," or 
other familiar work be played, and there settles upon 
the congregation the attitude of devout attention. Va- 
riations on a well-known hvmn or touching religious 



22o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

ballad at once produce the devotional mood in a body 
of worshippers. 

If the church employs these services, it surely be- 
comes its duty to instruct the people in these services. 
There should be nothing meaningless in the house of 
God. An organist with an empty heart has no place 
there, nor any composition that expresses nothing to 
the soul. Every organist should be a Batiste in the 
method and conscientiousness of his work, and every 
work that is offered as a religious service to a con^re- 
gation should be made intelligible to that congregation. 

We have abridged these notices from articles fur- 
nished to the "Musical Visitor'' by the editor. 



Praise-A/|eetir^ Anecdotes, 



PRAISE-MEETING ANECDOTES. 223 

PRAISE-MEETING ANECDOTES OF THE 
MISSION OF MUSIC. 

The simple Scottish air, "Come to Jesus," used 
to be sung at Jerry McAuley's Mission, and the assur- 
ance, " He will save you," was a powerful influence 
in awakening resolution to overcome evil. 

The funeral of Jerry McAuley was such as New 
York city had never seen before. It was a golden 
September day. The church in which the services 
were to be held w r as crowded. The streets in the 
vicinity were filled with waiting people. 

In the great throng that crowded church and street 
were ministers, philanthropists, merchants, thieves, 
confidence men, women with painted faces, children in 
rags. Before the pulpit, amid the sweetness of flow- 
ers, lay the dead form of a man who was once a river- 
thief. On the black drapery of the wall back of the 
pulpit were these words, the last words of him whose 
life the crowd had come to honor: 

"It is all right!" 

At the age of thirteen this man had landed from 
an emigrant ship in the great, crowded, wicked city. 
Alone in the wilderness of homes, he made the ac- 
quaintance and friendship of the low, the idle, and 
the vicious. He became a prize-fighter, a drunkard, 
a river-thief, and for his crimes was sentenced to Sing 
Sing. 

But the life he led troubled his conscience. Weary 



224 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

and sick of sin, he sought to escape it. In his seek- 
ing he found good men ready to help him. Soon 
there sprang up in his heart an almost patriarchal 
faith — a faith that the Spirit of God was able to 
change his sinful nature; that a new life, through a 
spiritual birth, was possible to him. 

By it he was led to receive the truth with simple 
trust, believing that the Spirit of God would help 
him to overcome his evil desires, and thus he would 
become a new man in right living and in true and 
faithful service to a divine Master. 

One day he stood up in a mission-chapel and said, 
"I stand here to-night a monument of God's grace, 
saved and kept by his power from everything that is 
sinful and bad — from drinking, gambling, stealing, 
from being a public nuisance, yes, a walking rag- 
shop — changed inside and outside, thank God. There 
may be some poor fellow here to-night without a 
friend, without any character left, without a home. If 
God saved me and has kept me, he will do the same 
for you if you will only let him. And trusting to his 
help, seek to save yourself." 

Faith had saved him. It saved others. He estab- 
lished a mission in the most criminal and dangerous 
part of the city, and began to preach there the one 
doctrine of moral recovery through acceptance of a 
divine Master and an inward experience of spiritual 
aid furnished to a struggling soul by the Spirit of 
God. 

Year by year the work went on. Some of the 



PRAISE- MEETING ANECDOTES. 225 

most abandoned criminals were led to give themselves 
to this man's Master and to enter upon the new life. 
These experiences multiplied and became an influ- 
ence. People wondered at its power. . The story of 
the mission of Jerry McAuley filled the city and the 
country. The mission itself became a monument of 
faith. 

And so on that calm September day thoughtful 
men gathered among the most depraved people to 
respect the memory of the dead river-thief. They saw 
a truth of Scripture as many of them had never seen 
it before: u If any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
ture." 

Faith has her conquests age by age, and such a 
man is a conqueror. Notorious Jerry McAuley, vic- 
torious through Him who loved him, and to whom he 
had given himself in an everlasting covenant ! Tears 
fell like rain on his grave, and thousands of silent 
hearts and prayers pronounced over it their benedic- 
tions, and thus testified to the power of his life. 

■Multitudes of men and women more favored by 
circumstances might light their torch of faith at the 
taper of this poor man, and gain strength to overcome 
some inward evil when he overcame so many out- 
ward sins. Such a faith is for all; and for all who 
seek it in earnest is the promise of the same overcom- 
ing power. 

" He will save you— just now. 

" Only trust him— just now." 

Story of the Tunet. IO* 



226 THE STORY OF THE TUXES. 

RAY PALMER'S SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES. 

Rev. Charles S. Robinson, D. D., in an article 
in the "Congregationalist" on the Praise Service, gives 
some recollections of Rev. Ray Palmer which the con- 
ductors of services of song may very profitably use. 
We give an extract from the article: 

Dr. Palmer was born at Little Compton, R. I., 
November 12, 1808, and was graduated from Yale 
College in 1830. After his theological education was 
finished he went to Bath, Me., where he had charge 
of the Central Congregational Church for fifteen years. 
He was pastor of the First Congregational Church in 
Albany from 1850 to 1865. He then acted as secretary 
of the American Congregational Union, and resided 
several years in New York city. Subsequently he 
was engaged in pastoral work in the Belleville Ave- 
nue Church of Newark, N. J., until his death, March 
29, 1887. Thus he lived full of honors, labored with 
unusual success, and went to his rest loved and wept 
by all. 

The story of his sacred song, u My faith looks up 
to Thee," the most famous perhaps, and certainly one 
of the most useful, belonging to modern times, has 
been often told. The author, Dr. Ray Palmer, gave 
the facts some years ago to a religious paper in Lon- 
don; he said it was written in New York in the house 
of a lady who kept the school in which he was a 
teacher. It was not prompted by any outward cir- 
cumstances, nor had it any special call as a composi- 



PRAISE-MEETING ANECDOTES. 227 

tion. He was then in poor health and was near 
twenty-two years of age. "It was born in my heart 
and demanded expression, " the poet has revealed 
since. "There was not the slightest thought of wri- 
ting for another eye, least of all of writing a hymn 
for Christian worship. I gave form to what I felt, by 
writing the stanzas, with little effort. I recollect I 
wrote them with very tender emotion and penned 
the last line with tears. " This was in 1830, and the 
poem did not see the light again till 1833. Lowell 
Mason and Thomas Hastings were then compiling a 
small book called "Spiritual Songs for Social Wor- 
ship;" it was a passing request made by Dr. Mason 
that Dr. Palmer would contribute to this, which 
brought out the hitherto unknown piece of poetry, in 
the recesses of a pocket-book. They were in Boston 
at the time. While the compiler waited, the composer 
went into a convenient store and copied the verses 
without any comment on either side; then each pro- 
ceeded on his way. Dr. Mason wrote for the hymn 
the tune "Olivet," which has kept its company for 
all these wedded years with a sweet fidelity that no 
loving man has ever dared to disturb. Two or three 
days later Mr. Mason said, as he met his friend again, 
" Mr. Palmer, you may live many years, and do many 
good things, but I believe you will be best known to 
posterity as the author of the hymn ' My faith looks 
up to Thee.'" 

At the time of Dr. Ray Palmer's death it was 
feared by some who loved him very much, so com- 



228 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

manding was the fame of "My faith looks up to 
Thee," "that its author was in danger of being con- 
sidered "a hymnist of one hymn." Few singers, on 
sudden call, could repeat a list of first lines by which 
his best compositions besides that might be chosen for 
a funeral service in the various churches. None of 
them had, in all the years, become as familiar as that 
one. Now it is known that he himself thought "Je- 
sus, these eyes have never seen" to be his best pro- 
duction, certainly next to that earliest of them all. 
It was one of its stanzas, the last in number, which 
he was overheard to repeat, in his feebleness, on the 
day before he died; and he was wont to call attention 
modestly to it when he was questioned by the com- 
pilers who wished to know his preferences. 
The verse referred to is the following: 

"When death these mortal eyes shall seal, 
And still this throbbing heart, 
The rending veil shall Thee reveal 
All glorious as Thou art." 

The hymn was composed in Albany, N. Y., in 
1850; he entitled it, "Unseen — but not Unknown," 
and affixed to it a clause from 1 Pet. 1:8. The publi- 
cation of it was first made in the "Sabbath Hymn- 
Book. " The venerable author in person related the 
origin of it, disclosing a curious experience, which, to 
those who knew him, illustrates a certain kind of mys- 
ticism in the devotion and affection he felt for the 
Saviour, characteristic of some of his highest moods. 
He said he was seated at his study table preparing a 



PRAISE- MEE TING AKECD O TES. 229 

sermon which had Christ for its special theme. Need- 
ing a volume in his closed bookcase, he arose and 
opened the door. To his surprise, the very book ap- 
peared just at his hand. At once this suggested to his 
imagination the theme. 



FRAXCES RIDLEY HA J ERG A ES MUSIC. 

Miss Havergal was a true poet as well as writer 
of hymns. Her "Ascension Hymn" tune, to her 
own words, "Golden Harps are Sounding," is well 
known. " HavergaPs Psalmody" contains her musi- 
cal compositions. 

Her work was very conscientiously done. " If I 
am to write to any good purpose, a great deal of living 
must go to a very little writing," she once said. 

Her life conformed to this principle. What she 
wrote was the fruit of experience, and she consecrated 
her life to those duties that would give her the richest 
and most helpful experience out of which to write. 

Miss Havergal died at Caswell Bay, Swansea, in 
1S79, at the age of forty-three. How her own life 
was an illustration of her conviction that a "great 
deal" of right "living" must be the basis of worthy 
and helpful writing, may be seen in her education, 
training, and benevolent work. 

She had a beautiful voice for singing. This she 
cultivated in a most conscientious manner and de- 
voted to the work of God. Her musical memory was 
so wonderful that she could play the best works of 



2 3 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Handel, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn without notes. 
She was a popular solo singer in choral societies, but 
she resolved, almost in her girlhood, that she would 
only sing such selections as were intended for the 
moral and spiritual good of others. 

14 Singing for God," she said, "is to me the most 
personal and direct commission I hold from my Mas- 
ter." She was true to her trust. 

Her musical studies prepared the way for the 
writing of her hymns, but her heart preparation grew 
out of home mission work. It was the ambition of 
her girlhood to become a foreign missionary. Cir- 
cumstances prevented. Disappointed, she resolved to 
devote herself to benevolent work among the poor and 
suffering in her father's parish. 

She was an active worker in the home Sunday- 
school, the Church Missionary Society, and the Aid 
Societies. She gave Bible readings in the servants' 
halls. She was constantly seeking to relieve the 
wants of the poor, and she induced nearly all of the 
young people and the larger number of the adults in 
the town to sign the temperance pledge. 

Out of the experiences of such right living grew 
her hymns and music, which are known in all intelli- 
gent Christian homes. 

A single illustration will afford a view of her 
manner of work in the field of duty and with the 
pen: 

"Perhaps you will be interested to know the 
origin of the consecration hymn, ( Take my life.' I 



PRAISE- MEETING ANECDOTES. 231 

went for a little visit of five days. There were ten 
persons in the house whom I desired to turn to the 
helps and comforts of a religious life. He gave me 
the prayer, 'Lord, give me all in this house V and he 
did ! Before I left the house every one had sought 
a spiritual life. The last night of my visit I was too 
happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise 
and renewal of my own consecration, and these little 
couplets fanned themselves and chimed in my heart 
one after another, till they finished with ' Ever, only, 
all for thee!'" 

When this frail woman died, love covered her 
memory with its mantle, and the hands of the poor 
strewed her grave with flowers. The songs of her 
heart went over the world, the seeds of the experiences 
that claim the hopes and promises of heaven. 



JEXXY LIXD'S MOTIVE. 

Years ago we heard Jenny Lind sing in the 
" Messiah." She revealed, by her rendering of u I 
know that my Redeemer liveth," the ability of song 
to interpret the sublimest of themes. 

She sang, "Though worms destroy this body, yet 
in my flesh I shall see God," with a tone and a phra- 
sing that made the doctrine of the resurrection lu- 
minous. 

" She must be a Christian," we mused as we went 
out from the concert hall, u else she could never have 



232 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

given these vivid expositions of faith in the Lord who 
rose again from the dead." 

The musing of forty years ago was confirmed the 
other day by reading the reminiscences of the Rev. 
C. A. Wilkinson, the English chaplain to the King of 
Hanover. He met Jenny L,ind just after she had 
signed her contract to sing in the United States. 

In the course of their conversation she mentioned 
the great ignorance of the lower classes in Stockholm, 
and their indifference to the education of their chil- 
dren. 

"I have," she said, "determined to endow schools 
for these poor little children. My motive in going to 
America is to earn thirty-six thousand pounds, which 
I intend to hand over to trustees who will carry out 
my plans. 

u May I not, sir, hope for God's blessing upon this 
work, undertaken for the lambs of Christ's flock? 
My daily prayer is that I may be spared three years, 
so that I may carry out my plans for my poor children 
in Stockholm. Is there anything in that prayer in- 
consistent with submission to the will of God?" 

One morning, after a charity concert which she 
had given, the clergyman found her counting and 
sealing up the money received, preparatory to dis- 
tributing it among the poor. He began compliment- 
ing her, but she cut him short by saying, 

"It is the only return I can make unto the good 
Lord for the gift he has bestowed upon me, which is 
the great joy of my life. I can only repay him 



PRAISE- MEETING ANECDOTES. 233 

through the poor and the suffering. This I delight 
to do." 

When Bishop Stanley of Norwich, the father of 
Dean Stanley, was sneered at for receiving "a pro- 
fessional singer into the Episcopal palace," the "pro- 
fessional" being Jenny Lind, he replied, 

"I always wish to honor virtue and talent wher- 
ever I may find them. As to my friendship with 
Jenny Lind, I have no hesitation in saying that I con- 
sider that I am the person benefited. For I never 
converse with her without feeling myself a better 
man." 

The chaplain says he indorses that compliment as 
the literal truth, for he himself never departed from 
her society without feeling himself a better, man for 
having conversed with her. 

Her soul and heart seemed absorbed in the thought 
of obeying St. James' rule: 

" Pure religion and undefiled before God and the 
Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in 
their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from 

the WOrld." "Youth's Companion." 



A GRAND THANKSGIVING. 

That was a memorable Thanksgiving when, in 
the early spring of 1493, Columbus returned from his 
first voyage of discovery to *Palos, and hastened to 
meet the Spanish sovereigns at Barcelona. Columbus 
was a man of faith. "God made me the messein-er 



234 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

of the new heavens and the new earth," he said in 
his old age, "and told me where to find them." It 
was this patriarchal faith that inspired him to weigh 
the earth and to travel the unknown seas. 

Palos throbbed with excitement as the banner of 
the cross and crowns of Columbus rose above the 
wave and streamed into the harbor. The bells rang. 
On landing, Columbus and his crew went to the prin- 
cipal church, accompanied by the whole population, 
and offered up solemn thanksgivings for the success of 
the expedition. Columbus hastened to Barcelona to 
meet the Court. His journey was a triumphal march. 

It was the middle of April, the month of night- 
ingales and flowers. Columbus entered the city amid 
music, bells, and shouts of triumph. Ferdinand and 
Isabella, seated under a superb canopy, received him 
as a viceroy rather than an admiral, and requested 
him to relate to them the history of his voyage. He 
did so, surrounded by the Indians whom he had 
brought with him, with their gay plumes, and offer- 
ings of tropic birds and fruits. 

As he ended his wonderful narrative, there arose a 
burst of music and bore away to heaven the thoughts 
of the sovereigns and nobles and people, already 
thrilled and melted by the most marvellous tale ever 
told of human achievement. 

It was the chapel-chpir of Isabella. 

"We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to 
be the Lord; all the earth doth worship thee, the Fa- 
ther everlasting." 



PRAISE- MEETING ANECDOTES. 235 

The majestic Latin hymn swept on until it reached 
the sublime words, 

"Holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; heaven and earth 
are full of the majesty of thy glory I" 

It was perhaps the most happy moment of Colum- 
bus' life — this first thanksgiving for the new world. 



Lectures on the favorite hymns of the Christian 
church, illustrated by praise services, have long been 
popular. Lectures on the tunes, illustrated in like 
manner, may be made profitable. The writer has 
frequently given such lectures in Boston and its vicin- 
ity and has sought to use the tunes in this way, not 
as a mere matter of history and entertainment, but as 
a narrative of religious experience. In such lectures 
it is well to select the tunes that voice a spiritual his- 
tory, to relate the author's experience, and then have 
the tune sung. 

A tune like the "Adeste Fideles" mav be made 
the text of a talk on Christmas church music. "Palm 
Branches" may serve as the text for a talk on Easter 
music. "Hallelujah! what a Saviour!" may serve 
as an evening topic for a lecture on the life and work 
of P. P. Bliss. So also an evening lecture may be 
given to Dykes with profit, to Lowell Mason or George 
F. Root, using in each case the tunes of these com- 
posers. An evening with the tunes of the Reforma- 
tion, or with the Wesleyan hymns and tunes, or the 
Scotch tunes, might be made spiritually helpful. 



236 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"America" might afford the text for an evening talk 
on national music and Christian patriotism, and the 
"Missionary Hymn" for a talk on missionary music 
and its influence in heathen lauds. In large churches 
there might profitably be lectures on postludes, pre- 
ludes, and interludes, which would be really a history 
of the oratorios. 

It may well concern every leader of a praise ser- 
vice to inquire of the singers if they have indeed the 
knowledge of this new spiritual song — the song of life, 
the song of triumph in view of death, the alphabet of 
the eternal harmony of heaven. Have they that from 
which the new song springs — the "new heart," the 
"new spirit," the "new life"? Has the harmony of 
the soul with God begun in them? the harmony 
which pervades the life of the renewed on earth, 
which lifts over death the song of deliverance, and 
prepares the whole spiritual being for the celestial 
choirs ? 



Tlie New SoM. 



77//:" NEW SONG, 239 



THE NEW SONG. 

WE know not how far the poetic conception of 

Waller may be true: 

" The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made; 
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become 
As they draw near to their eternal home: 
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view 
That stand upon the threshold of the new." 

But the new spiritual life is a song of the soul. It 
is the beginning of spiritual harmony with God, and 
its natural expression is the melody of praise. Heaven 
in the Scriptures is pictured as full of song. The 
utterance of regeneration is song; of sanctification, 
song; of glorification, song. 

Song is often the first and most natural outflow of 
a Christian life on earth. The new song begins in the 
soul before the gates of the unseen world open and the 
glory of God is revealed. We have referred to the 
last hours of Oliver Holden, the author of the hymn- 
tune "Coronation," and to the music that seemed to 
fill his soul. The last hours of Bradbury were as 
beautiful. Chopin and Mozart died seeking the con- 
solations of song, but to Holden and Bradbury the 
new song seemed itself to come. 

We are not to look for surprises in life's last hour, 
nor to expect to hear the new song with mortal ears. 
But the rest of love after the hard service of life brines 
to many a harmony of spiritual trust and elevation 
like an even-son^. 



2 4 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

"Do you see," said Edmund Auger, "that blessed 
assembly who await my arrival ? Do you hear that 
sweet music with which holy men invite me, that I 
may henceforth be a partaker of their happiness? 
How delightful it is to be in the society of blessed 
spirits! Let us go! We must go! Let me go!" 

A like sense of harmony with spiritual things 
marked the last hours of Bishop Haven. Says one: 

"Groups gathered round his death-bed to muse 
over the transition from death unto life. 

" 'It is so pleasant, so beautiful, so delightful, dy- 
ing!' said the bishop. 'The angels are here. God 
lifts me up so in his arms, I cannot see the river of 
death. There is no river. It is all light. I am 
floating away from earth up into heaven. I am gli- 
ding away into God.' 

" 'Good-night!' said an old friend, as he turned away. 

" 'Good-night!' was the reply, 'but when we meet 
again it will be Good-morning.' 

"And so was fulfilled the word of the prophet, 'At 
evening-time it shall be li^ht. ' There w 7 as no niq-ht 
about that couch, for the light of immortality had 
touched it." 

" I have had wealth, power, and fame," said Prince 
Albert, when near his end. " If they were all I had, 
what should I have now?" He repeated the first 
lines of the hymn "Rock of Ages." 

An old German choral had been the favorite tune 
of the prince. The music is said to have been by 
Decius, 1524: 



THE NE W SONG. 24 1 

"When my last hour is close at hand, 

My last sad journey taken, 
Do thou, Lord Jesus, by me stand ; 

Let me not be forsaken. 
O Lord ! my spirit I resign 
Into thy loving hands divine ; 

'T is safe within thy keeping." 

This song of his life became a picture of his death, 
and it was sung at his funeral. 

Beautiful is the hymn in which Robert Grant 
voiced his experience in the active days of his Chris- 
tian service: 

" Oh, worship the King all-glorious above; 
Oh, gratefully sing his power and his love ! 
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, 
Pa\ ilioned in splendor and girded with praise." 

Sweeter yet was the even-song of his life: 

"And now in age and grief thy name 
Does still my languid heart inflame 

And bow my faltering knee. 
Oh, yet this bosom feels the fire, 
This trembling hand and drooping lyre 

Has yet a strain for thee. 

" Yes, broken, tuneless, yet, O Lord, 
This voice thy mercy shall record, 

Thy mercy tried so long: 
Till sinking slow with calm decay, 
Its feeble murmurs melt away 

Into a seraph's song." 

But death-triumphs are only the parting chorus of 
the new song. The spiritual singing in the soul be- 
gins when the soul has its first sense of the love and 
forgiveness of God. The song of regeneration and 
trust is the first note of the new song that shall ascend 
into heaven. 

The Story of the Tunes. I I 



242 THE STOR V OF THE TUNES. 

The new son^ is the same in all languages, and in 
it all true Christian hearts the world around unite, 
however diverse their denominational forms and 
creeds. It is destined to increase in volume and in 
harmony till the whole world joins in it. 

" One song employs all nations, and all cry, 
' Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us !' 

•The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
Shout to each other, and the mountain-tops 
From distant mountains catch the flying joy, 
Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round." 

And the same ever-new song all will continue in 
heaven. "The Christian singers and composers of all 
ages will be there to join in the song. Thomas Has- 
tings will be there. Lowell Mason will be there. 
Bradbury will be there. Beethoven and Mozart will 
be there. They who sounded the cymbals and the 
trumpets in the ancient temple will be there. The 
forty thousand harpers that stood at the ancient dedi- 
cation will be there. The two hundred singers that 
assisted on that day will be there. Patriarchs who 
lived amid threshing-floors, shepherds who watched 
amid Judsean hills, prophets who walked with long 
beards and coarse apparel, pronouncing woe against 
ancient abominations, will meet the more recent mar- 
tyrs who went up with leaping cohorts of fire; and 
some will speak of the Jesus of whom they prophesied, 
and others of the Jesus for whom they died. Oh, 
what a song!" talmage. 



INDEX AND NOTES. 



Abt, Franz Wilhelm, 1819 15 

Adeste Fideles ..15, 197 

Almost Persuaded 17 

Ambrose 137, 175 

America 20 

American Hymn 22 

Amsterdam 23 

Antioch 24 

Arkwright, Mrs 177 

Arlington .__ 25 

Arne, Thomas Augustine 25 

Arnheim 25 

Rev. Elias Nason, in the "Gazette" of Massachusetts, says that Dr. Samuel 
Holyoke, of Boxford, was born 1762 and died 1820. So "Arnheim" dates 
with the Declaration of Independence. w. e. CHUTE. 

Art thou weary ? 

Music arranged by Monk, i860. 
Athens 202 

At sea. 

Music by Dr. Root. Words written by a friend of Dr. Root on the ocean 
steamer " Circassian," and sent to him for music. 

My God, on seas of storm and calm 

I pass the ocean o'er, 
And sing to thee my thankful psalm 

Each evening nearer shore. 
Thine is the storm, thine is the calm, 

Wherever I may be, 
And nothing shall my soul alarm 

Upon the silent sea. 

Auld Lang Syne _ 25 

Avison 26 



244 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Avison, Charles, 1710-1783 26 

Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750 145 

Balerma 27 

Ball 199 

Barnby, 1838 143, 168, 198 

Bartholdy, Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847 63, 103 

Batiste, Antoine Edouard 217 

Battle Hymn of Gustavus Adolphus. 

The chorale was written by Altenburg, a minister in Thuringia. The hymn 
was written by the King of Sweden after the victory of Leipsic, and edited 
by his chaplain, Dr. Fabricius, for the use of the army (1621). Gustavus sang 
this hymn with his army before the battle of Lutzen, 1632, in which battle he 
met death, 

Fear not, O little flock, the foe As true as God's own promise stands, 

Who madly seeks your overthrow; Not earth nor hell with all their bands 

Dread not his rage and power. Against us shall prevail ; 

What though your courage sometimes The Lord shall mock them from his 
faints; throne; 

This seeming triumph o'er God's saints God is with us ; we are his own ; 
Lasts but a little hour. Our victory cannot fail ! 

Fear not, be strong ! your cause belongs Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer, 
To him who can avenge your wrongs ; Great Captain, now thine arm make 

Leave all to him, your Lord. bare, 

Though hidden yet from mortal eyes, Thy church with strength defend ; 

Salvation shall for you arise ; So shall thy saints and martyrs raise 

He girdeth on his sword. A joyful chorus to thy praise 

Through ages without end. 
gustavus adolphus, in prose. 

JACOB FABRICIUS. 

Tr. by miss c winkworth. 

Battle Hymn of the Republic 27 

Benevento 31 

Bethany 32 

Beyond the smiling and the weeping " 32 

Billings, William, 1746-1800 33, J o4> 2 °7> 208 

Bishop, Sir H. R., 1786-1855 56 

Bliss, P. P., 1838-1876 17, 40, 54, 60, 100, 119, 124, 141, 150, 160, 

177, 180, 181, 183, 184 

Bower of Prayer 33 

Boylston 3 2 



INDEX AND NOTES. 245 

Bradbury, William B., 1816-1868 53,53, 114, 168, 199 

Brown, Samuel R., 1810-18S0 114 

Browne, Miss 177 

Buck, Dudley 208 

Caldwell, William, 1830 _.__ 207 

Calkin, John Baptiste, 1827 179 

Calvin's Hymn. 

George F. Root wrote the music to the following: 

I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer Thou art the true and perfect gentleness, 

art, No harshness hast thou and no bitter- 
My only trust, and Saviour of my heart, ness ; 

Who so much toil and woe Make us to taste and prove, 

And pain ciiust undergo Make us adore and love 

For my poor, worthless sake. The sweet grace found in thee ; 

We pray thee from our hearts, With longing to abide 

All idle griefs and smarts Ever at thy dear side, 

U:And foolish cares to take.:ll II: In thy sweet unity. :ll 

Poor, banished exiles, wretched sons of Eve, 
Full of all sorrows, unto thee we grieve, 
To thee we bring our sighs, 
Our groanings and our cries, 
Thy pity, Lord, we crave : 
We take the sinner's place, 
And pray thee, of thy grace, 
ll:To pardon and to save.:ll 

Carey, Henry 20 

Cherubini 215 

Chester 33 

China 35 

Christmas 201 

Christmas Doxology 204 

Clarendon Street. 

Leonard Marshall, a Boston composer and compiler of music, and a once 
active menber of the Handel and Haydn Society. 

Columbus' Hymn 159 

This is commonly called the "Ave Maris Stella. 1 ' It was in reality the 
" Salve Regina." A poem in " Harper's Bazar" (Christmas Number, 1889,) 
pictures the singing of the hymn as the first Christmas song in the New 
World. The music is old Italian. 

Columbus' Thanksgiving 233 



246 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Come, thou fount of every blessing. 
Music by Rev. A. Nettleton. 

" Come unto Him" 36 

Coronation 38 

Creation ___ 39 

Crusaders' Song. 

Rev. A. G. Gordon, of Clarendon Street Baptist Church, Boston. 

Danks, H. P., 1834 76 

Dare to be a Daniel 40 

Dixon, William 84 

Doane, William Howard, 1831 151, 158, 176 

Dykes, J. B., 1823-1876 54, 84 

Ein' Feste Burg 40 

Elliott 43 

Eventide 46 

Ewing, A., 1830 _ 69 

Faure, Jean Batiste 148 

Federal Street 48 

Flee as a bird to your Mountain 51 

Folsom 200 

Franck, Guillaume, 1520-1570 131, 159 

Gently, Lord, oh, gently lead us. 

Dr. Thomas Hastings regarded church music as a sacred calling. Besides his 
numerous books of church music he wrote some six hundred hymns. 
Wherever " Rock of Ages " is sung his presence is felt. In 1822 he wrote a 
work on "Musical Taste," in which he said, " Religion has the same claim 
substantially in song as in speech." 

Giardini, Felice de, 1716-1796 68, 202 

Giornovichi, 1775-1804 66 

God is Love. 

Music by G. H. Cornell, 1865. 

Grander than ocean strong 52 

Greenville 52 

Gregory the Great 136 



INDEX AND NOTES. 247 

Guilmant, Felix Andre 218 

Hamburg 52 

Handel, George Frederick, 16S4-1759 24, 36, 67, 201 

Hark, hark, my soul ! - 1 

Hassler, Hans Georg, 1564-1612 145 

Hastings, Dr. Thomas, 17S4-1S72 144,155, 17S 

Havergal, Frances Ridley 229 

Haydn, Johann Michael, 1737-1S0S 198 

Haydn, Joseph, 1 732-1809 39 

Hebron 53 

He leadeth me 53 

Henley 209 

Hinsdale 53 

Holden, Oliver, 1765-1S44 9, 38 

"Hold the fort!" 54 

Holtzman 106 

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty 54, 84 

Holy night ! peaceful night ! 
G. Burnaby, 1868. 

Holyoke, Samuel, 1762-1816 25 

Home, sweet home 56 

Hope 58 

How precious the Name 59 

Hymn to the Nativity 59 

" I am so glad that our Father in heaven " 60 

•" If I were a voice " 60 

If with all your hearts 63 

" If you cannot on the ocean " 65 

" I heard the voice of Jesus say " 66 

" I know that my Redeemer liveth " 67 

Indian hymn 67 



248 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

" I need thee every hour" 67 

I need thee every hour, I need thee every hour, 
Most gracious Lord ; In joy or pain ; 

No tender voice like thine Come quickly and abide, 
Can peace afford. Or life is vain. 

I need thee, oh, I need thee, I need thee every hour ; 

Every hour I need thee; Teach me thy will ; 

Oh, bless me now, my Saviour, And thy rich promises 

I come to thee ! In me fulfil. 

I need thee every hour ; I need thee every hour, 

Stay thou near by ; Most Holy One ; 

Temptations lose their power Oh, make me thine indeed, 

When thou art nigh. Thou blessed Son ! 

MRS. ANNIE S. HAWKS. 

In a letter to the author the Rev. Robert Lowry, D. D., writes: " ' I Need Thee 
Every Hour' was written by Mrs. Annie S. Hawks, in 1872, in Brooklyn, 
N. Y. I believe it was the expression of her own experience. It came to me 
in the form of five simple stanzas, to which I added the chorus to make it 
more serviceable. It inspired me at its first reading. It first appeared in a 
small collection of original songs prepared for the National Baptist Sunday- 
school Association, held in Cincinnati in November, 1S72, and was sung on 
that occasion." 

Mrs. Annie Sherwood Hawks was born in New York State, in 1835. For some 
years she has resided in Brooklyn, N. Y. nutter. 

Ingalls, Jeremiah, 1764-1838 —59, 129, 208 

In heavenly love abiding. 

(Tune, " Goldmark.") Music by Mendelssohn. Words by Anna L. Waring, in 
" Hymns and Meditations," London, 1850. 

In the cross of Christ I glory. 
I. Conkey. 

In thy name, O Lord, assembling. 
E. W. Hopkins, London, 1863. 

Italian Hymn 68 

" I was a wandering sheep " 68 

Jerome, Frank E. 27 

"Jerusalem the golden" 69 

Jesus in the temple 69 

"Jesus, the very thought is sweet." 
Robert Schumann, 1810-1854. 

Jewels 70 

Jewett 7 1 



INDEX AND NOTES. 249 

"Joyfully, joyfully onward I move" 73 

The author of the words was probably Rev. Wm. Hunter, D. D. He was born 
in Ireland in 1S11, and came to this country when a child. In early life he 
labored untiringly to secure an education, and was graduated at Madison 
College in 1S33. He was for some years an editor, and then Professor of 
Hebrew and Biblical Literature in Allegheny College. Dr. Hunter was an 
able preacher and a sound and thorough instructor. He was the author of 
a large number of hymns, which appeared in his three books of song, viz., 
" Select Melodies," 1838-51 ; " Minstrel of Zion," 1845 ; and " Songs of Devo- 
tion," i860. NUTTER. 

Judgment hymn 74 

Just as I am 44 

English tune by Sir George G. Elvey, born 1816. 

Keller, Matthias, 1S13 22 

Knocking 75 

Laban 76 

Lake Street 76 

Lampe's tunes 77 

Lanesboro 84 

Lansingburg 84 

Latin Church children's carol 201 

Lead, kindly Light 84 

Leoni 94 

" Let the lower lights be burning " 1 100 

" Life is weary, Saviour, take me " 101 

" Lift thine eyes " 103 

Lind, Jenny 231 

Love divine, all love excelling. 

H. Isaac, 1490. The popular American tune is a Scottish melody. Isaac's 
music appears in " The Tribute of Praise." 

Loving-kindness 207 

Lowry, R., 1826 67, 160 

Lucas, James, 1762-1800 208 

I Luther's song 200 

Magnificat 103 

Main, Hubert P. 181 

II* 



2 5 o THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

" Majestic sweetness sits enthroned." 
" Ortonville," by Dr. Hastings. 

Majesty 104 

The Lord descended from above He sat serene upon the floods, 
And bowed the heavens most high, Their fury to restrain; 

And underneath his feet he east And he, as sovereign Lord and King, 
The darkness of the sky. For evermore shall reign. 

On cherubim and seraphim Give glory to his awful name, 
Full royally he rode, And honor him alone ; 

And on the wings of mighty winds Give worship to his majesty 
Came flying all abroad. Upon his holy throne. 

THOMAS STERNHOLD, ALT. 

Marseillaise Hymn 106 

Marsh, Symeon B., 1798-1875 108 

Martyn 108 

Mason, Lowell, 1792-1872 , 24, 32, 43, 52, 53, 76, 114, 120, 134, 209 

Maxim's Melodies 109 

McAuley, Jerry 223 

McDonald, William 155 

Merrill, A. D., 1796-1878 73 

Merton in 

Millennial Dawn 113 

Miller, James 184 

Missionary Hymn 113 

Monk, Henry, 1823 46 

Monson 114 

" More like Jesus would I be." 

Composed by Dr. Doane for the Howard Mission, New York, to words written 
by Fanny Crosby during a season of devotion. 

" More to follow " 119 

Mozart 200 

Mozart, J. C. VV. A., 1756-1791 200 

Mt. Vernon 120 

Muhlenberg 121 

My ain countrie 124 



INDEX AND NO TES. 25 1 

Nares, James, 1715-1783 23 

Neumarck, George, 1621-1681 101 

Neander, Joachim, 1610-16S0 84 

New England Anthem fur Easter 208 

Ninety and nine 126 

Northfield 129 

O Church of Christ 130 

"Oh, how happy are they !" 209 

Old Hundred 131 

Old revival melodies 207 

Oliver, Henry K., 1800-1885 4 8 > II2 

Olivet 134 

Olney. 

This tune was selected by Charles Wesley for his hymn, "A charge to keep I 
have." 

Olmutz 136 

O Christ, our King, Creator, Lord, Thou didst create the stars of night, 

Saviour of all who trust thy word, Yet thou hast veiled in flesh thy light, 

To them who seek thee ever near, Hast deigned a mortal form to wear, 

Now to our praises bend thine ear. A mortal's painful lot to bear. 

In thy dear cross a grace is found, When thou didst hang upon the tree, 

It flows from every streaming wound, The quaking earth acknowledged thee ; 

Whose power our inbred sin controls, When thou didst there yield up thy 
Breaks the firm bond and frees our breath, 

souls. The world grew dark as shades of death. 

Now in the Father's glory high, 
Great Conqueror, never more to die, 
Us by thy mighty power defend, 
And reign through ages without end. 

GREGORY THE GREAT. 

TR. BY R. PALMER. 

Title: "The Lordship of Christ." 

This translation was contributed to " The Sabbath Hymn-Book. " 185S. 

The Latin title is " Rex Ckriste, Factor omniutn." 

Gregory was born in Rome about 541, was well educated, and in early life was 
in the employ of the State. Upon the death of his father he inherited great 
wealth, much of which he spent in building monasteries. He founded St. 
Andrew's at Rome, which he entered as a deacon. Upon the death of Pekv 
gius, Bishop of Rome, Gregory was chosen by the clergy and people as his 
successor. The Emperor Maurice confirmed the election, and, much against 
his will, it is said, Gregory was installed Pope in 595. He was a student of 



252 



THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 



the Scriptures, and labored to circulate them among the people. He was 
also a founder and patron of missions, that to England among others. The 
Bishop of Rome did not then arrogate to himself universal sovereignty. John, 
Patriarch of Constantinople, about this time assumed the title of Universal 
Bishop; which act Gregory called "proud, heretical, blasphemous, anti- 
Christian, and diabolical ;" and in opposition thereto he assumed the title of 
" Servant of servants " (Servus servorum Domini). He claimed that Christ 
was the only universal Head of the Church. Gregory was a lover of sacred 
music, and cultivated chanting in the church service. nutter. 

Once in David's royal city. 
Dr. H. G. Gauntlett, 1806-1876. 

One sweetly solemn thought 140 

The English chant to this is by L. T. Downes, born 1824. 

" Only remembered " 141 

Onward, Christian soldiers 141 

Onward, Christian soldiers ! Like a mighty army 

Marching as to war, Moves the church of God ; 

With the cross of Jesus Brothers, we are treading 

Going on before. Where the saints have trod ; 

Christ, the royal Master, We are not divided, 

Leads against the foe ; All one body we, 

Forward into battle, One in hope and doctrine, 

See, his banners go ! One in charity. 

Crowns and thrones may perish, 
Kingdoms rise and wane, 
Onward, Christian soldiers ! But the Church of Jesus 

Marching as to war, Constant will remain ; 

With the cross of Jesus Gates of hell can never 

Going on before. 'Gainst that Church prevail ; 

We have Christ's own promise, 
And that cannot fail. 

At the sign of triumph Onward, then, ye people! 

Satan's host doth flee ; Join our happy throng, 

On, then, Christian soldiers, Blend with ours your voices 

On to victory ! In the triumph-song ; 

Hell's foundations quiver Glory, laud, and honor 

At the shout of praise ; Unto Christ the King, 

Brothers, lift your voices, This through countless ages 

Loud your anthems raise. Men and angels sing. 

Sabine Baring-Gould, born 1834. The hymn was published in " Church Tunes," 
1865, and in " Hymns Ancient and Modern," 1875. 

O Paradise 143 

Ortonville - __- 144 

" O sacred Head, now wounded " 145 



INDEX AND NOTES. 

Osborne, John 33 

Paine, John Knowles, 1S39 59 

Palestrina 147 

Palestrina, Giovanni, 1524-1594 147 

Palm branches 

Palmer, Rev. Ray, D. D 226 

Parker, J. C. D., 1S2S 151 

Phillips, Philip, 1S34 65 

Pleyel, Ignatius, 1757-1S31 7, 149 

Pleyel's Hymn 149 

Portugal, Marcus, 1763-1S34 15 

Portuguese Hymn 150 

Praise meetings 12, 221 

Pull for the shore 150 

Redemption hymn 151 

" Rescue the perishing"' 151 

Rest for the weary 155 

Retreat 155 

Rock of ages 15S 

The popular hymn tune is by Hastings- 
Root, George F., 1S20 9, 69, 70, 75, 130, 166 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 1712-177S 52 

Safe in the arms of Jesus 158 

Salve Regina 159 

Sankey, Ira D. 126 

Scotch minor tunes 159 

Seeking to save 160 

" Shall we gather at the river?" 160 

Sherwin, \\\, 1826 52 

Shining shore 166 

Sicily 167 

"Silent night! holy night !" 198 



254 THE STOR Y OF THE TUNES. 

Siloam 167 

Simpson, Robert, 1790-1832 27 

Sometimes a light surprises. 
John Hullah, in 1867. 

St. Andrew's 16S 

Stebbins, G. C, 1S46 32 

Stickney, John, 1742-1826 204 

Still, still with Thee. 

Music adapted from Mendelssohn, 1809-1847. 

St. Martin's 168 

Sullivan, Sir Arthur S., 1842 141 

Swan, Timothy, 1758-1842 35 

Sweet Afton. 

By J. E. Spilman. Adapted to sacred words. 

Sweet By-and-by 16S 

Sweet hour of prayer 168 

Tallis' evening hymn 169 

Tallis, Thomas 169 

Tansur, William, 1699-1770 168 

" Te Deum Laudamus " 172 

" Tell me the old, old story" 176 

The better land 177 

" The breaking waves dashed high " 177 

The endless Hallelujah! 198 

The garden hymn 208 

" The light of the world is Jesus " __ 177 

The living fountain. 
Henry Smart, 1868. 

The Lord is my Shepherd. 

English Church service. By Henry Smart, London, 1S13-1879. It would be 
impossible here to give a long and exhaustive account of the life and labors 
of Henry Smart, although his name must be included among representative 
English Church composers, if only for the sake of his noble Service in F, 
which is well known and deservedly popular. A paraphrase of the twenty- 
third Psalm, " The Lord is my Shepherd," is also a great favorite, and there 



INDEX AND NOTES. 255 

are many of his anthems occasionally given, even if they are not so widely 
known as they might be. It is true that all these compositions are excellent, 
but, unlike his organ music and his secular writings, they do not represent 
any distinct rank in art, though they most worthily maintain a dignity of 
style. As a musician, the great honor he has earned is more for his power 
as a composer for the organ and for his charming songs and graceful part- 
songs, than for his anthems and pieces for the church. In addition to those 
above mentioned he wrote a fine evening Service in G, and one in B flat, and 
a number of most beautiful hymn tunes in various collections which entitle 
him to special distinction. 
He also composed a sacred cantata entitled "Jacob," written for Glasgow in 
and many sacred sonssand duets which belong properly to the region 
of domestic music. Much of his organ music is frequently played in churches, 
and speaks of a mind of no common order. 

ENGLISH CHURCH COMPOSERS. 

The messenger-bird 177 

11 There are angels hovering round" 208 

There is a blessed home. 
John Stainer. 

There is a green hill far away. 

Richard Storrs Willis, in 1S60; also by Pensuti. 

There is a happy land 178 

Recent music by S. S. Wesley, 1864. 

Thomson, George, 1757-1S51 25 

To-day the Saviour calls. 

Music by Lowell Mason to words by Dr. Hastings. The latter composer wrote 
several beautiful hymns of spiritual invitation, among them, " To-day the 
Saviour calls," and " Expostulation," beginning: 

Delay not, delay not, O sinner ; draw near ; 

The waters of life are now flowing for thee ; 
No price is demanded ; the Saviour is here ; 

Redemption is purchased, salvation is free. 

Delay not, delay not, O sinner, to come, 
For Mercy still lingers and calls thee to-day: 

Her voice is not heard in the vale of the tomb ; 
Her message unheeded will soon pass away. 

"To-day the Saviour calls '* was a theme furnished Dr. Hastings by Rev. S. F. 
Smith. 

Toplady 178 

Tourjee, Dr. Eben 12, 140 

Tourjee, Lizzie S. 



256 THE STORY OF THE TUNES. 

Turner. 

One of Maxim's tunes. 

Union hymn 207 

Unity (" When shall we meet again ?") 
Lowell Mason. 

When shall we meet again ? Up to that world of light 

Meet ne'er to sever? Take us, dear Saviour ! 

When will peace wreathe her chain May we all there unite, 

Round us for ever? Happy for ever ! 

Our hearts will ne'er repose, Where kindred spirits dwell, 

Safe from each blast that blows, There may our music swell, 

In this dark vale of woes: And time our joys dispel 

Never, no, never ! Never, no, never ! 

When shall love freely flow Soon shall we meet again, 

Pure as life's river ? Meet ne'er to sever ; 

When shall sweet friendship glow, Soon will peace wreathe her chain 

Changeless for ever? Round us for ever: 

Where joys celestial thrill, Our hearts will then repose, 

Where bliss each heart shall fill, Secure from worldly woes: 

And fears of parting chill Our songs of praise shall close 

Never, no, never ! Never, no, never ! 

Mr. Mason found the first stanza of this hymn, which was written by A. A. 
Watts, poet, London, 1797-1864. He gave it to Rev. S. F. Smith as a hymn- 
study for his music. Mr. Smith wrote the last three stanzas. 

" Watchman, tell us of the night." 
Lowell Mason, in 1830. 

Watch night 208 

Webb 179 

Webb, George James, 1803-1887 ^ 113, 179 

Webbe, Samuel, 1740-1816 31 

Weber, Carl Maria von, 1786-1826 71 

Webster, J. P., 1819-1875 168 

"Welcome, happy morning" 179 

Weley 215 

Wellesley 180 

We march to victory. 

Joseph Barnby, in 1869. 
" We 're going home to-morrow " 180 

" We shall meet beyond the river " 181 

The popular tune to this funeral hymn was written by Hubert P. Main, in 1867, 
and published in " Bright Jewels." It also appears in " Winnowed Hymns" 



JXDEX AND NOTES. 257 

and in Moody and Sankey's collections. Tlie words were written by Rev. 
John Atkinson, D. D., in 1867, soon after the death of his mother. One night 
amid revival work he returned home and his thoughts were of his mother. 
The song came to him. " There in the silence of midnight," he says, " I 
wrote the hymn." 

" What shall the harvest be?" 181 

When, His salvation bringing. 
Berthold Tours. 

" When Jesus comes " 183 

When, marshalled on the nightly plain 184 

" When shall the voice of singing." 

Rev. G. S. Lederbotham, Oxford, England. 

Whiting, George E. 217 

" Whosoever will " 184 

Windham. 

Daniel Read of New Haven, 1757-1838. 

With gladsome feet we press. 
George A. McFarren, in 1867. 

Woodbury, I. B., 1819-1858 60, 167 

"Yes, my native land, I love thee " 189 

Zinzendorfs hymn 192 

Zundel, John, 1815-1882 68 



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