{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_56480/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_56480","id":"gutenberg_56480","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56480","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Music","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hymns -- History and criticism"],"text":"Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n [Illustration: IRA D. SANKEY]\n\n\n\n\n HYMNS\n _In Human Experience_\n\n\n [Illustration: Decoration]\n\n by\n _WILLIAM J. HART, D.D._\n\n [Illustration: Decoration]\n\n [Illustration: Harper & Brothers]\n\n Publishers _HARPER & BROTHERS_\n _New York and London_ 1931\n\n _Copyright, 1931, by Harper & Brothers. Printed in the U. S. A. First\n Edition_ _D-F_\n\n\n To\n _My Wife and Daughters_\n\n [Illustration: Decoration]\n\n\n THE GOOD OLD HYMNS\n\n _There's lots of music in 'em, the hymns of long ago;\n An' when some gray-haired brother sings the ones I used to know\n I sorter want to take a hand--I think o' days gone by--\n \"On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye.\"_\n\n _There's lots of music in 'em--those dear, sweet hymns of old,\n With visions bright of lands of light and shining streets of gold;\n And I hear 'em ringing--singing, where memory dreaming stands,\n \"From Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strands.\"_\n\n _We hardly needed singin' books in them old days: we knew\n The words, the tunes, of every one, the dear old hymn book through!\n We had no blaring trumpets then, no organs built for show;\n We only sang to praise the Lord, \"from whom all blessings flow.\"_\n\n _An' so I love the dear old hymns, and when my time shall come--\n Before the light has left me and my singing lips are dumb--\n If I can only hear 'em then, I'll pass, without a sigh,\n \"To Canaan's fair and happy land, where my possessions lie!\"_\n\n --Frank L. Stanton in _The Atlanta Constitution_\n\n\n\n\n _CONTENTS_\n\n\n Preface xi\n I. A Singing Faith 1\n II. Songs in the Night 29\n III. Hymns Mothers Loved 52\n IV. When Preachers Sing 67\n V. Songs of Soldiers 80\n VI. Heard within Prison Walls 95\n VII. The Music of Submerged Lives 103\n VIII. Songs of Salvation 113\n IX. \"The Old Rugged Cross\" 127\n X. Hymns of Youth 136\n XI. Hymns As Prayers 153\n XII. Songs of the Negroes 165\n XIII. Christmas and Easter Melodies 173\n XIV. Funeral Music 188\n XV. Hymns on Patriotic Occasions 204\n Index of Hymns 217\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE\n\n\nHalf a million hymns, it is estimated, are written in more than two\nhundred languages and dialects in which Christianity is preached. Some\nof these are translations, but many are original expressions of the\nChristian faith. This extraordinary production is an impressive\ntestimony from Christian experience.\n\nHaving for many years made a study of the influence of hymns in human\nexperience, I have during that time gleaned material from newspapers,\nperiodicals (both American and British) and books; and to both the\nauthors and the publishers of these I here express my indebtedness.\nLittle is said in this volume concerning the origin of hymns and tunes,\nor of their place in literature. These aspects of the subject are well\ndiscussed in \"The English Hymn\" by Louis F. Benson, \"The Hymn as\nLiterature\" by J. B. Reeves, \"The Story of the Hymns and Tunes\" by T.\nBrown and H. Butterworth, \"The Evolution of the English Hymn\" by F. J.\nGillman, \"Stories of Great Hymns of the Church\" by Silas H. Paine,\n\"English Hymns: Their Authors and History\" by S. W. Duffield, and many\nothers.\n\nThe chief purpose of this volume is to show how hymns have been actually\nused, and how people have been helped by them in different circumstances\nof life. Each chapter has a brief introduction bearing on the special\ntopic, and the various incidents are linked together in a manner which\ngives continuity to the whole.\n\nSome of this material was used in addresses at church services, and also\nin Chapel Addresses at the Northern New York Summer School for\nMinisterial Training. As dean of this school the author desires to\nassociate both the members of the faculty and the student body with this\nvolume. Their expressed appreciation of the incidents which they heard,\nand their urgent request for the publication of the same, encouraged me\nto complete this work.\n\nI desire to make special mention of the assistance received from the\nRev. Oscar L. Joseph, Litt. D. His wise counsel has been invaluable.\nFurthermore, he has edited the volume with the utmost care, and its\nfinal form is the result of his experience as an author and his\npainstaking labors. The introductory notes in each chapter were also\nwritten by Dr. Joseph and these constitute an important feature of the\nvolume.\n\nMinisters and laity alike, it is believed, will find this book of value.\nMy hope is that it may help towards a renewed emphasis upon the value of\nChristian experience, and a broader recognition of the rich heritage\nwhich Christianity has in its songs.\n\n William J. Hart\n\n _Utica, New York_\n 1931\n\n\n\n\n _Hymns In Human Experience_\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n _A Singing Faith_\n\n\nChristianity came to the world on the wings of song. From that memorable\nnight when the angels celebrated the divine grace in \"Glory to God in\nthe Highest\" up to the present day, song has been a powerful agency in\nspreading the Gospel of Redemption. Consider the influence of hymns in\nleading people to God, in giving courage to the depressed, hope to the\ndisappointed, comfort to the sorrowing, guidance to the perplexed; in\ncreating and confirming faith; in inspiring for the performance of duty\nand for steadfastness in fidelity.\n\nThe hymn holds a premier place in the literature of poetry, but it is\nmuch more than poetry. \"It belongs with the things of the spirit, in the\nsphere of religious experience and communion with God.\" Some of the best\nhymns which have touched and transformed the depths of human life may\nnot meet the tests of literary critics. But more important than such\nacademic standards is the conclusive proof that these writings have\nanimated and sustained faith, hope and love. They have done this more\neffectively than any other means employed to produce these exhilarating\nand virtuous qualities of Christian character.\n\nIt is true that Christianity came out of a religion which has its rich\nheritage in the Psalter. Indeed, this is the world's greatest hymn book;\nits sentences of prayer and praise have captured the hearts of\ngenerations of pious souls and ministered to their religious and moral\nneeds. It is equally true that Christianity has liberated song far more\neffectively than any other religion. Of all the liturgical aids to\nprivate and public worship hymns are the most popular because of their\nfreedom from any sectarian note and their wholesome ability to rouse\nemotion and direct life in ways of humane service.\n\nThis chapter is a selection of incidents which illustrate how hymns have\nvoiced the deep instincts of the soul under a variety of circumstances.\nThey witness to the power of the Gospel to soothe, calm and sustain in\nways hardly otherwise possible. They show how hymns are woven into the\nfabric of life and that in times of pressure they express the latent and\nactive emotions which give evidence of the real worth and dignity of\nhuman personality.\n\n\nTastes differ about hymns, but many will agree with these two men\nconcerning:\n\n\n The Supreme Hymn\n\nEmerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes were once discussing what they\nconsidered the best hymn ever written. Holmes said that the hymns\npublished by the various churches were mere bits of\ncabinet-work--phrases from the Scriptures or from devotional writers\nsuch as Thomas \u00e0 Kempis being patched together in metrical form. Emerson\nsignified his assent; and then Holmes, rising, continued, \"In my opinion\nthe greatest hymn ever written is this:\n\n 'Thou hidden love of God, whose height,\n Whose depth unfathomed, no man knows,\n I see from far Thy beauteous light,\n Inly I sigh for Thy repose:\n My heart is pained, nor can it be\n At rest, till it finds rest in Thee.'\"\n\n\"I know, I know!\" exclaimed Emerson. \"That is the supreme hymn.\"\n\nIts author was Gerhard Tersteegen, one of the most prolific of German\nhymn writers. It was translated by John Wesley when he was in Savannah,\nGeorgia, in 1736. It must have made a profound impression upon Holmes\nwho wrote the hymn:\n\n \"Lord of all being, throned afar,\n Thy glory flames from sun and star;\n Center and soul of every sphere,\n Yet to each loving heart how near!\"\n\nHarry Lauder, in _Roamin' in the Gloamin'_,[1] refers to it as \"that\ngorgeous bit of poetic imagery,\" and adds that Holmes would have been\nthe greatest hymn writer in the world had he only written some more.\n\n\nThe reference to John Wesley recalls an interesting incident:\n\n\n When Two Hymn-Writers Met\n\nOn a fine summer's day in the first half of the eighteenth century a\ntraveler on horseback, crossing one of the lovely hills of Derbyshire in\nEngland, was aroused from his meditations by the voice of singing.\nPausing to listen, these words came on the still air from the valley\nbelow:\n\n \"Could we but climb where Moses stood,\n And view the landscape o'er,\n Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,\n Should fright us from the shore.\"\n\nInstantly, in a clear voice, the traveler sent ringing down the hills\nthe glad response in his brother's words:\n\n \"The promised land, from Pisgah's top,\n I now exult to see:\n My hope is full, O glorious hope!\n Of immortality.\"\n\nAnd then the two greatest little men in all England, John Wesley and\nIsaac Watts, met and talked together of the deep things of God.\n\nHow indebted we are to these two men for the enrichment of English\nhymnody! Watts sang of the majesty of God while Charles Wesley, the\nbrother of the founder of Methodism, magnified the love of God, but all\nthree were one in purpose. We join with Watts in singing, \"Jesus shall\nreign where'er the sun,\" and with the same enthusiasm we sing with\nCharles Wesley, \"Jesus, Lover of My Soul.\"\n\n\nHow profoundly Watts had influenced his contemporaries is seen in\n\n\n John Wesley's Last Hymn\n\nThe great evangelist had reached the age of eighty-eight and his passing\nhence was in a cloud of glory. Arnold Lunn thus describes it in his book\n_John Wesley_:[2] \"The end was very beautiful. He lingered for three\ndays, surrounded by those who loved him. No pain, only a growing sense\nof weakness, and a tranquil acceptance of the inevitable. He slept much\nand spoke little, but sometimes the dying flame flickered up, and the\ninner light which had changed the face of England glowed with its old\nintensity. On the afternoon before he died, he surprised his friends by\nbursting into song:\n\n 'I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,\n And when my voice is lost in death,\n Praise shall employ my nobler powers.'\n\nHe sang two verses and then sank back exhausted. These lines were from\nWatts' well-known hymn. Some hours passed as Wesley continued to sink,\nand with ebbing strength his last words of triumphant faith were: \"The\nbest of all is, God is with us.\"\n\n\nSuch a consciousness of the divine presence has sustained many others.\nHere is one instance entitled:\n\n\n Singing Their Farewell\n\nHaving spent forty years in educational work in England, a Scotch\nschoolmaster and his wife moved back to their native land to spend their\ndays of retirement. Since they were active in one of the local churches,\nthe membership came together for a farewell service. When they came to\nsing the closing hymn, choice was made of an arrangement of Psalm 34.[3]\nDoubtless the aged couple going into the sunset period of life\nafterwards recalled the words which they and their friends in Christian\nservice sang that evening:\n\n \"Through all the changing scenes of life,\n In trouble and in joy,\n The praises of my God shall still\n My heart and tongue employ.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Fear Him, ye saints, and you will then\n Have nothing else to fear;\n Make you His service your delight,\n He'll make your wants His care.\"\n\nCheerful and encouraging words were these in which to voice a farewell.\n\n\nThe happy outlook of a faith which breaks out in song impressed me when\nI was a patient\n\n\n In the Hospital\n\nChristmas was near, and I was a patient in a hospital away from home.\nThe attending physician informed me that Dr. William D. Marsh, the\nfounder of \"The League of the Kindly Tongue,\" an organization which has\na large membership in the United States as well as in some other\ncountries, was in the same hospital on the floor below. The day he was\ndischarged, he came to visit me. During the conversation he stated that\nhe had recently been relearning and trying to live a hymn which he found\nvery precious. It was one of Toplady's:\n\n \"If, on a quiet sea,\n Toward heaven we calmly sail,\n With grateful hearts, O God, to Thee,\n We'll own the favoring gale.\"\n\nSpecial reference was made to the last verse:\n\n \"Teach us, in every state,\n To make Thy will our own;\n And when the joys of sense depart,\n To live by faith alone.\"\n\nSuch was the hymn beloved by the man who endeavored to enlist men and\nwomen to bring their daily conversation into harmony with the Golden\nRule.\n\n\nThis experience brought to my mind the gracious sufficiency of Him whom\nevery believer confesses as\n\n\n \"Sun of My Soul\"\n\nYears of constructive service were given by Dr. Charles N. Sims to the\nimportant task of building up Syracuse University. It was during the\ntime of the early struggles of the development of that institution that\nhe served heroically as the Chancellor. Later there followed some years\nof pulpit activity. Then came the time of retirement from educational\nand pastoral leadership, and he returned to his native state of Indiana\nto spend the eventide of life.\n\nWhen it was evident that the time of his home-going was near, a member\nof the family went to the piano and played the hymn he greatly loved.\nSoftly also it was sung:\n\n \"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear,\n It is not night if Thou be near.\"\n\nThe second stanza was reached:\n\n \"When the soft dews of kindly sleep\n My wearied eyelids gently steep,\n Be my last thought, how sweet to rest\n Forever on my Saviour's breast.\"\n\nRelatives, looking on the peaceful form, then observed that he had\nquietly answered the call of his Lord, and that the spirit had gone to\nthe home of many mansions.\n\n\nHere is an incident which recalls one of the bitter tragedies of the\nocean. See also page 30.\n\n\n Their Last Sing-Song\n\nPermission was obtained from the purser of the _Titanic_ to hold a song\nservice in the saloon one Sunday evening. The Rev. E. C. Carter, of\nWhitechapel, London, a clergyman of the Anglican Church, was in charge.\nA young Scotch engineer presided at the piano.\n\nThe passengers were asked to make their selections. It was significant\nthat many of the hymns chosen had to do with dangers at sea. There was a\nhushed tone with which all sang: \"For those in peril on the sea.\"\n\nThe service lasted until after ten o'clock, with wishes exchanged by all\nthat they might soon reach the end of their pleasant voyage by landing\nin New York. Little did they realize at the time that only a few miles\nahead lay one peril on the sea in the iceberg that sank the great liner.\nThe leader of this service and his wife were among the hundreds who\nperished ere the dawn of the next day.\n\n\nThe power of hymns to calm and sustain is seen in\n\n\n Other Refuge Have I None\n\nAn air raid of the enemy threatened the destruction of a munitions\nfactory \"somewhere in England\" where thousands of women were working,\naccording to Mrs. Burnett Smith. A very tense feeling prevailed, for it\nwas realized that the worst might happen at any moment. Nerves began to\nbreak a little, while sobs and screams were being heard. Then some one\nin a far corner began softly to sing:\n\n \"Jesus, Lover of my soul,\n Let me to Thy bosom fly.\"\n\nThe others quickly joined in the song until all were singing softly and\nquietly. The danger passed, and the women were unharmed.\n\nOne can imagine the courage of that group of women rising as they\nprayerfully sang the words:\n\n \"Other refuge have I none;\n Hangs my helpless soul on Thee:\n Leave, ah! leave me not alone,\n Still support and comfort me:\n All my trust on Thee is stayed,\n All my help from Thee I bring;\n Cover my defenseless head\n With the shadow of Thy wing.\"\n\n\nTheir help in giving the fortitude of faith is illustrated by\n\n\n An Unforgotten Song\n\nA British writer has told us of an evening which he spent at a\nfashionable watering place in Scotland. The visitors were seated in the\ndrawing-room, spending the evening in a leisurely manner in reading or\nconversing.\n\nPresently two ladies walked up to the piano, one to sing, the other to\nplay her accompaniment. Conversation still continued, as the air was\nplayed over. But as soon as the words were reached, a hush fell upon the\naudience. The piece was Topliff's setting of \"Remember now thy Creator\nin the days of thy youth.\" The drawing-room was a large one, capable of\nseating some hundreds of people, and furnished in a way calculated to\ndeaden sound. Yet every word was heard distinctly.\n\nThe man who tells the story says that next to him was sitting a man,\napparently from the west of England, \"endowed with a wise and gracious\nChristlike spirit, the fruit of many years' experience in his Master's\nservice.\" This man listened with rapt attention. Then he turned to his\nneighbor, and whispered in a hushed voice, \"I can tell by the way that\ngirl sings that she is a Christian.\"\n\nThe narrator of the incident, anxious to know more about the young lady,\nlearned something of her experience. He records it as follows: \"She had\nbeen engaged to be married to a medical man--a very fine Christian. One\nday, when he was staying at a place far distant from the home of his\nfianc\u00e9e, he was suddenly stricken with typhoid fever, and died almost\nimmediately. The lady was not told about it till after the funeral was\nover. The shock was so great that she was prostrated for some days. When\nshe was able to get about again, her lovely voice, her greatest gift,\nwas gone. Something like paralysis of the throat prevented her speaking\nabove a whisper. Many months after, the voice gradually came back. When\nshe was able to sing once more with her old power, she made a solemn vow\nthat she would devote her voice very specially to God's service.\nThenceforth her most treasured possession was the Bible of her beloved.\nI saw it. It was crowded with notes from cover to cover, for the book\nwas woven into its owner's life.\"\n\n\nThe secret of such a faith is finely expressed in\n\n\n Sounding the Silver Trumpet\n\n\"I had read in the biography of Sir Edward Burne-Jones a legend which he\nhad noted,\" said Dr. R. G. Gillie. \"When Lucifer was cast out of the\nHoly City he founded a kingdom of his own, and one of his retainers,\ngreatly caring, asked what he missed most now that he was shut out of\nHeaven. Pondering, the Prince of Evil paused and answered: 'I miss the\nsound of the silver trumpets in the morning.' According to the legend\nall the glad populace was called each day to labor and achievement by\nsilver trumpets.\"\n\n \"Today on weary nations\n The heavenly manna falls;\n To holy convocations\n The silver trumpet calls.\"\n\n\nThe response to this call is touchingly related in an incident:\n\n\n Grandchildren of Cannibals Praised God\n\nStirring reports were brought back from Africa by Mr. W. J. W. Roome\nwhen he went there in 1929 for the British and Foreign Bible Society.\nThe main station of the great English Baptist Mission on the Congo is at\nYakusu. When Mr. Roome arrived at this point the children of the\nmission, who were the grandchildren of cannibals, greeted him by singing\nLyte's great hymn.\n\n \"Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven;\n To His feet thy tribute bring;\n Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,\n Who like me His praise should sing?\n Praise Him! praise Him! praise Him! praise Him!\n Praise the everlasting King!\"\n\n\nThe irrepressible faith in missionary work was recently advertised by\n\n\n A Song Which Belted the Globe\n\nOver four thousand women attended a communion service in Columbus, Ohio,\nOctober 30, 1929. It was held in connection with the sixtieth\nanniversary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist\nEpiscopal Church, and was thus described by Eloise Andrews Woolever in\n_The Christian Advocate_:\n\n\"The last great day opened with the communion service at 6:45, conducted\nby Bishop William F. McDowell. At 4:30 on that dark, rainy morning eight\nhundred women were standing on the steps of Memorial Hall. For nearly\nthree hours the procession passed forward to receive the broken bread\nfrom the brass communion plates sent from Korea, and to drink the wine\nfrom the Chinese communion cups, and to stand a moment in prayer. And in\nthe solemn hush one thought of the communion services being held around\nthe world on this day, when the communion song, 'The Light of the World\nis Jesus,' would belt the globe.\"\n\n\nThis is the theme, announced with variations, concerning\n\n\n The Wondrous Story\n\nA company of friends were in the _Sunday School Times_ party which took\na trip by water from Philadelphia to the Pacific coast. In an article on\n\"Cruising to California,\" in 1930, Dr. Charles G. Trumbull related the\nfollowing:\n\n\"They were gathered together on the after-deck of the steamer, singing\nthe old hymns. Night had come down over the ocean, the myriad stars of a\ntropical sky were twinkling overhead, and more than one of the Sunday\nSchool Times party who were joining in the singing were thanking God for\nthe precious memories the old hymns brought them. Stewards and\nstewardesses in the service of the ship were on deck near by, resting in\nsteamer chairs, enjoying the cool breezes and listening to the hymns.\n\n\"It was interesting to note the deep interest with which the passengers\non board listened to the singing of the old hymns. Some joined in; the\nlips of others were seen moving as words of the hymn were being\nrepeated; one man removed his eyeglasses to wipe a certain mistiness\nfrom his eyes, then he rather timidly asked that a certain hymn might be\nsung, 'I Will Sing the Wondrous Story.'\"\n\n\nSome incidents are parables of life as when a congregation\n\n\n Sang Amid the Darkness\n\nMany years ago the Bishop of Ripon preached at Harrowgate on the text,\n\"While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children\nof light\" (John 12:36). Earnestly and impressively he presented Christ\nas the Light of the World. Those away from Christ were pictured as being\nout in the darkness. Tenderly urging the congregation to come into the\nlight, he announced the hymn, \"Abide With Me!\" The large congregation\nhad joined with the choir in singing the first line:\n\n \"Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide,\"\n\nwhen every light in the church suddenly went out.\n\nWithout a moment of pause, however, the choir continued to follow the\norgan, and sang:\n\n \"The darkness deepens--Lord, with me abide!\n When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,\n Help of the helpless, O abide with me!\"\n\nWhile singing the next lines, a few of the gas jets were lit. These\nwords were:\n\n \"Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;\n Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;\"\n\nBut the lights feebly flickered and died, and the congregation, again in\ndarkness, continued:\n\n \"Change and decay in all around I see:\n O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!\"\n\nBut the choir sang on to the end. When they reached the last stanza some\nof the gas jets were burning; and in the dim light the words were\nstirringly appealing:\n\n \"Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes:\n Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies:\n Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee:\n In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!\"\n\n\n_The Christian Advocate_ gives two illustrations of the popularity of\nthe hymn,\n\n\n \"God Will Take Care of You\"\n\nA blind man was seen crossing the street at a dangerous place in the\nBronx, New York City. When a friend approached he saw that the lips of\nthe blind man were moving, and as he listened he heard him singing\nsoftly, \"God will take care of you.\" When the friend made himself known\nto the blind man he carelessly inquired, \"Why are you singing that\nhymn?\" He replied: \"The reason is that I must cross this dangerous\ncrossing just ahead of me in about a minute, and I was thinking that\npossibly one of the many wagons or trucks might strike me and I would\nget killed. But the thought came to me that even if it did occur my soul\nwould go straight to God. And if He led me across all right it would be\njust another evidence of His care of me. So I just could not help\nsinging to myself, 'God will take care of you.' Hallelujah!\"\n\nA young woman who had lost both her husband and little daughter, and was\nleft to support herself in sorrow, took a slip of paper on which was\nwritten the song, \"God will take care of you,\" and pinned it over the\nplace where she did her dishwashing, and testified to the great comfort\nthe song brought to her.\n\n\nA different kind of testimony, both interesting and exceptional, is\ngiven in\n\n\n A Sexton's Tribute to a Singer\n\nTraveling amid the great artificial lakes in the Elan Valley, from which\nBirmingham receives its water supply from the Welsh mountains, the\nvisitor had pointed out to him by the driver a little church on the\nhillside. The visitor was interested in the \"little sanctuary, nestling\namong the green mountains,\" and confessed that he liked to think of\nplaces which recall the words, \"It's quiet down here... And God is very\nnear.\" Being a newspaper man, however, he was particularly impressed by\na somewhat garbled version of the time when Dame Clara Butt sang in the\nlittle building. Later, in London, he had the opportunity of hearing the\nstory from Dame Clara Butt herself. She was motoring with some friends\nthrough the valley beyond Llandrindod Wells and espied this simple and\ntiny church, without spire or tower, standing alone on the hillside. It\nseemed so like a little private sanctuary that she exclaimed, \"I wish\nthat little church were mine!\" and halted the car, and crossed the river\nto have a closer look.\n\nIt happened that a service was almost due, and the sexton and an old\ncompanion were there; so the visitors were able to enter the sanctuary.\nThey remained in silence a few minutes, when one of the party, pointing\nto the little organ, asked Dame Clara to play it and sing. She shook her\nhead; the request was repeated; the impulse came and the singer sat at\nthe instrument, and sang the opening lines of Liddle's setting of \"Abide\nWith Me.\"\n\nIn a few minutes she was conscious that the old sexton was chiming in\nwith notes which harmonized; but, as the great voice rang through the\nlittle church, he stopped to listen, for nothing like it had ever been\nheard there. When the last notes died away, he said, \"But who is this\nlady who has sung to us?\"\n\nWhen he was told he held up his hands, and with tears falling,\nexclaimed, \"The great Madame Clara Butt has come to our little church\nand sung to us!\" Then pointing upward, he said reverently: \"Ah! They\nheard that up there!\"\n\nThis tribute, coming from the sexton who had himself once sung in Welsh\nchoirs, was all the more gratifying because it was simple and\nspontaneous.\n\n\nHere is an interesting sidelight upon\n\n\n The Author of \"Beulah Land\"\n\nEdgar Page Stites, the author of \"Beulah Land\" and many other popular\nhymns, was a local deacon of the Methodist Episcopal Church and served\nas a supply preacher in Dakota. At the outbreak of the Civil War he\nlived in Richmond, Virginia. After enlisting he was stationed in\nPhiladelphia and had charge of feeding the troops which passed through\nthat city. At the time of his death in Cape May he was the oldest\ninsurance agent in New Jersey.\n\nDuring his retirement he once wrote to a friend: \"I am whittling away on\nmy eighty-second year. Have written a great many songs the last fifty\nyears signed 'Edgar Page,' which is the front of my name. I was enabled\nby great spiritual help to write 'Beulah Land' in 1876, at Philadelphia.\nI was wonderfully converted sixty-five years ago this month [November,\n1852] and am still on board the old ship Zion.\"\n\n\"Uncle Joe\" Cannon, ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, once met\nMr. Stites in Cape May and told him he would rather have written \"Beulah\nLand\" than to have been President of the United States. Chaplain McCabe\nwas the first to introduce this now famous hymn to the public, singing\nit at a ministers' meeting in Philadelphia. Since then it has been sung\naround the world and during the World War it was a general favorite of\nthe soldiers overseas.\n\n\nAnd another sidelight upon the writer of\n\n\n A Hymn of Consecration\n\nMiss Frances Ridley Havergal was visiting a home in Cavendish Square,\nLondon, where the aristocracy live. She was to be a guest for five days.\nKnowing that several members of this family were not rejoicing\nChristians, she made a prayer, \"Lord, give me _all_ in this house.\" The\nway was opened through her singing and she entranced everyone in this\nhome. The father, mother, children and servants were all brought clear\ninto the Kingdom of joy and peace before she left. On the last night of\nher visit she was too happy to sleep, and spent the greater portion of\nit in meditation and prayer. Then it was that there came to her the hymn\nwhich she wrote with buoyant feeling,\n\n \"Take my life and let it be\n Consecrated, Lord, to Thee,\"\n\nending with the line, \"Ever, only, all for Thee.\"\n\n\nThe energy and endurance of this singing faith come from the Holy\nSpirit. I quote a description of a singular event in Heidelberg,\nGermany, written for _The Christian Advocate_ by Professor J. Newton\nDavies. It might be called\n\n\n Kindling the Torches at the Bonfire\n\n\"On a June evening, the student corporations of the university, a\nthousand strong, assembled on the banks of the Neckar to celebrate the\ncoming of summer. Each student carried in his hand an unlighted torch.\nAt a given signal, they marched, singing, across the old bridge, and up\nthe steep path to the Bismarck tower, where a bonfire blazed. At this\nbonfire each man lighted his torch, and then continued his march to the\nvalley below. The thousand burning torches glinting through the dark fir\ntrees were an unforgettable sight.\n\n\"In Jerusalem, at Pentecost, the fires of a religious enthusiasm were\nkindled, at the blaze of which a small band of Christians lighted the\nunlit torches of their personalities. With loins girt, and lamps lit,\nthat gallant group of torchbearers set forth, singing songs of victory\nand triumph, to herald the advent of a New Day. As we today, nineteen\ncenturies afterward, look back on their astonishing victories, we cannot\nbut fervently join in Charles Wesley's prayer:\n\n 'O Thou, who camest from above,\n The pure celestial fire to impart,\n Kindle a flame of sacred love\n On the mean altar of my heart!\n\n There let it for Thy glory burn,\n With inextinguishable blaze,\n And trembling to its source return,\n In humble love and fervent praise.'\"\n\n\nOne of the hymns which stirs our spirits for valiant endeavor is\n\n\n \"Onward, Christian Soldiers\"\n\nThe Rev. S. Baring Gould was the author of one hundred and forty books,\nshowing versatility of genius in these works of religion, fiction,\nfolklore, mythology, travel, biography, art. Many of these writings will\ndoubtless be forgotten when a hymn which he improvised and wrote in\ngreat haste, as a marching song for a band of schoolchildren in his\nparish, will continue to be remembered. About this hymn, \"Onward,\nChristian Soldiers,\" the author once wrote, \"Certainly nothing has\nsurprised me more than its great popularity.\"\n\nThe universal appeal of this hymn has justly made it a heritage of\nChristian civilization. It belongs to every church and nation and no one\nthinks of the author as an Anglican rector but as a large-hearted soul,\nwhich he truly was. It is sung by surpliced choir boys in the\nincense-laden air of Roman Catholic churches; and by lads without\nvestments in the plain country church; by the Knights of Columbus and by\nthe Knights Templar; by Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and every\nother denomination. Indeed, it is used by all Christians as a rallying\ncall and it will so continue till the church militant becomes the Church\ntriumphant.\n\n\nThe romance of American history is impressively illuminated by\n\n\n A Shrine Created by a Song\n\n\"There's a church in the valley by the wildwood\"--this song has been\nsung for threescore years and more in all the world. It has furthermore\nmade famous \"The Little Brown Church in the Vale,\" located in the\nvillage of Nashua, Iowa. The associations of this sanctuary go back to\nearly pioneer days when the settlers contributed lumber, logs, stone and\nlabor for its erection. Dr. W. S. Pitts, a physician who had helped to\nbuild this church, was inspired to write the song.\n\nThe railroad came in 1868 to Nashua and the Little Brown Church began to\nthrive as the population had now increased to about a thousand. Dr.\nPitts taught a singing school in Bradford, a few miles away. It was\nnecessary to have an organ but the only instrument in all this region\nwas in the Little Brown Church. His song at once gained popularity.\nJubilee singers took it up and concert companies carried it all over\nAmerica and Europe. It was even heard in New Zealand, Australia and\nSouth America.\n\nThe song was then forgotten and with the drift of the population away\nfrom the country the Little Brown Church was abandoned. But about\ntwenty-five years ago the old song was revived and an interest in the\nlittle church was quickened. It was restored to its original condition,\nlargely due to the song it had inspired. Every year thousands of\nvisitors go to Nashua to see it. It has also become a sort of Gretna\nGreen, for over five hundred couples have been married there. Indeed,\nthe church is largely supported by these fees and it continues to do the\nwork of a real country church. Seldom have a church and a song been so\nclosely identified as in this instance.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n _Songs in the Night_\n\n\nThe quality of our faith is made known in times of stress and storm,\nwhen appearances are anything but favorable and the outlook is bleak and\nbarren. Just as the courage of the soldier is shown in the thick of the\nbattle rather than at the camp fires, so the fortitude of the Christian\nis exhibited in the strife and strain of untoward circumstances. These\nmay be caused by some calamity such as sickness or death or some serious\nloss. The pessimist sees only darkness and danger and is ready to let\ngo. The optimist sees only brightness and security but is nonplused\nbefore mishaps. They are both one-sided and superficial because they\nreckon with a limited set of facts. The meliorist, on the other hand, is\nconvinced that, because his faith is fixed trusting in God, he can\nweather the tempest and survive the severe ordeal.\n\nIt has been said that many hymns are weakened by excessive\nsentimentalism. This criticism carries the point too far and overlooks\nthe fact that in the final analysis we are influenced far more by the\nmonitions of the heart than by the admonitions of the head. What Dr.\nJoseph Collins calls \"adult infantilism\" is due, according to this keen\nanalyst, to our failure to educate and regulate our emotions. To be\nsure, there is such a thing as frothy emotionalism, but when we go to\nthe other extreme and pretend we are living in an ice pack it is often\ndue to the inferiority complex. Better a sentimentalism which stirs our\nemotions than a rationalism which suppresses them.\n\nThe answer to this inept criticism is given in the following incidents.\nThey illustrate how men and women have expressed the buoyancy of\nreligion in the darkness of peril, accident, sorrow, suffering and other\ntrials. It was their faith which made use of hymns to carry on until the\nday dawned.\n\n\nHere is an incident from a memorable tragedy which tells how one\n\n\n Played a Hymn on the Deck of a Sinking Boat\n\n \"Wallace H. Hartley\n Died April 15, 1912\n 'Nearer, my God, to Thee'\"\n\nSuch was the simple inscription on the rosewood coffin of one of the\nheroic figures of the musical realm, whose name was carried all over the\nworld when the _Titanic_ was sunk. As the boats were hurrying away from\nthe wreck the marine band continued to play until their instruments were\nchoked by the swirling water that closed about the musicians and sent\nthem to heroes' graves. Of the eight bandsmen six were Englishmen, one a\nGerman and one a Frenchman.\n\nTheir leader was Mr. Wallace H. Hartley. One who had been with him on\ntwenty-two voyages on the _Mauretania_ states that he once casually\nasked him what he would do if he were on a boat which was wrecked. He\npromptly replied that he would play \"Nearer, my God, to Thee.\" And this\nwas the hymn he led the bandsmen in playing after they had long been\nrendering popular tunes, when he had to make a last selection before the\ngreat ship made her final plunge.\n\nAmong the 815 passengers and 688 crew who were drowned was W. T. Stead,\neditor of _The Review of Reviews_. A few years previous he had published\n\"_Hymns That Have Helped_.\" In this list of the best hundred hymns,\n\"Nearer, my God, to Thee\" stands seventh. The Prince of Wales, later\nKing Edward VII, sent a letter to the editor in which he expressed a\npreference for this hymn and said, \"There is none more touching nor one\nthat goes more truly to the heart than No. 7 on your list.\" Mr. Stead\nmade the terse comment, \"The hymn is as dear to the peasant as it is to\nthe prince.\"\n\nMr. E. J. Elliott, president of the local musicians' union at\nLouisville, at the time of the disaster said there is a standing rule in\nthe national organization requiring bands attending funerals of dead\nmembers to conclude the rites with this tune. \"That is the last thing we\nplay at the grave of a musician--'Nearer, my God, to Thee.' I believe\nthat, knowing they were doomed as the result of their own heroism, the\nmembers of the ship's orchestra thus commended their own souls to their\nGod, giving expression to their petition in the notes of their\ninstruments.\"\n\nWhat a fitting expression for souls about to wing their way into\neternity!\n\n\nEqually impressive is this incident when\n\n\n Rescuers Steered in the Direction Of the Singer\n\nWhen the English steamer _Stella_ was wrecked on the Casquet rocks\ntwelve women were put into a boat which the waves whirled away, leaving\nthem helpless without even an oar. They passed a terrific night not\nknowing what awaited them. Wet and cold they would have perished but for\nthe courage of one of them, Miss Marguerite Williams, who was a\ncontralto singer.\n\nThere was no thought of ruining her voice at such a crisis, and through\nthe night she sang parts from \"The Messiah\" and \"Elijah\" and also hymns.\nThis cheered the desolate women. About four o'clock in the morning a\nlifeboat which was sent out to save any surviving victims came to a\npause in the waters as the men heard a woman's voice singing in the\ndistance. The words, \"Oh! rest in the Lord,\" were carried to them by the\nwind and they promptly steered in their direction. Before long they\nsighted the boat with the twelve women who were taken aboard the steam\nlaunch.\n\nThe singing of Miss Williams not only braced up her companions and\nherself but led to their rescue.\n\n\nDr. W. T. Grenfell recounts a rescue under similar circumstances in his\nbook[4] entitled\n\n\n \"Adrift on an Ice-Pan\"\n\nHe had returned home on Easter Sunday after the service when he received\nan urgent call to go sixty miles to help a young man on whom he had\npreviously operated. Crossing the ice the next day, as it was breaking\nup, he found that he was on a piece which was drifting into the open\nAtlantic. Three of his dogs were killed, and from their bones he made a\nflagpole; while their coats were used to keep him warm during the night.\n\nAll night long he drifted, but was rescued in the morning, although\nthere seemed little probability that he would be. Through the night,\nexpecting death at any moment, there ran through his mind the words of\nan old hymn which came back to him from his boyhood days:\n\n \"My God, my Father, while I stray\n Far from my home, on life's rough way,\n O teach me from my heart to say,\n Thy will be done!\"\n\nReferring to this rescue, Dr. Grenfell said: \"As I went to sleep that\nfirst night there still rang in my ears the same verse of the old hymn\nwhich had been my companion on the ice, 'Thy will, not mine, O Lord.'\"\n\n\nThere is much significance in a ceremony associated with\n\n\n Dedicating a Lifeboat\n\nFive hundred lives had been saved by a lifeboat service at the Scilly\nIslands just off the coast of Cornwall, England, between 1828 and 1930.\nThese islands are near the main lines of Atlantic travel.\n\nA new lifeboat costing $42,500 was dedicated in August, 1930. It was\nnamed the _Cunard_ in honor of the donors, the Cunard Steamship Company.\nThis boat is fitted with twin screws and two engines, each of forty\nhorsepower, which could work even though the engine room were filled\nwith water. She has water-tight compartments, generates her own\nelectricity and is manned by a crew of eight men.\n\nTwo prayers were offered by ministers, and two hymns were sung. Led by\nthe local band, the assembled company, who fully realized the perils of\nthe great waters, joined in singing:\n\n \"Eternal Father, strong to save,\n Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,\n Who bidds't the mighty ocean deep,\n Its own appointed limits keep;\n O hear us when we cry to Thee\n For those in peril on the sea.\n\n \"O Christ, whose voice the waters heard\n And hushed their raging at Thy word,\n Who walkedst on the foaming deep,\n And calm amid the storm didst sleep;\n O hear us when we cry to Thee\n For those in peril on the sea.\"\n\nEqually appropriate was the second hymn rendered:\n\n \"O God, our help in ages past,\n Our hope for years to come,\n Our shelter from the stormy blast,\n And our eternal home!\"\n\n\nThe confidence of such faith is illustrated in\n\n\n What Led to \"He Leadeth Me\"\n\nThe birthplace of this world-renowned hymn was marked in Philadelphia by\na tablet containing the first stanza and the following inscription:\n\n \"'He Leadeth Me,' sung throughout the world, was written by the Rev.\n Dr. Joseph H. Gilmore, a son of a Governor of New Hampshire, in the\n home of Deacon Wattson, immediately after preaching in the First\n Baptist Church, northwest corner Broad and Arch Streets, on the 26th\n day of March, 1862. The church and Deacon Wattson's house stood on the\n ground on which this building is erected.\n\n \"The United Gas Improvement Company, in recognition of the beauty and\n fame of the hymn, and in remembrance of its distinguished author,\n makes this permanent record on the first day of June, 1926.\"\n\nThe subject of the sermon was the Twenty-third Psalm, especially the\nwords \"He leadeth me.\" After the service a few met with the minister and\nrehearsed the impression, emphasizing the timeliness of the sermon,\nsince this was the darkest hour of the War of Rebellion. \"Then and\nthere,\" wrote Dr. Gilmore, \"on a blank page of the brief from which I\nhad intended to speak, I penciled the hymn, handed it to my wife, and\nthought no more about it.\"\n\nIt was later published in a Boston paper, which attracted the attention\nof William B. Bradbury, who set the hymn to music. Since then it has\ngone on its mission, translated into several languages and sung by\npeople of different churches. Bishop Paddock had it included in the\nrevised hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church, saying \"how could I\nconduct a service in a home for the aged if I couldn't give out 'He\nLeadeth Me'?\"\n\nThis hymn was once sung in a Chinese court of justice by a native who\nhad never seen a white missionary, to show the presiding judge what a\nChristian hymn was like. The man was being tried for renting a building\nto some Christians who had opened an opium refuge. When he told the\njustice that at their meetings the Christians prayed and sang hymns, he\nwas asked for a specimen and sang \"He Leadeth Me.\"\n\n\nHow a crisis was averted is seen when\n\n\n A German Girl Led in Singing \"A Mighty Fortress\"\n\nA few years ago there was a fearful accident at the coal mines near\nScranton, Pennsylvania. Several men were buried for three days and all\nhopes of their rescue seemed to be futile. Most of the miners in this\nregion were Germans. Their excitement was intensified by sympathy for\nthe wives and children of the buried men and their failure to rescue\nthem.\n\nOn the third day at evening, a mob assembled at the mouth of the mine in\na sullen temper because it was hopeless to dig further since the men\nwere probably dead by this time, and in their mad rage they blamed the\nrich mine owners for the tragedy. They were ready for any violence if\nonly some reckless word was spoken.\n\nThe atmosphere was tense but it was suddenly changed when a little\nGerman girl, about eleven years of age, pale with fear, lifted her voice\nin song. She began in a hoarse whisper but her childish voice gathered\nstrength as she went on with the first verse of Luther's hymn, \"A Mighty\nFortress Is Our God.\"\n\nThere was silence as these lines fell on the ears of the Germans,\nfamiliar with them from the cradle. Others joined and before long the\nwhole company were singing:\n\n \"Did we in our own strength confide,\n Our striving would be losing;\n Were not the right Man on our side,\n The Man of God's own choosing.\n Doth ask who that may be?\n Christ Jesus, it is He;\n Lord Sabaoth is His name,\n From age to age the same,\n And He must win the battle.\"\n\nThe tide was turned and, encouraged, they resumed their work and kept at\nit. Before morning the joyful news came up from the pit that the men\nwere found and that they were alive. What a word in season was this\ngirl's hymn!\n\n\nHere is a touching story about\n\n\n What a Blind Soldier Wanted to Hear\n\nWhen a Salvation Army officer was conducting a song service in the wards\nof the hospital at Bazeilles, France, where there were many wounded\nAmerican soldiers during the World War, a blind lad asked them to sing\nsomething for him. The choice was appropriate and pathetic as he\nexpressed a desire to hear the old hymn:\n\n \"Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,\n Lead Thou me on!\"\n\nOne can easily imagine that the words prayerfully expressed the deepest\ndesire of his soul.\n\n\nThe theme of this chapter is impressively brought home concerning a girl\nwho was\n\n\n Blind and Lonely, But Still Singing\n\nShe had just entered her 'teens when she was stricken with tuberculosis.\nSent to the Adirondacks, she did not recover. Later she went to the home\nof her grandparents, and there she died. She was a member of the Sunday\nSchool in the church of which I was then pastor. She had a sweet, clear\nvoice, and on special occasions she was generally on the program for a\nsolo.\n\nWhen called to conduct the funeral, her relatives told me that the night\nbefore she died she became blind. Unable to see, she three times called,\n\"Papa, Papa, Papa!\" But her father was not present to respond to her\ncall.\n\nNot long afterwards she broke into song. Those watching with her were\ndeeply moved as she began:\n\n \"Be not dismayed whate'er betide,\n God will take care of you;\n Beneath His wings of love abide,\n God will take care of you.\"[5]\n\nShe sang the entire hymn, even to the last verse:\n\n \"No matter what may be the test,\n God will take care of you;\n Lean, weary one, upon His breast,\n God will take care of you.\n\n God will take care of you,\n Thro' ev'ry day, o'er all the way;\n He will take care of you,\n God will take care of you.\"\n\nWhen the morning came, God took her into the heavenly home, and she had\npassed from darkness and pain to light and joy.\n\n\nHow a night of sorrow ended is seen when a man was\n\n\n Transfigured by Matheson's Hymn\n\nDr. George Matheson, the blind preacher of Edinburgh, is best remembered\nby his hymn, \"O Love, that wilt not let me go,\" written when forty years\nof age. \"It is the quickest composition I ever achieved,\" wrote the\nauthor. \"It was done in three minutes. I was sitting alone in my study\nin a state of great mental depression, caused by a real calamity. My\nhymn was the voice of my depression. It was wrung out spontaneously from\nthe heart.\" A close friend of Matheson testified that the distinctive\nideals of this hymn \"possessed him all his life.\" Many thousands of\npeople have been stirred and comforted by its gracious message.\n\nA missionary from India attended a service in Algiers, Africa, where\nabout sixty people were present, mostly tourists. After the sermon this\nhymn was announced, and as the minister was reading the first verse a\nman of perhaps fifty was seen to change seats with the lady organist.\nSuddenly the keys were touched and the little American organ seemed to\ntake on new life. Surely a master was at the keys. He played and sang\nand carried the congregation to heavenly heights of rapture. The deep\nemotion of the organist, his face stained with tears, passed to the\naudience and the climax was reached when the last verse was sung:\n\n \"O Cross that liftest up my head,\n I dare not ask to fly from thee;\n I lay in dust life's glory dead,\n And from the ground there blossoms red\n Life that shall endless be.\"\n\nAfter the service several went forward to thank the organist. He\nreceived them with a quiet smile and quickly left the church. It was\ndiscovered later that he was a distinguished British singer. Two years\nprevious to this incident, his wife lay dying. She was an American lady\nof great musical ability. She asked him to sing this hymn as she was\npassing into the shadow of death. And this was the first time he had\nventured to sing it again since that trying day. No wonder his soul\nspoke from the depths, as through this hymn he was passing from the\nDarkness of sorrow to the Light which followed all his way, like many\nanother pilgrim on the journey of trial and travail.\n\n\nThe secret of strength in weakness is given in this confession of faith:\n\n\n \"Through Cheerful Years My Guide\"\n\nConsecrated and cultured, a young man began his work in the ministry of\nJesus Christ in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Unsparing of\nhimself, he labored with intense earnestness. Popularity was soon\nachieved, and he was placed in responsible centers of influence. Success\ncame to him in each successive field of activity.\n\nFaith and character had to meet severe tests. While in the very prime of\nlife, health failed. Operation after operation was performed, but\nwithout avail. Courageously he met the situation, and though unable to\ndo much public work, he continued to cultivate his brilliant mind.\n\nOver and over again during those last days of weakness and suffering he\nquoted the hymn of Dr. Frank Mason North, which had grown to be his\nfavorite among the many hymns he knew. He (the Rev. Charles L. Peck)\ntold the writer he believed the hymn was destined to become increasingly\npopular. It was sung at his funeral.\n\n \"Jesus, the calm that fills my breast,\n No other heart than Thine can give;\n This peace unstirred, this joy of rest,\n None but Thy loved ones can receive.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n O Christ, through changeful years my Guide,\n My Comforter in sorrow's night,\n My Friend when friendless--still abide,\n My Lord, my Counselor, my Light.\n\n My times, my powers, I give to Thee;\n My inmost soul 'tis Thine to move;\n I wait for Thy eternity,\n I wait, in peace, in praise, in love.\"[6]\n\n\nThe Christian heroism of another young man is described in what might be\ncalled\n\n\n \"Through Every Day\" for A Thousand Days\n\nHe was in training to be a physician when he was stricken with a deadly\ndisease. He then resolved to face the situation manfully. Dr. Merton S.\nRice thus refers to this case:\n\n\"He immediately adopted every precaution in what he knew must be a long,\nlong contest, if he should live. Day after day, for weeks, months and\nyears, that indomitable young soul fought that fight with death. Every\nday he held scientific record of his life for one thousand and fifteen\ndays. He has charted on an unbroken chart the full record of his heart\nand his temperature, and in eleven volumes of carefully listed\nobservations of life pursued by death he has left us this great story.\nThrough it all, and down to the very last breath of it all he has sung,\nand then asked us to sing when he was gone:\n\n \"'Through every day,\n O'er all the way,\n God will take care of you.'\"\n\n\nHere is what a veteran confessed at a time when he\n\n\n \"Sank in Blissful Dreams Away\"\n\n\"I am now in my seventy-third year, and just completing the fiftieth\nyear of my ministry,\" said the Rev. T. Ferrier Hulme, D.D., fraternal\ndelegate from the Wesleyan Methodist Church of England to the General\nConference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, May, 1928.\nIn closing his address he said:\n\n\"May I give you my experience? I have known Jesus for many years. I have\nbeen preaching for fifty years. Twelve years ago it seemed as if my work\nwas done. I was laid low by a terrible illness, and had to undergo a\nmajor operation that might well have been fatal. My life was in the\nbalance. I said: 'Charles Wesley, What have you for me? Give me\nsomething short and sweet.' And he gave me:\n\n 'Jesus, the first and last,\n On whom my soul is cast;\n Thou didst Thy work begin\n In blotting out my sin;\n Thou wilt the root remove,\n And perfect me in love.\n\n Yet when the work is done,\n The work is but begun;\n Partaker of Thy grace\n I long to see Thy face;\n The first I prove below,\n The last I die to know.'\n\n\"I repeated it to the last line, and then sank in blissful dreams away.\nWhen I came out from that nursing home, before I could walk, I just\ncrawled to Charles Wesley's grave near this home and gave God thanks for\nall that Charles Wesley had been to Christendom, and especially for what\nhe had been to me.\"\n\n\nThe following letter, quoted in part, from a woman who underwent an\noperation tells of the influence of\n\n\n Hymns in Hospital\n\n\"I am sending you my testimony for the prayer meeting. First I want you\nto thank God with me and for me that all is well. Then ask God to bless\neach and every nurse up here because they certainly are a splendid lot.\nThey hold chapel here every morning. The day I was operated they sang,\n'I need thee every hour.' I felt they were just singing that for me.\n\n\"I was terribly frightened when I lay on the table but I prayed that God\nwould be near me. I certainly felt His presence. I could not see Him,\nneither could I see the two doctors in the operating room but I knew\nthey were there just the same. Do you wonder that the first words I said\nafter the operation were, 'O Light that followest all my way'?\n\n\"It surely means something to have a Friend who can go with you down\neven to the valley of the shadow of death. The next morning was the\nworst yet and they sang:\n\n 'Leave, ah! leave me not alone,\n Still support and comfort me.'\n\n\"What do you think of that? Why, if I had been the only one in the\nhospital they could not have sung anything better for me.\n\n\"Just across the way from me there lies a lady very ill, and the other\nnight while I was awake, I heard her singing, soft and sweet and\ntrembling,\n\n 'Or if my way lie\n Where death o'erhanging nigh,\n My soul doth terrify\n With sudden chill.'\n\nAnd then her voice came out strong:\n\n 'Yet I am not afraid:\n Whilst softly on my head\n Thy tender hand is laid,\n I fear no ill.'\"\n\n\nHere is another testimony when\n\n\n Patients Listened to \"Precious Name\"\n\nEarly one morning in a city hospital, above the distracting noise, there\nwas heard the sweet voice of a woman repeatedly singing the refrain:\n\n \"Precious Name, O how sweet!\n Hope of earth and joy of heaven.\"\n\nNo silver bell ever sounded more clearly and no appeal was more winsome\nthan these lines as they were heard by the sick and dying. It is not\nknown whether she herself was a sufferer. In any case her message wafted\nthrough the air came with cheering timeliness to the men and women on\ntheir beds of sickness. One who heard it then has not forgotten its\neffect after fifteen years, and it will be a choice memory for years to\ncome.\n\n\nThe reference to the bell recalls an incident when\n\n\n Church Bells Reminded Her Of an Old Hymn\n\nAn aged saint who dwelt beneath the shadow of her church was lying in a\nlast sickness and it occurred to her pastor that the peals, breaking the\nstillness of the night, might disturb her. On being told about it, she\nsaid:\n\n\"Not at all, I love to hear them. It's the kirk bell; and whenever I\nhear it, it makes me think of the hymns we used to sing:\n\n 'Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing,\n The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea.'\"\n\nShe then added, \"It's His voice, and it's sic a comfort to me. I aye\nweary to hear it.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n _Hymns Mothers Loved_\n\n\nIt may be disputed whether religion is an inheritance or an acquisition\nbut the fact remains that the influence of personality is the final\nexplanation. And who has exercised such a power more beneficially than\nmothers? They constitute the heart of every home, the first and the last\nin everything. Whoever may fail us in the tumult and struggle of life,\nour mothers have never gone back on us but have remained steadfast even\nat the cost of incredible sacrifices. Indeed, mothers hold the key to\nevery difficult situation in life, and they have opened doors closed to\nevery other approach. During the World War most of the letters from the\nFront were written by the boys to their mothers, and this daily mail ran\nfar into the tons.\n\nBy their faith, devotion and consolation our mothers have done for us\nwhat no other mortals have ever been capable of doing. Even when we are\ninclined to make an exception of our wives, it is really the mother\ninstinct in them which makes them so indispensable to us. Quick in\nsympathy, ready in resource, patient in trials, versatile in ability and\nadaptability, mothers stand sentinel in the crises of life, and because\nof intuition and inspiration they are the saviors of society.\n\nGod be praised for our mothers, and may the blessing of the Eternal\nFather abide with all mothers, that they may continue to fulfill their\ngracious ministry for the highest welfare of mankind. This sheaf of\ntestimonies bears glowing witness from grateful hearts to the\nsacramental virtue of mothers. May their memory be forever blessed!\n\n\nThe Bible and the hymnal were the two books from which our mothers\nreceived their spiritual replenishment. This poem by the Rev. G. H.\nWinkworth tells of the hymnal which he fittingly describes as\n\n\n The Old Brown Book\n\n \"The old brown book was worn and finger-stained.\n To touch it gently children's hands were trained.\n It had within the hymns that mother sang\n In peaceful worship after church bells rang.\n\n I hear her voice again so sweet and clear,\n According praise to Christ her Saviour dear.\n The old brown book had words that blessed her soul;\n She sang them, 'While the nearer waters roll.'\n\n 'Tis years since mother gently passed to rest,\n And hands were gently folded on her breast,\n She sleeps, but in our ears the old hymns ring--\n The sweet old hymns that mother used to sing.\n\n The years are passing onward one by one,\n And with them changes to the church have come;\n The old brown book no longer fills its place;\n We struggle now to sing new hymns of grace.\n\n But when the Sabbath evening takes us home,\n And we are gathered there with friends alone,\n We take the old brown book and once more sing,\n 'Hide thou beneath the shadow of Thy wing.'\n\n And who can tell but what in heaven above\n They sing again the old sweet hymns we love?\n We only know that when we sing them here\n They bring to us the Heavenly Presence near.\n\n Thus we can fight life's battle calm and sweet,\n Each unborn day with courage wait to meet,\n 'Blest be the tie that binds,' we smooth the way,\n 'Nearer my God to Thee' each closing day.\n\n The old brown book a treasure still we keep,\n The same old hymns that rocked our friends to sleep;\n And if we fail to catch the newest strain,\n Our hearts would sing the old hymns once again.\"[7]\n\n\nThe same theme is continued in another poem by Maud Frazer Jackson in\n_The Sunday School Times_, entitled,\n\n\n \"My Mother's Song\"\n\n \"I heard a song that touched my heart\n And filled my eyes with tears.\n It was the song my mother sang\n In long-departed years,--\n\n 'Only trust Him, only trust Him,\n Only trust Him now;\n He will save you, He will save you,\n He will save you now.'\n\n How sweet the words that gave me hope\n That I might be restored,--\n 'Come, every soul by sin oppressed,\n There's mercy with the Lord.'\n\n I seemed to hear her gentle voice\n As in the long ago,--\n 'Plunge now into the crimson flood\n That washes white as snow.'\n\n She knows tonight, my mother knows,\n Up there, her prayers are heard;\n For Jesus gives the wanderer rest,\n I'm 'trusting in His Word.'\"\n\n\nDr. W. J. Dawson, in his reminiscences entitled _The Autobiography of a\nMind_,[8] thus refers to\n\n\n The Note of Assurance in the Old Hymns\n\n\"I came the other day upon a Methodist hymnal bearing the date of 1877,\nand in it I found the hymns which my mother loved to quote, and I was\nstruck with their depth of emotion, their genuine spiritual quality.\nThey have a note of profound assurance which I miss in the modern hymns.\n\n 'Leader of faithful souls, and guide\n Of all who travel to the sky,\n Come and with us, even us, abide\n Who would on Thee alone rely.\n On Thee alone our spirits stay\n While held in life's uneven way.'\n\n\"How fine is the crusading note in this verse! Particularly noble in\nsentiment and emotion are the numerous hymns dealing with death and the\nfuture state. Here is one which I confess I read with tears:\n\n 'Rejoice for a brother deceased,\n Our loss is his infinite gain;\n A soul out of prison released,\n And freed from its bodily chain.\n With songs let us follow his flight\n And mount with his spirit above,\n Escaped to the mansions of light,\n And lodged in the Eden of love.'\n\nOne can fancy this hymn sung by Cornish fishermen over one of their\nnumbers lost at sea.\"\n\n\nThe sacred memories of the past may slumber for a while but they are\noften awakened under favorable conditions, as seen on this occasion, as\nreported in _The British Weekly_, when\n\n\n Canadian Railroad Men Sang In Memory of Mother\n\nA student of Manitoba University, Winnipeg, accepted camp service for\nthe long vacation in connection with the building of the last\ntranscontinental railroad in Canada. He became one of the men and soon\nmade friends with them. After the midday meal on the first Sunday he\nasked \"the boys\" if they would \"roll up\" to the service he proposed to\nhold? The tent was crowded. He started the service by asking if any of\nthem remembered their mother's favorite hymn. He was answered at once by\none who said his mother liked best \"Rock of Ages, Cleft For Me.\" So it\nwas sung, and, like other \"mothers' favorites,\" it was sung over and\nover again. The service continued till eleven o'clock and under that\nstar-lit northern sky they left the tent for their bunks, resolving that\nthe God of the old home should be their God. By many a bunk that night\nthe prayer went to heaven:\n\n \"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,\n Let me hide myself in Thee.\"\n\n\nThe result was equally beneficial in another instance when John Callahan\n\n\n Heard Mother's Hymn in a Mission\n\nHe was long superintendent of Hadley Mission in New York City, and known\nas \"the Bishop of the Bowery.\" He said, \"It was 'Abide With Me' that I\nheard in a mission, and that I had not heard since it was sung when I\nwas six years old at my mother's funeral, that brought me to my senses\nand made me realize that I was not traveling on the right road.\"\n\n\nThe same effect was produced at the front when fond memories made\n\n\n Voices Husky With Emotion\n\nThe message of the Gospel took on a reality it had never worn before as\nthe story of the Cross was recounted by the Salvationists to the\nAmerican soldiers in France. The thunder of artillery was heard; and the\nflashing of signal lights, together with the hum of the airplanes,\nvivified the whole background of war. After an address on the God of\ntheir mothers a young woman began to sing:\n\n \"I grieved my Lord from day to day,\n I scorned His love so full and free,\n And though I wandered far away,\n My mother's prayers have followed me.\n\n I'm coming home, I'm coming home,\n To live my wasted life anew,\n For mother's prayers have followed me,\n Have followed me the whole world through.\"\n\nMany hearts echoed the words; and the voices of the men were husky with\nemotion when they tried to join in the closing hymn.\n\n\nA different testimony is given where one\n\n\n Wanted to Hear the Hymns That Mother Loved Best\n\nCountess Somers, the mother of Lady Henry Somerset, presented Frances E.\nWillard with a music-box. This may still be seen in Rest Cottage,\nEvanston, Illinois. The little guide-book, _Historic Rest Cottage_,\nsays:\n\n\"When this music-box was to be made, Miss Willard was asked what music\nshe would most enjoy and she instantly replied: 'The hymns that mother\nloved best.' So the visitor hears, 'How firm a foundation'; 'Nearer, my\nGod, to Thee'; 'While the days are going by'; 'There is a land of pure\ndelight'; 'Home, sweet home' and 'In heavenly love abiding.'\"\n\n\nConcerning this first hymn the following incident tells how Miss Frances\nWillard's mother\n\n\n Saluted Her Favorite Hymn\n\n\"There was the gay summer 'garden party' at Rest Cottage (Evanston,\nIllinois) in honor of Anna Gordon's birthday with Miss Willard as master\nof ceremonies, when speeches and presentation of gifts, poems and\ntributes, were in order. And at the close all united in singing 'How\nfirm a foundation,' as the aged saint, Miss Willard's venerable mother,\nthen in her closing eighty-eighth year, rose on the upper balcony, where\nshe sat enjoying the bright scene in the garden, to wave her\nhandkerchief in salutation at the words of her favorite hymn,\n\n 'And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,\n Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.'\"\n\n\nThe substantial faith of mothers is illustrated in the case of one who\n\n\n Sang the Nicene Creed\n\nThe sixth child in a family of eight, Joseph Von Wittig was born in a\none-room cottage. He tells us how his mother used to sing before her\nmarriage in the choir of the village church. \"What did you like best to\nsing, mother?\" he once asked her, and she answered, \"The Creed.\" He\nremembered a day when she was busy with field-work, and he heard her\nclear voice rising in the closing words of the Nicene Creed, _et vitam\nventuri s\u00e6culi_, \"and the life of the world to come.\"\n\n\nThe foretaste of the life to come has been enjoyed in the present life,\nto judge from these words by Bishop Adna W. Leonard, in his book,\n_Evangelism in the Remaking of the World_,[9] concerning his mother's\n\n\n Singing While Sleeping\n\n\"My own dear mother as she lay upon her dying bed, after many years of\nthe severest suffering and invalidhood, fell into a very sound sleep. It\nwas only a night or two before her outgoing. My father was keeping his\nfaithful vigil, when suddenly he heard a familiar voice singing,\n\n 'O Thou, in whose presence my soul takes delight,\n On whom in affliction I call,\n My comfort by day, and my song in the night,\n My hope, my salvation, my all!'\n\n\"It was my mother's voice singing in a marvelously clear tone the hymn\nthat had been a favorite with her all her life. Though asleep she sang\nevery verse clear through to the end. Other members of the family were\nawakened by it and listened in breathless silence, for it was like the\nsong of an angel. She did not waken for some time after she had ceased\nsinging, and when told of what had taken place she was not surprised,\nfor the hymns of the church had been such a comfort to her throughout\nher entire life.\"\n\n\nAnother witness is Dr. Oscar L. Joseph who on every Mother's Day has his\ncongregation sing\n\n\n \"Peace, Perfect Peace\"\n\nBeyond all other hymns, his mother loved this one written by Bishop\nEdward H. Bickersteth. She often sang it in the family circle. No burden\nor distraction could interfere with the \"perfect peace\" which Christ\nimparted to her soul. Hence, when she died, it was the message she\nwished to have set over her resting place. So on her tombstone in Ceylon\nmay be found the three words:\n\n \"Peace, Perfect Peace.\"\n\nWhen the members of the congregation hear this bit of family history\nfrom the lips of their pastor, they most feelingly sing at his request:\n\n \"Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?\n The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.\n\n Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?\n To do the will of Jesus,--this is rest.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?\n Jesus, we know, and He is on the throne.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n It is enough: earth's struggles soon shall cease,\n And Jesus call us to heaven's perfect peace.\"\n\n\nThe sacrificial loyalty to Christ is seen when\n\n\n A Mother Answered with a Hymn\n\nA missionary secretary of one of the Methodist churches in England once\nwent to see a mother whose only remaining son had offered himself for\nforeign mission service. Two other sons had gone to the same country and\nthere they had laid down their lives in the service of Christ and the\nnatives. The secretary sympathetically referred to this pathetic fact,\nand wished to ascertain from the mother whether the last of her boys was\nto go with her full consent.\n\nThe mother grasped the trend of the visitor's conversation, and, without\nwaiting for the secretary to put the direct question, she very quietly\nrepeated the lines she so often sang in church, which conveyed her\nspirit of surrender:\n\n \"Were the whole realm of nature mine,\n That were a present far too small;\n Love so amazing, so divine,\n Demands my soul, my life, my all.\"\n\nThere was no need for further questioning. The secretary said in my\nhearing, \"I knelt with that mother and her boy and we had a tearful but\nbeautiful season of prayer.\"\n\n\nIt is not surprising that in the soldiers' hours of danger, according to\n_The War Romance of the Salvation Army_, by Booth and Hill,[10]\n\n\n Mother Held Her Place in Their Hearts\n\nThe night of the St. Mihiel drive was the blackest night ever seen. It\nwas so dark that one could positively see nothing a foot ahead of him.\nAll that was heard was the sound of thousands of feet tramping, through\nthe mud and slush, as the soldiers went to the front. In groups they\nwere singing softly as they went by. One group was singing \"Mother\nMachree.\"\n\n \"There's a spot in me heart that no colleen may own,\n There's a depth in me soul never sounded or known;\n There's a place in me memory, me life, that you fill,\n No other can take it, no one ever will;\n Sure, I love the dear silver that shines in your hair,\n And the brow that's all furrowed and wrinkled with care.\n I kiss the dear fingers, so toil-worn for me;\n O, God bless you and keep you!\n Mother Machree!\"\n\nThe simple pathos of the men's voices, many of whom were tramping\nforward to their death, brought tears to the eyes of the Salvation Army\nlassies in the canteen.\n\nAfter an interval, sweetly and solemnly through the chill of the\ndarkness there came floating by, with a thrill in the words, another\ngroup of voices:\n\n \"Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide,\n The darkness deepens--Lord, with me abide!\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n _When Preachers Sing_\n\n\nEven in these days of pulpit exchanges, ministers show their\ndenominational alliances in their sermons. Not so when it comes to\nhymns, which are more catholic and comprehensive than creeds and other\necclesiastical pronouncements. Indeed, the hymnal of any church contains\nthe writings of Catholics and of Protestants of every variety, for most\nhymns express the deeper aspirations of the soul without any sectarian\naccent. They are admitted into these compilations because of their\nintrinsic worth as transcripts from Christian experience, dealing with\nthe essential truths of the Gospel. There is a healthy omission of those\nincidentals which interrupt whole-hearted Christian fellowship with all\nwho believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as their central\nauthority.\n\nIf our preaching were as free and fervent as the hymns sung by ministers\nand people, and if our practice more closely harmonized with the\nsentiments in hymns, the day of Christian union would come more quickly.\nHere are some incidents which illustrate the ability of ministers to\nmake melody in their hearts as unto the Lord.\n\n\nIt is in a crisis that the depths of the heart are exposed as here when\n\n\n A Minister Requested His Favorite Hymn\n\nDr. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, England, preached a beautiful sermon in\nmemory of his college friend, the Rev. E. S. Glanville, of Warwick. He\ntold how the dying minister had requested his father and sister to sing\nto him his favorite hymn, and they sat in the chamber of death and sang:\n\n \"There is a land of pure delight,\n Where saints immortal reign;\n Infinite day excludes the night,\n And pleasures banish pain.\"\n\n\nEqually significant was the\n\n\n Marching Song of Veteran Ministers\n\nWhen the names of the forty-five retired ministers were called in the\nBaltimore Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1930,\nthese men who were facing the sunset period of life stood and sang:\n\n \"Come, we that love the Lord,\n And let our joys be known;\n Join in a song with sweet accord\n And thus surround the throne.\"\n\n\"The light that never was on sea or land\" crept into their faces as they\nrecalled the days and the songs of their pilgrimage, and blended their\nvoices in the triumphant refrain:\n\n \"We're marching to Zion,\n Beautiful, beautiful Zion;\n We're marching upward to Zion,\n The beautiful city of God.\"\n\nThen, to give emphatic expression to their Christian joy, when Dr.\nCharles W. Baldwin, a veteran leader, ninety-one years of age, gave the\nsignal, they exclaimed in unison: \"Hallelujah!\"\n\n\nBut those who are in active service show their spirit of consecration by\nbeing\n\n\n Ready for Another Day's Work\n\nThe business had been transacted, the committees had reported, and the\nresolutions of appreciation had been read. The closing moments of the\nMethodist Conference were approaching. Soon the presiding bishop would\nread the appointments, and one hundred and eighty ministers would enter\non a new year of ministry. Several of these would be assigned to new\nfields.\n\nMany had seen years of service. For some of them this would probably be\nthe closing year, for it generally happens that during the year some\nfall at the post of duty. But among the number there were nine young men\nwho for the first time would enter on their great adventure of\nministerial service.\n\nThe closing hymn selected was one rarely heard at such a moment, yet it\nwas impressively appealing, and soon all the ministers were blending\ntheir voices in the words of Miss Warner:\n\n \"One more day's work for Jesus,\n One less of life for me!\n But heaven is nearer,\n And Christ is dearer\n Than yesterday, to me.\"\n\n\nIn connection with what was said above about young ministers, it was an\nimpressive occasion\n\n\n When a Bishop Sang at the Ordination Service\n\nA group of young men were ordained into the ministry of the Methodist\nEpiscopal Church on a glorious Sunday afternoon in May in the presence\nof many hundreds of ministers, relatives and others. The service\napparently was about to end when Bishop Adna W. Leonard knelt inside the\naltar by the side of these young preachers. By pre-arrangement with the\norganist, the strains of music softly came and then the voice of the\nbishop was heard singing the expressively appropriate words:\n\n \"It may not be on the mountain's height,\n Or over the stormy sea;\n It may not be at the battle's front\n My Lord will have need of me;\n But if by a still small voice He calls\n To paths that I do not know,\n I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Thine,\n I'll go where You want me to go.\"\n\nThe young ministers who had just taken upon themselves the solemn vows\nof the ordination service then joined with the soloist in the chorus:\n\n \"I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord,\n O'er mountain or plain or sea;\n I'll say what You want me to say, dear Lord,\n I'll be what You want me to be.\"\n\nThe voice of the bishop was again heard:\n\n \"Perhaps today there are loving words\n Which Jesus would have me speak;\n There may be now in the paths of sin\n Some wanderer whom I should seek.\n O Saviour, if Thou wilt be my guide,\n Tho' dark and rugged the way,\n My voice shall echo Thy message sweet,\n I'll say what You want me to say.\"\n\nThen for the second time, the young ministers united their voices with\nthe one who was leading them in song, as together they rendered the\nchorus.\n\nThe third stanza followed, by the Bishop:\n\n \"There's surely somewhere a lowly place,\n In earth's harvest fields so wide,\n Where I may labor through earth's short day,\n For Jesus the crucified;\n So trusting my all to His tender care,\n And knowing Thou lovest me,\n I'll do Thy will with a heart sincere,\n I'll be what You want me to be.\"[11]\n\nHundreds of eyes by this time were mist-filled, and it was with\ndifficulty that many could control their voices when Bishop Leonard\nasked the entire company to sing the refrain. Soon, however, about\ntwelve hundred voices were songfully pledging their loyalty to their\nLord as they sang the words of the chorus.\n\nFew were the words spoken by the leader of the service before another\nhymn was rendered:\n\n \"I need Thee every hour,\n Most gracious Lord;\n No tender voice like Thine\n Can peace afford.\"\n\nThese lines voiced a prayer for divine strength, guidance and blessing.\nWith the young ministers now standing at the altar, young people were\nasked to consecrate their lives to the service of Christ. From all parts\nof that historic church young men and young women moved forward until\nsixty of them had publicly registered their decision. Some of them for\nthe first time took their stand for Christ, others expressed a desire to\nbecome ministers, missionaries, workers in their home churches.\n\nThe effects of this service will remain for many years. For there went\nforth from that church in the central part of the Empire State of New\nYork a great company of hearts touched by the Spirit of God and resolved\nto render faithful devotion to Christ's cause.\n\n\nThe consciousness of the divine providence was emphasized in the\nconfession:\n\n\n \"Thou My Daily Task Shall Give\"\n\nWhen sixty ministers, heads of various Summer Schools of Ministerial\nTraining in the Methodist Episcopal Church, met in Evanston, Illinois,\nto review the work of the previous year and to plan for the future, the\nleader of the devotions one morning called attention to a hymn of great\npersonal value. Then, on that January day, it was sung with deep feeling\nas the ministers were just entering on their task for another year. This\nhymn was written by a layman, Josiah Conder, who \"passed a busy life as\nbookseller, editor and author.\" It is well worth committing to memory;\nat least, such was the conviction of that group of ministers who sang:\n\n \"Day by day the manna fell:\n O to learn this lesson well!\n Still by constant mercy fed,\n Give me, Lord, my daily bread.\n\n 'Day by day,' the promise reads,\n Daily strength for daily needs:\n Cast foreboding fears away;\n Take the manna of today.\n\n Lord! my times are in Thy hand:\n All my sanguine hopes have planned,\n To Thy wisdom I resign,\n And would make Thy purpose mine.\n\n Thou my daily task shalt give:\n Day by day to Thee I live;\n So shall added years fulfill,\n Not my own, my Father's will.\"\n\n\nThe assurance of divine guidance was expressed in the declaration:\n\n\n \"All My Help From Thee I Bring\"\n\n\"When ... storms of unpopularity and tempests of financial disaster\nthreaten the tiny bark upon life's troubled seas,\" wrote Sir Henry Lunn,\n\"my friend and colleague, Hugh Price Hughes, whose ministry in some\nsmall degree I shared, asked me to believe with confidence that there\nwas One 'in the heavens to give attention to our personal concerns,' and\ntaught me to say with a new emphasis, 'Thou, O Christ, art all I want,'\n\n 'Other refuge have I none,\n Hangs my helpless soul on Thee,\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n All my trust on Thee is stayed,\n All my help from Thee I bring.'\n\n\"And now that the limit of three score years and ten is passed and\nlife's journey must be drawing to a close, I say triumphantly: 'Here I\nraise my Ebenezer. Hitherto the Lord hath helped me and hither by His\ngrace I have come.'\"\n\n\nEpiscopal dignity was enriched on a recent occasion when, according to\n_Zion's Herald_,\n\n\n Bishops Sang Their Special Hymn\n\nWhen the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church held their\nsemi-annual meeting in San Francisco, in November, 1929, they were given\na reception and a banquet. Eight hundred persons assembled to do them\nhonor, including officials of the city and the state. The bishops\ncontributed a vocal number to the evening's entertainment. Bishop\nFrancis J. McConnell, with his richly melodious voice, led his\ncolleagues in the episcopal hymn, 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God,\nand it doth not yet appear what we shall be.' Those present insisted on\nan encore, but as the episcopal repertoire is limited to a single\nnumber, the bishops could only modestly bow their acknowledgments to the\nsustained applause.\n\n\nBut these bishops are not really confined to just one hymn, for they\nalso sang on another occasion\n\n\n \"Land Me Safe on Canaan's Side\"\n\nThe most remarkable feature of the singing of the Board of Bishops of\nthe Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote Bishop Francis J. McConnell, when\nreporting one of their meetings in Boston in May, 1930, consisted in\ntheir skill in fitting almost any song to the \"only tune which I have\nheard them sing with any conspicuous success.\" Reference was then made\nto a dramatic moment \"when that one tune was sung with marvelous power.\"\nBishop Earl Cranston, at the age of eighty-nine, \"had just made a\nfarewell speech in which he had said that he did not see how he could\nagain attend the Bishops' Meeting. At the conclusion of the address the\nbishops sang, adapting their favorite tune, the stanza: 'When I tread\nthe verge of Jordan.'\"\n\nOne can easily imagine that scene, and how deeply affected the others\nwere after listening to the words of the veteran leader. It is difficult\nto conceive anything which would have been more appropriate for such a\ntime than the words in which the company blended their voices:\n\n \"When I tread the verge of Jordan,\n Bid my anxious fears subside;\n Bear me through the swelling current,\n Land me safe on Canaan's side:\n Songs of praises\n I will ever give to Thee.\"\n\n\nThis confidence of immortality is also shared by others as seen on a\nmemorable occasion when\n\n\n Ministers Sang Their Hope\n\nMany ministers had assembled to pay their last tribute to a comrade who\nhad fallen while in the ranks of service. Words of commendation were\nspoken concerning the fidelity and devotion of the one whom God had\ncalled in the prime of life. Prayers were offered. Soon the body,\naccompanied by the bereaved relatives, would start for the little\ncemetery in the boyhood home. But before leaving the church where the\nservices were conducted, the ministers stepped forward, surrounded the\ncasket, and united their voices in singing:\n\n \"There's a land that is fairer than day,\n And by faith we can see it afar;\n For the Father waits over the way,\n To prepare us a dwelling-place there.\"\n\nThe refrain voiced the assurance of immortality cherished and preached\nby that company of pastors:\n\n \"In the sweet by-and-by,\n We shall meet on that beautiful shore.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n _Songs of Soldiers_\n\n\nWhen faced by the stern realities of life and death, it is not easy for\nany person to practice the subtle art of camouflage so far as faith and\ndestiny are concerned. The experiences of G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, one of\nthe war chaplains at the Front, were similar to those of other men\nengaged in ministering to the religious needs of the soldiers. He was\nonce brought face to face with one of the boys in a crisis, and was\nasked the pointed question: \"What is God like?\" The soldiers who know\nthat God is like Christ the Sufferer and Sympathizer, have an assurance\nthat gives them courage to go through the rough and distracting ordeal\non the field of battle. This was true in the World War and in all\nsimilar grim encounters.\n\nAnother chaplain, Thomas Tiplady, wrote that when the great hours draw\nnear, and even in the lighter hours, the soldiers like hymns most of\nall, and at the religious services they cannot have too many hymns. They\ncare little for patriotic songs since they are living their patriotism\nin the severe struggle with the enemy. The hymns for which they have a\nspecial preference are those which give them cheer and hope and deepen\ntheir consciousness of the presence of the Comrade Christ.\n\nThese incidents belong to our Civil War and to later wars. But in\nessence they bear on the same themes and frankly reveal the recesses and\nthe resources of the soul.\n\n\nThe unexpected turns in war are illustrated in\n\n\n A Memory of Pickett's Brigade\n\nReminiscences were being exchanged by veterans of both sides of the\nCivil War at a banquet given in their honor by the Board of Trade of New\nYork City. Colonel J. J. Phillips, of the Ninth Virginia Regiment,\nPickett's Division, presided. Speaking of night attacks, he recalled one\nin particular because of the peculiar circumstances which resulted\nalmost in the compulsory disobedience of orders, in response to a higher\ncommand.\n\n\"The point of attack had been carefully selected,\" said Colonel\nPhillips, \"the awaited dark night had arrived, and my command was to\nfire when General Pickett should signal the order.\n\n\"There was that dread, indescribable stillness; that weird ominous\nsilence that always settles over everything before a fight. You felt\nthat nowhere in the universe was there any voice or motion.\n\n\"Suddenly the awesome silence was broken by the sound of a deep, full\nvoice rolling over the black void like the billows of a great sea,\ndirectly in line with our guns. It was singing the old hymn, 'Jesus,\nLover of My Soul.'\n\n\"I have heard that grand old music many times in circumstances which\nintensified its impressiveness, but never had it seemed so solemn as\nwhen it broke the stillness in which we waited for the order to fire.\nJust as it was given there rang through the night the words:\n\n 'Cover my defenseless head\n With the shadow of Thy wing.'\n\n\"'Ready, aim! Fire to the left, boys!' I said.\n\n\"The guns were shifted, the volley that blazed out swerved aside, and\nthat 'defenseless head' was 'covered' with the shadow of His wing.\"\n\nA Federal veteran who listened to this story spoke up and said, \"I\nremember that night, Colonel, and that midnight attack which carried off\nso many of my comrades. I was the singer.\"\n\nSuch confirmation produced a deep impression, and after a silence\n\"Jesus, Lover of My Soul\" was again sung as on the fatal night in 1864\nwhen it rang across the lines at Bermuda Hundred.\n\n\nThe reference to the same leader is brought out under exceptional\ncircumstances in\n\n\n The Song of the Defeated\n\n\"Written in Defeat, After the Battle of Five Forks,\" is the heading\ngiven to a letter written by General George E. Pickett to his wife,\nApril 2, 1865. It is included by Arthur Crew Inman in his volume, _A\nSoldier of the South_.[12] Here is part of it:\n\n\"All is quiet now, but soon all will be bustle, for we march at\ndaylight. Oh, my darling, were there ever such men as those of my\ndivision? This morning after the review I thanked them for their valiant\nservices yesterday on the first of April, never to be forgotten by any\nof us, when they fought one of the most desperate battles of the whole\nwar. Their answer to me was cheer after cheer, one after another calling\nout, 'That's all right, Marse George!' and 'We only followed you!' Then\nin the midst of these calls, silencing them, rose loud and clear old\nGentry's voice, singing the old hymns which they all knew I loved:\n\n 'Guide me, oh, Thou great Jehovah,\n Pilgrim through this barren land.'\n\n\"Voice after voice joined in till from all along the line the plea rang\nforth:\n\n 'Be my sword and shield and banner,\n Be the Lord my righteousness.'\n\n\"I do not think, my Sallie, the tears sounded in my voice as it mingled\nwith theirs; but they were in my eyes, and there was something new in my\nheart.\n\n\"When the last line had been sung, I gave the order to march ...\"\n\n\nWhat the soldiers felt in the depths of their life is revealed in\n\n\n A Chorus of Ten Thousand\n\nThe night after the Battle of Shiloh, when there were thousands of\nwounded on the field, one Christian soldier as he lay there dying under\nthe starlight began to sing, \"There is a land of pure delight.\" When he\nreached the next line there were scores of voices singing, \"Where saints\nimmortal reign.\" The song was caught up all through the fields among the\nwounded until it was said there were at least ten thousand wounded men\nuniting in the triumphant closing verse of that beautiful hymn:\n\n \"Could we but climb where Moses stood,\n And view the landscape o'er,\n Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,\n Should fright us from the shore.\"\n\n\nMrs. Margaret Bottome relates an incident about\n\n\n Marching to Music\n\n\"I had a brother who was in the Battle of the Wilderness during the\nCivil War. He told me of a day in that dreadful wilderness when the\nConnecticut regiment was traveling through such deep mud that they could\nhardly pull their boots out of it as they took one step after another.\nThey were thoroughly dispirited and they had no music--the band was far\nin the rear, but all at once they heard the sound that told them the\nband was coming, and as it drew nearer they caught the strain. The band\nwas playing a tune known to every Methodist:\n\n 'Come on, my partners in distress,\n My comrades through the wilderness,\n Who still their bodies feel.\n Awhile forget your griefs and fears\n And look beyond this vale of tears\n To that celestial hill.'\n\n\"My brother said it acted like magic on that regiment, the largest\nproportion of which were Methodists; new life entered into them. A\nmoment before their feet had stuck in the mud, and they did not see how\nthey were ever to get along, for again and again they had to pull their\nboots out of the mud with their hands, but from the time that tune, with\nthe words that memory made so distinct, was heard, not a step\nfaltered.\"[13]\n\n\nThis story from the Crimean War might be duplicated from other wars for\nit tells of\n\n\n A Soldier Saved by Song\n\nDuncan Matheson, a Bible reader to the soldiers in the Crimea, was\nreturning one night to his lodgings in an old stable. Sickened by the\nsights he had seen, and depressed with the thought that the siege of\nSebastopol was likely to last for months, he trudged along in the mud,\nknee-deep. Happening to look up, he saw the stars shining calmly in the\nclear sky. Weariness gave place to the thought that in heaven is rest,\nand he began to sing aloud the old hymn:\n\n \"How bright these glorious spirits shine!\n Whence all their bright array?\"\n\nThe next day was wet and stormy. While going his rounds he met a\nsoldier, soiled and in ragged clothes; his shoes so worn that they did\nnot keep his feet from the mud. In the course of conversation this man\nsaid:\n\n\"I am not what I was yesterday. Last night I was tired of life and of\nthis blundering siege. I took my musket and went down yonder, determined\nto blow out my brains. As I got around that hillock I heard some one\nsinging, 'How bright these glorious spirits shine!' It recalled to me\nthe Sunday School where I used to sing it, and the religious truths I\nhad heard there. I felt ashamed of being such a coward. I said to\nmyself, 'Here is a comrade as badly off as I am, but he is not a\ncoward--he's bearing it!' I felt that man had something which I did not\npossess to make him accept with cheerfulness our hard lot. I went back\nto my tent, and today I am seeking that thing which made the singer so\nhappy.\"\n\n\nHere is another from the World War, related in _The War Romance of the\nSalvation Army_, by Booth and Hill,[14] how\n\n\n Sunshine Came Into a Soldier's Heart\n\nIt was one Sunday afternoon in Bazeilles, France, at a service conducted\nby three Salvationists. One of the girls sang:\n\n \"There's sunshine in my soul today,\n More glorious and bright\n Than glows in any earthly skies,\n For Jesus is my light.\n\n O there's sunshine, blessed sunshine,\n When the peaceful, happy moments roll;\n When Jesus shows His smiling face,\n There is sunshine in the soul.\"[15]\n\nThe sequel is best explained in a letter written to his mother by one of\nthe boys:\n\n\"You will be surprised to hear that I am in the hospital, but I am\ngetting well quickly and am having a good time. But best of all, some\nSalvation Army people came along and sang and talked about sunshine, and\nwhile they were talking the sunshine came through my window--not into my\nroom alone, but into my heart and life as well, where it is going to\nstay. I know how happy this will make you.\"\n\n\nAn incident from the Spanish-American War reveals the unity of Christian\nfaith in the way\n\n\n American Soldiers Greeted Christmas\n\nChristmas Eve, 1898, found the Seventh Army Corps encamped along the\nhills at Quemados, near Havana, Cuba. Suddenly from the camp of the\nForty-ninth Iowa rang a sentinel's call, \"Number ten; twelve o'clock,\nand all's well!\" Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis Guild thus wrote about it:\n\n\"It was Christmas morning. Scarcely had the cry of the sentinel died\naway, when from the bandsmen's tents of that same regiment there rose\nthe music of an old, familiar hymn, and one clear baritone voice led the\nchorus that quickly ran along the moonlit fields: 'How firm a foundation\nye saints of the Lord!' Another voice joined in, and another, and\nanother, and in a moment the whole regiment was singing, and then the\nSixth Missouri joined in with the Fourth Virginia, and all the rest,\ntill there on the long ridges above the city ... a whole American army\ncorps was singing:\n\n 'Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,\n For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;\n I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,\n Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.'\n\nProtestant and Catholic, South and North, singing together on Christmas\nday in the morning,--that's an American army!\"\n\n\nWe next go to Palestine for two stories. One is about\n\n\n Soldiers and Sankey's Hymns\n\nAt a meeting in Blackheath, London, some time ago, according to a writer\nin _The British Weekly_, a missionary to the Jews related one of his\nexperiences at a Jewish settlement in Palestine. He asked to see the\nhead of the settlement, who said, \"Are you an Englishman?\" He answered,\n\"Yes,\" feeling that perhaps he would not be pleased. Then he said, \"Are\nyou a missionary?\" And he answered \"Yes,\" feeling certain now he would\nnot be pleased. To his astonishment the man said, \"Oh, I am so glad, so\nvery glad. And can you play the piano?\" to which he answered \"Yes.\"\n\nThe missionary was then told that when the soldiers were there they came\nalmost daily and played Sankey's hymns on the piano, and sang them. The\npeople in the house crowded round to listen, and others gathered\noutside. The result was that there were about thirty people in the\nsettlement who wanted to become Christians, and the missionary stayed\nthere for a month, at the end of which time they were baptized.\n\n\nThe other is from Mrs. Carrie J. Bond about\n\n\n Marching Men\n\n\"A few years ago I was in Jerusalem in the American Colony Home. It was\na bright moonlight night and I heard the marching feet of soldiers. Soon\nthey began singing 'The End of a Perfect Day.' I looked out to see about\ntwelve soldiers marching by. In the morning I asked my host about it and\nhe brought out an old worn sheet of 'A Perfect Day' and told me this\nstory: Two American boys had been billeted to the American Colony House\nand every evening during their stay one had played and the other had\nsung that song. When they were well enough to leave they left the music\nas a token of their gratitude.\"\n\n\nNow we go to the Transvaal for a testimony to the influence of Fanny\nCrosby's hymn, \"Blessed Assurance,\" as related by Mr. Sankey,[16] which\nmight be entitled\n\n\n \"Six Further On\"\n\n\"'During the recent war in the Transvaal,' said a gentleman in my\nmeeting in Exeter Hall, London, in 1900, 'when the soldiers going to the\nfront were passing another body of soldiers whom they recognized, their\ngreetings used to be, \"Four-nine-four, boys, four-nine-four;\" and the\nsalute would invariably be answered with \"Six further on, boys; six\nfurther on.\" The significance of this was that, in \"Sacred Songs and\nSolos,\" a number of copies of the small edition of which had been sent\nto the front, Number 494 was \"God Be With You Till We Meet Again\"; and\nsix further on than 494, or Number 500, was \"Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is\nMine.\"'\"\n\n\nThe last incident brings us back to the World War in the touching words,\n\n\n \"Sing It Again, Laddie\"\n\nIn times of stress, Scotsmen turn toward God, for in the heart of them\nthey are all religiously inclined. During the World War a service in the\nhistoric church in Ayr, Scotland, began with that beautiful Psalm\nparaphrase: \"I to the hills will lift mine eyes\", sung to the tune of\n\"French.\"\n\nThe sermon had a reference to a young Highlander who was wounded in a\nrecent battle and lay stretched on the field. In his youth he had\nlearned \"I to the hills\" in Gaelic. He now began to sing that old Psalm\nin his native tongue, and out over the field his singing reached as far\nas his voice would carry. Just then a Scotch regiment came marching by\nand the men heard it. One of them noted the spot from which the song\nproceeded and at night, after the conflict, he went back to look for the\nsinger.\n\nAll was quiet as this Highlander wandered backward and forward and it\nseemed as though his quest would be futile. He then raised his voice and\ncalled out: \"Sing it again, laddie, sing it again.\" The laddie heard and\nresponded and sang on till the searcher found him and carried him back\nto the base. In due course he returned home wounded but thankful that He\nhad not slumbered who kept him.\n\n\nThe higher unity of faith carries further than the discordant notes of\nmere nationalism. This was illustrated by a writer in the Kansas City\n_Times_, relating the experience of\n\n\n A Violinist in the Trenches\n\nOutside of the dugout, shells whined and machine guns spattered with a\nstaccato of rat-tat-tats. Inside a violin sang and sobbed. The magic of\nits music made men forget. They forgot the homesickness. They forgot the\nmud. They forgot the cold. They forgot the ever presence of danger and\ndeath.\n\nThey listened, heads propped up on sand bags and feet wrapped in\nblankets as they stretched on mattresses of sand bags covering the rough\nplanks of their underground cots.\n\nIn another dugout, across No Man's Land on the German side, others were\nalso listening. They heard the strains of Mendelssohn's \"Spring Song,\"\nas sweet and gentle and refreshing as an early summer shower. A strange\nthing happened. A German picked up a cornet, and floating to the Allies'\ndugout came the notes of the horn harmonizing with the violin.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n _Heard Within Prison Walls_\n\n\nSome of the world's greatest books were written in prison. Think of the\nEpistles of St. Paul which came from such secluded confines. _The\nPilgrim's Progress_, which has been translated into more languages than\nany other book except the Bible, was written by Bunyan in Bedford Jail.\nSilvio Pellico, an Italian man of letters, recounted his ten years of\nimprisonment at Spielberg, Austria, and declared that religion was his\nchief consolation. The singing of St. Paul and Silas during their\nimprisonment at Philippi had memorable results. There are many other\ninstances of beneficial consequences in connection with these dismal\nincarcerations.\n\nThe incidents in this chapter have to do with the influences upon the\nprisoners themselves and how they were converted to Christ and comforted\nin their distress. Such transcripts of life under inconceivably trying\ncircumstances give evidence of the power of the Gospel. One of the most\nremarkable recent books is entitled _A Gentleman in Prison_, giving the\nexperiences of Tokichi Ishii, a converted Japanese criminal, who was\nexecuted in due course for murder.\n\n\nThe first one tells how\n\n\n Prisoners Sang \"The Glory Song\"\n\n\"The Glory Song\" attained a marvelous popularity soon after it was\npublished in 1900. In less than five years it was being sung in many\nlanguages all over the world. Several interesting incidents are related\nof its influence but one that Homer Rodeheaver wrote in _Zion's Herald_,\nBoston, is worthy of note:\n\n\"I have heard it in a number of instances sung by over ten thousand\npeople, but the most impressive rendering I ever heard given to it was\nby a certain audience of over one thousand men. These men were all\ndressed in steel gray suits, and sat with folded arms; the man who\nplayed the organ and the man who held the baton and led the song were\ndressed in exactly the same way. Down the right side, across the rear\nand up the left side of the chapel room, on high stools, sat a row of\nmen in blue uniforms, holding heavy canes across their knees, these men\nseemed never for an instant to take their eyes from certain spots in\nfront of them. Not a man whispered during the service--for it was a\nstate's prison. Among the congregation of 1077 men, 256 were there for\nlife--there to live and die--and on each of their cell doors, where they\nwould read it every time they left and re-entered, was that startling\nword 'Life.'\n\n\"How strangely their voices impressed me--these men without a country,\nwithout a home, without a name, deprived of every privilege accorded to\nall men by the Almighty, and known only by a number. As I sat before\nthem, the prison pallor of their faces against its background of gray\nwithin that frame of blue, made a picture never to be forgotten. With\nfew exceptions, every man sang. Here sat one with downcast eyes, there\nanother with mute lips, while yonder near the center a large, strong\nfellow was weeping like a little child--but silently. They told me he\nhad been there but a short time, and I wondered if he had heard the song\nbefore, under different circumstances--and where, for he had a kindly\nface. Softly they sang that last stanza:\n\n 'Friends will be there I have loved long ago;\n Joys like a river around me will flow;\n Yet, just a smile from my Saviour, I know,\n Will through the ages be glory for me.'\n\nThe song ended, the chaplain said a brief prayer, and that great crowd\nof men, at signals from the guards in blue, marched out squad by squad,\nkeeping step to the music of the organ played by the man in gray.\"\n\n\nTheir deepest feelings are portrayed in\n\n\n The Hymn of the Prisoner\n\nDescribing a chapel service in Auburn (New York) prison, a newspaper\ncorrespondent wrote:\n\n\"One of the hymns the men sang was 'Pardon the Debt and Make Me Free.'\nThey sang that over and over again, and it seemed to express the\nfeelings of every convict.\"\n\n\nThe extraordinary circumstances in which a hymn was used are described\nin this incident when\n\n\n A Condemned Man Wanted \"Face to Face\" Sung\n\nThe story of the writings of Mrs. Carrie Ellis Breck, who spent her\ngirlhood days on her father's fruit farm in New Jersey, was related by\nA. L. Lawson in _The Christian Herald_. From that article the following\nis taken:\n\n\"Perhaps the experience that touched her most deeply of all, and the one\nshe most treasures, is that of the time when a poor condemned man,\nsentenced to be hanged, asked that her hymn, 'Face to Face with Christ\nMy Saviour,' be sung before his execution. As the doomed wretch was led\nout, and looked for the last time upon what was left him of the world,\nthere came to him the sweet words of her hymn--\n\n 'Face to face with Christ my Saviour,\n Face to face, how can it be,\n When with rapture I behold Him,\n Jesus Christ, Who died for me?\n\n Face to face shall I behold Him\n Far beyond the starry sky;\n Face to face in all His glory,\n I shall see Him by and by!'\"[17]\n\n\nThe pathos of the situation is recounted by a prison chaplain in England\nwho tells of\n\n\n Hymns Selected by Prisoners\n\nThis chaplain, the Rev. G. A. Metcalfe, found men confined for various\ncrimes. One was convicted of murder, but his sentence of death had been\ncommuted to penal servitude. During the first service this murderer sat\nalone on the front seat. \"There were hardened criminals behind, and here\nand there some mothers' lads with fine faces and soulful eyes glistening\nwith tears.\" After his address he asked the prisoners to select two or\nthree hymns. One was \"Jesus Is Tenderly Calling\" and they sang it with\nthe utmost fervor. Then a young fellow called out his choice and there\nwas a sob in the voices as they sang:\n\n \"Holy Father, in Thy mercy,\n Hear our anxious prayer:\n Keep our loved ones, now far absent,\n 'Neath Thy care.\"\n\n\nAn experience of the days before prohibition was recorded in _The\nYouth's Companion_, when\n\n\n Judge and Criminals Listened To \"The Holy City\"\n\nThirty men, red-eyed and disheveled, lined up before a judge of the San\nFrancisco police court. It was the regular morning company of \"drunks\nand disorderlies.\" Just as the momentary disorder attending the bringing\nin of the prisoners quieted down, a strange thing happened. A strong,\nclear voice from below began singing:\n\n \"Last night I lay a-sleeping,\n There came a dream so fair.\"\n\nLast night! It had been for them all a nightmare or a drunken stupor.\nThe song was such a contrast to the horrible fact that no one could fail\nof a sudden shock at the thought the song suggested.\n\n \"I stood in old Jerusalem,\n Beside the temple there,\"\n\nthe song went on. The judge had paused. He made a quiet inquiry. A\nformer member of a famous opera company, known all over the country, was\nawaiting trial for forgery. It was he who was singing in his cell.\n\nMeantime the song went on, and every man on the line showed emotion. At\nlength, one man protested.\n\n\"Judge,\" said he, \"have we got to submit to this? We're here to take our\npunishment, but this--\" and he began to sob.\n\nIt was impossible to proceed with the business of the court, yet the\njudge gave no order to stop the song. It moved on to its climax:\n\n \"Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Sing for the night is o'er!\n Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna for evermore!\"\n\nIn an ecstasy of melody the last words rang out, and then there was\nsilence.\n\nThe judge looked into the faces of the men before him. There was not one\nwho was not touched by the song; not one in whom some better impulse was\nnot stirred. He did not call the cases singly--a kind word of advice,\nand he dismissed them all. No man was fined or sentenced to the\nworkhouse that morning. The song had done more good than punishment\ncould have accomplished.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n _The Music of Submerged Lives_\n\n\nHope is the great gift of Christianity. It pierces through the darkness\nand rejoices in the light beyond. It looks through the cloud and is\nassured that the sun is shining in the heavens. It insists on looking at\nthe bright side even when it knows that there is a dark side. The\nEnglish artist, George Frederick Watts, painted Hope as a blindfolded\nfigure sitting on the top of a globe above a yawning abyss, playing upon\na lyre with only one string, in harmony with the music of the Evangel,\nwhile in the distance a star is shining. Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn\nwriter who died at the age of ninety-four, once said: \"Hope's star\nshines clearer on my pathway today than it did fifty years ago.\" It is\nthis same spirit of hope which Gilmour of Mongolia had when he declared\nthat the future is as bright as the promises of God.\n\nSo long as we are thus inspired we cannot be soured by cynicism, because\nwe are sweetened by the confidence which insists that \"the day must dawn\nand darksome night be past.\" This is the triumph of lives handicapped by\nharsh circumstances but rising above what would submerge them because of\ntheir assurance that hope is the anchor of their soul, sure and\nsteadfast. Here are some illustrations of this truth from unexpected\nquarters.\n\n\nA letter giving the impression of a radio service by Dr. S. Parkes\nCadman tells how\n\n\n A Cripple Stood on Crutches\n\nThe writer related that he was greatly stirred by the singing of\n\n \"Stand up, stand up for Jesus!\n Ye soldiers of the cross.\"\n\nHe then added: \"I have been on crutches for more than twelve years but\ntoday when you sang 'Stand up for Jesus' I got up from my bed and stood\non crutches out of respect for the Master.\"\n\n\nAnother somewhat like the above is about the\n\n\n Song of the Man with the Wooden Leg\n\n\"Adah Vachell of Bristol\" is the story of a brave, gifted, delicate lady\nwho devoted her life to the blind, deaf, crippled poor of the city of\nBristol. Her contact with the maimed and halt was made in the ceaseless\nround of slum visitation, dens of filth and want, sometimes revealing a\nbrave endeavor to triumph over adverse conditions.\n\nA guild was formed with a startling motto, _L\u00e6tus sorte mea_, \"Happy is\nmy lot.\" Indissolubly linked with it was the tug of war hymn, \"The Son\nof God Goes Forth to War.\" \"I can picture him so well, sitting close to\nthe fire ... the wooden leg stretched out, his rough rugged old face\nsoftened as he sang in husky voice:\n\n 'Who best can drink his cup of woe,\n Triumphant over pain,\n Who patient bears his cross below,\n He follows in his train.'\"\n\n\nHere is a story of a famous hymn which was\n\n\n Sung for the Scrub Woman\n\nWhile the choir was waiting for the delayed organist, a celebrated\nsoprano recounted one of her experiences. She said: \"I have sung before\nall the greatest folk in America. I sang before a company of titled\nfolks from Europe who were visiting here in this country. But the\ngreatest thrill I ever got in my life was singing before one lone woman,\nand she a scrubwoman.\" \"Tell us about it,\" said the tenor. \"We were\ngetting ready for a great musical event, and had been in the church\nrehearsing. As I passed out on my way home, the scrubwoman, with duster\nin hand, stopped me and said, 'Lady, you sing so beautifully--I wonder\nif some day you would sing \"Face to Face\" for me,--it isn't asking too\nmuch, is it, lady?' I told her I would be glad to do so some day. When I\ngot to the doorstep something said to me, 'Do it now,' so I turned back.\nThe organist was still there, and I asked him to play. When the\nscrubwoman heard the strains of the organ on the familiar tune, she came\ninto the church and sat on the very front seat with the duster in her\nlap, and her eyes intensely upon me with a strange light in them. I\nnever had such a thrill in all my life of song. I never felt so lifted\nup, for there in that front seat sat the Lord Jesus Himself listening to\nme sing to Him.\n\n 'And I shall see Him face to face\n And tell the story--Saved by grace.'\"\n\n\nAnother of the annals of the poor is\n\n\n What the Washerwoman Sang\n\nDuring his early ministry, Bishop William Burt was a pastor in Brooklyn.\nFrom that period he carried the memory of a woman who earned her living\nby taking in washing. Sometimes when making his round of pastoral calls\nthe young pastor would hear the woman, as she was working at her daily\ntask at the washtub, singing snatches of hymns which were used at the\nservices of the church and the prayer meeting. But one which\nparticularly impressed him was the day when he was approaching her\nhumble rooms and heard her voice, as she sang:\n\n \"I'm the child of a King.\"\n\nAssurance was in her voice, and there was a note of triumphant certainty\non the part of this humble daughter of toil that she was the King's\nchild, and therefore heir to all the promises made in the Bible.\n\nBilly Bray, the Cornish miner, had the same happy consciousness.\nFrequently he would exclaim, \"I'm the King's son!\"\n\n\nThe ability to rise above depressing circumstances is seen in this\nincident\n\n\n Before Worship\n\nA few had gathered at the Goodwill Chapel service fifteen minutes before\nthe time to begin. The leader often allowed his audience to select the\nopening hymn. And these early comers were making their choices.\n\n\"Here's a hymn I like,\" said one. \"It's 'We're Marching to Zion.'\" \"I\nlike it, too,\" said another, \"but why do you like it?\"\n\n\"Well,\" replied the first speaker, \"there's nothing uncertain about that\nhymn. It knows where it's going. A person can stand a whole lot of\nhardship if she knows the end is worth it. Yes, I like that hymn. If Mr.\nDawson asks us what we want to sing, this morning, I am going to ask for\nthis one.\" And so they talked happily among themselves.\n\nOthers came in and took their seats, a motley company of depressed old\nage wearing the marks of poverty and sorrow. The leader entered and this\ntime he gave out the hymn. \"I don't care. I like this just as well,\"\nobserved the one who had chosen \"We're Marching to Zion.\" Well might she\nand the others, for it expressed faith and hope in the lines:\n\n \"Be not dismayed whate'er betide,\n God will take care of you;\n Beneath his wings of love abide,\n God will take care of you.\"[18]\n\nThus encouraged they went from that service to the humdrum routine of\ndaily drudgery.\n\n\nThe power of the Gospel to reach those on the outskirts of civilization\nis evidenced\n\n\n When Lumberjacks Sang \"Jesus, Lover of My Soul\"\n\nThomas D. Whittles tells of many an interesting incident in his book,\n_The Parish of the Pines_[19]--the story of Frank Higgins, the\nLumberjacks' Sky Pilot.\n\nOne morning after breakfast the men went to the bunkhouse to wait for\nthe word of the \"push\" ordering them to \"the works.\" While they waited a\nrich tenor struck up the hymn,\n\n \"Jesus, Lover of my soul,\n Let me to Thy bosom fly!\"\n\nOne by one the men joined in and the solo passed into the chorus of a\nhundred voices. Out through the twilight the melody rolled, waking the\nsleeping pines, crossing the frozen lakes. The men in the stables,\nharnessing their horses, heard the song and softly whistled it; the\ncook, busy with the pots and pans, hummed it in unison and the swearing\ncookee closed his profane mouth and listened in astonished silence. Over\nin the office where the officials slept, the song caused silent\namazement, for it was unlike the morning hour when oaths and curses\nbreak the stillness.\n\n \"Other refuge have I none;\n Hangs my helpless soul on Thee.\"\n\nsang the men, unconscious of aught save the song.\n\n \"Leave, ah! leave me not alone\"--\n\nand it came from the hearts of those who knew the weight of lonely weeks\nand months. The Sky Pilot in the office turned his face to the wall and\nprayed while they sang this hymn which the men had sung at the service\nthe night before.\n\n\"All out,\" cried the \"push.\"\n\nFrom the shack streamed forth the men, singing the song of comfort. Into\ngroups they separated, each going his appointed way, but the hymn\ncontinued in all parts of the forest until the sweet melody died to\ntender murmurs and was lost in the distant evergreens. In all that North\nStar State no happier body of men went forth to toil, for with them went\nthe spirit of song.\n\n\nHere is an instance of gratitude expressively shown in the words,\n\n\n \"Pass It On\"\n\nHenry Burton's famous hymn, \"Pass It On,\" was inspired by a story\nrelating to the early life of the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, noted as a\npreacher and a writer, and who died just a few months before Dr. Burton.\nThe latter married a sister of Mr. Pearse. How he came to write this\nhymn was related in _The British Weekly_.\n\n\"Returning from school in Holland, Pearse once found himself on a steam\npacket bound from Bristol to Hayle in Cornwall, having had a hearty\nsupper, and later finding that he had reached the limit of his finances.\nThe steward was inclined to be severe, but on hearing the lad's name he\nchanged his tone. Pearse's father had recently helped the steward's\nmother in a difficulty, now the opportunity had come for the old debt to\nbe repaid. The steward paid the supper bill with the remark, 'Now pass\nthis on to some one else.'\"\n\nThis furnished the inspiration for the appealing lines:\n\n \"Have you had a kindness shown?\n Pass it on!\n 'Twas not given for thee alone--\n Pass it on!\n Let it travel down the years,\n Let it wipe another's tears,\n Till in heaven the deed appears,\n Pass it on!\n\n Did you hear the loving word?\n Pass it on!\n Like the singing of a bird?\n Pass it on!\n Let its music live and grow,\n Let it cheer another's woe,\n You have reaped what others sow--\n Pass it on!\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Love demands the loving deed!\n Pass it on!\n Look upon thy brother's need,\n Pass it on!\n Live for self, you live in vain;\n Live for Christ, you live again;\n Live for Him, with Him you reign--\n Pass it on!\"[20]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n _Songs of Salvation_\n\n\nIt has been rightly observed that the three ideas most frequently\nexpressed by Jesus are translated by the words lost, last, least. He\nconstantly repeated the message that the lost shall be found, that the\nlast shall be the first, that the least shall be the greatest. This is\nthe Gospel of the World's Saviour who saw possibilities in what others\ncalled hopeless lives. He appealed to what was latent in them and\nsecured a response from the despised, the outcast, the depraved. To all\nappearances they were incapable of better things but Jesus knew better\nand He was not disappointed.\n\nThese unfortunate individuals belong to the \"broken earthenware\" of\nhumanity. Scarred by sin, hurt by temptation, haunted by fear, torn by\npassion, repressed by prejudice, their lives have been redeemed by the\nSaviour, and transformed. So much so that their present has not the\nslightest resemblance to their past, and their future has the glow of\ngreater progress toward holiness and happiness. As long as such results\nare obtained by the Gospel it is certainly good news to all classes and\nconditions, and should be broadcast to earth's remotest bounds. Here are\nsome recent proofs of the glory of the divine grace.\n\n\nThere are no hopeless cases as seen in the instance of one who was\n\n\n Saved by Sankey's Singing\n\nMrs. Emily Sullivan Oakey was a well-known writer but she is best\nremembered by her hymn, \"Sowing the Seed by the Daylight Fair.\" In the\nwinter of 1876, W. O. Lattimore, who had been separated from his wife\nand child by drink and had become a miserable drunkard, stumbled in an\nintoxicated condition into Moody's Tabernacle in Chicago. When he came\nto, he realized his mistake and was about to leave when Sankey's solo\nheld him. He was singing the stanza:\n\n \"Sowing the seed of a lingering pain,\n Sowing the seed of a maddened brain,\n Sowing the seed of a tarnished name,\n Sowing the seed of eternal shame:\n O, what shall the harvest be?\"\n\nThese lines followed Lattimore even to the saloon and he returned to the\nTabernacle and was converted. He went back to his family, engaged in\nactive work at the Moody meetings, accepted the call to the ministry and\nwas pastor of a flourishing church in Evanston, Illinois, for twenty\nyears.\n\nThis hymn was doubtless suggested by the Apostle's words: \"Whatsoever a\nman soweth, that shall he also reap.\"\n\n\nThe insight of Jesus is finely illustrated by\n\n\n Hymns from the Bowery Mission\n\nFanny Crosby was a friend and devoted worker at the Bowery Mission for\nseveral years and many of her hymns were inspired by experiences at this\ncenter of aggressive evangelism. Few hymns by any writer show deeper\nsympathetic insight than \"Rescue the Perishing,\" especially the lines:\n\n \"Down in the human heart,\n Crushed by the tempter,\n Feelings lie buried that grace can restore:\n Touched by a loving heart,\n Wakened by kindness,\n Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.\"\n\nThe circumstances under which this hymn was written are worth recounting\nin her own words:\n\n\"I recall the period of more than sixteen years ago when it was my\nprivilege to be a humble worker in the Bowery Mission. The world is\nstill, and I am holding communion with the past; sweet, hallowed\ncommunion, carrying me back to the fervent heartfelt testimonies of\nthose who, evening after evening, told of the peace flowing like a river\nwhich had entered their stained lives, had washed away their sins, and\nmade them clean through the precious blood of our Lord's atonement.\n\n\"One evening a man for whom we had been praying, said, his face radiant\nwith joy, 'Now I can meet mother in heaven, for I have found her God.'\nThat night I wrote my hymn, 'Rescue the Perishing.'\"\n\n\nHere is a remarkable case of one who, while\n\n\n Singing of Christ, She Accepted Him\n\nIn the absence of the organist at East Northfield, Massachusetts, at one\nof the meetings during the summer gathering, a woman stepped forward and\nvolunteered her services. She made a deep impression by her playing and\nalso by the sweetness of her singing, with the result that she was in\nconstant demand at the other services. When urgently requested she\nrelated her experience.\n\nShe used to be one of the leading singers of New York, going from place\nto place, singing classical and operatic music, but hymns she disliked.\nOne evening, while attending a mission service, she was invited to sing\na solo, which she did with pleasure. Then someone asked her to sing a\nGospel hymn. She first laughed at the idea, and refused. Later she\nconsented. Opening the book at random, she began:\n\n \"My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;\n For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.\"\n\nThe words caused her to think of her past life. She continued:\n\n \"I'll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,\n And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath.\"\n\nThese words struck her forcefully, and she began to wonder if she really\nmeant them. The last verse followed:\n\n \"In mansions of glory and endless delight\n I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;\n I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,\n If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.\"\n\nIt was enough. She arose from her seat at the organ a Christian woman,\nand henceforth served Christ whole-heartedly.\n\n\nThe initiative is always taken by God, as seen in the story where\n\n\n God Was the Seeker\n\n\"How long since ye sought and found God, Jamie?\" said some of the\nfriends of an old Scotch elder as he lay dying.\n\n\"Oh, Robin, Robin, I never sought and found him,\" answered the dying\nman.\n\n\"Oh, his mind is gane, and he will never recognize us again,\" remarked\nthe friend sadly.\n\nBut the old saint opened his lips, and faintly said: \"Listen! Not I--not\nI--I never sought Him:\n\n 'Jesus sought me when a stranger,\n Wandering from the fold of God,\n He, to rescue me from danger,\n Interposed His precious blood.'\"\n\nThe old Scotchman had grasped the fundamental fact of Christianity, that\nChrist came to seek and to save the lost.\n\n\nDr. Charles A. Blanchard once related the conversion of a friend of his\nthrough\n\n\n A Song at Midnight\n\nThis friend was for many years an infidel, a hard drinker, a Sabbath\nbreaker, unkind to his wife. One day, after a debauch, he went out on a\nstringer belonging to a wharf in process of building, drank two bottles\nof whisky, and lay down on the stringer, expecting to fall asleep, and\nroll over into the water in his sleep. He wanted to end his miserable\nexistence, but had not the courage to do it in any other way. He did\nfall asleep, but did not turn over, and awoke with the stars shining in\nhis face. He went home at midnight, saw his wife through the window\nstill at work ironing, and heard her singing, \"What a Friend we have in\nJesus.\" The thought came to him, \"If Jesus can make my wife sing at\nmidnight, He can make me stop drinking whiskey.\" He never touched a drop\nof intoxicating liquor after that, and he became a sincere, trusting\nChristian.\n\n\nThe truth of the words, \"Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt\nfind it after many days,\" finds an illustration in this story of a\nwriter who was\n\n\n Handed a Copy of Her Own Hymn\n\nCharlotte Elliott first published her famous hymn,\n\n \"Just as I am, without one plea\n But that Thy blood was shed for me,\"\n\nin a volume entitled _The Invalid's Hymn Book_. The sister of the author\nrelated this incident:\n\n\"A lady was so struck with it that she had it printed as a leaflet and\nwidely circulated without any idea by whom it was composed. It happened\nrather curiously that while we were living at Torquay, our valued\nChristian physician came to us one morning, having in his hand this\nleaflet. He offered it to my sister, saying, 'I am sure this will please\nyou;' and great indeed was his astonishment on finding that it was\nwritten by herself, though by what means it had been thus printed and\ncirculated she was utterly ignorant. Shortly after we became acquainted\nwith the lady who had printed it.\"\n\n\nMr. Sankey saved many hymns from obscurity by singing them at the Moody\nmeetings. Here is the story of\n\n\n \"Throw Out the Lifeline\"\n\nThis hymn and the tune were written by the Rev. E. S. Ufford of\nSpringfield, Massachusetts, although it was greatly popularized by Mr.\nSankey's singing of it with such signal results. Mr. Ufford relates that\nhe lived for many years near the seashore in a little village thirteen\nmiles from Boston. In the summer he would often stroll along the beach\nand see an old wreck half hidden in the sands and rubbish and wonder\nwhether such a wreck might have been avoided if a life line had been\nthrown out to the passengers and crew. He wished that he might write a\nhymn with a searching message. After a meeting held on the sands by the\nold wreck, he offered the help of the Gospel to the wrecks of manhood\nwho were present.\n\nThe inspiration of this service so stirred him that he sat down and in\nfifteen minutes wrote four stanzas of the hymn which has justly become\nfamous. Sankey got hold of this hymn and at once began to sing it. It\nwas Moody's favorite. When Mr. Ufford later took a trip round the world\nthe fact that he was the author of this hymn gave him a welcome\neverywhere. It was his privilege to hear it sung by the natives of\nHonolulu in their own tongue.\n\n\nMr. Sankey also popularized another hymn which he casually came across\n\n\n In a Newspaper\n\nIt was in 1874 that he discovered \"The Ninety and Nine\" in a weekly\nnewspaper which he bought at the Glasgow railway station. He cut out\nthis poem, hoping to use it if he could get a suitable tune. After an\naddress on \"The Good Shepherd,\" Mr. Moody turned to him with the request\nfor an appropriate solo. To quote his own words: \"At this moment I\nseemed to hear a voice saying, 'Sing the hymn you found in the train.' I\nthought this impossible as no music had been written for the hymn. Again\nthe impression came strongly upon me that I must sing the beautiful\nappropriate words I had found the day before, and placing the little\nnewspaper slip on the organ, I lifted my heart in prayer, asking God to\nhelp me to sing that the people might hear and understand. Laying my\nhands on the organ, I struck the chord of A flat and began the song.\nNote by note the tune was given, which has not been changed from that\nday to this. Mr. Moody was greatly moved. Leaning over the organ, he\nlooked at the little newspaper slip, and with tears in his eyes said,\n'Sankey, where did you get that hymn? I never heard the like of it in my\nlife.'\"\n\nThis hymn was written by Miss Elizabeth C. Clephane of Melrose,\nScotland, who died in 1869. Her sister was present at this noon meeting\nat the Free Assembly Hall, and later wrote to Mr. Sankey, thanking him\nfor singing the hymn.\n\n\nHere is another story by Andrew Stewart in _The British Weekly_ about\nthese same meetings and how the hymn\n\n\n \"Jesus of Nazareth\" Made an Extraordinary Impression\n\n\"I remember Mr. Sankey in Edinburgh in 1874. Mr. Moody and he were\nconducting meetings in Broughton Place Church. It was their first visit\nto Scotland, and Dr. Andrew Thomson had bravely opened the great church\nto the strangers. A small boy, sitting in our family pew, facing the\npulpit, I can recall the effect of the great crowds and the intense\nimpression. One of the hymns used was 'Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By.' My\nfather told long afterwards how he met a commercial traveler one morning\non the ferry steamer that crossed from Granton before the Forth Bridge\nwas built. The traveler spoke of having attended the evangelistic\nservices the previous night. He said: 'I am not a religious man and not\neasily moved, but when that man sang \"Jesus of Nazareth Has Passed By\"\nit made an extraordinary impression on me.' The fact is that the success\nof the evangelists had more connection with Sankey's singing than most\npeople realize. He had a powerful baritone voice and sang with deep\nfeeling.\"\n\nThe first verse of the hymn is:\n\n \"What means this eager, anxious throng,\n Which moves with busy haste along--\n These wondrous gath'rings day by day,\n What means this strange commotion, pray?\n In accents hushed the throng reply,\n 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.'\"\n\n\nFrom far-off China comes this striking incident in connection with\n\n\n \"One Sweetly Solemn Thought\"\n\nDr. Russell H. Conwell was traveling in China and one day he entered a\ngambling house in a Chinese city. Two Americans were there, betting and\ndrinking; the older one frequently using the filthiest profanity. The\nyounger man had lost in two games and the third game had just begun.\nWhile the winner was shuffling the cards his companion sat lazily back\nin his chair. There was delay in dealing out the cards and while\nwaiting, the other looked carelessly about the room and began to hum a\ntune and then to sing almost unconsciously. The words were:\n\n \"One sweetly solemn thought\n Comes to me o'er and o'er;\n I am nearer home today\n Than I ever have been before.\"\n\nWhile the young man sang, his fellow gambler stopped dealing out cards,\nstared at the singer and exclaimed: \"Harry, where did you learn that\nsong?\" \"What song?\" \"Why, the one you have been singing.\"\n\nHe said he did not know what he had been singing. The other repeated the\nwords, with tears in his eyes, and the younger man said he had learned\nthem in the Sunday School in America.\n\n\"Come,\" said the elder gambler, getting up; \"come, Harry, here's what I\nhave won from you; go and use it for some good purpose. As for me, as\nGod sees me, I have played my last game and drunk my last bottle. I have\nmisled you, Harry, and I am sorry. Give me your hand, my boy, and say\nthat for old America's sake, if for no other, you will quit this\ninfernal business.\"\n\nThis hymn was written by Miss Phoebe Cary while visiting a friend. She\nhad attended church and was deeply stirred, and on returning to her\nfriend's house she retired to \"the little back third-story bedroom\" and\nwrote this expression of her experience. This incident in China gave her\nmuch happiness. After her death the older man in the above story wrote\nto Dr. Conwell saying that he was now a \"hard working Christian\" and\nthat Harry had renounced his evil ways.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n \"_The Old Rugged Cross_\"\n\n\nThe Cross is the triumphant symbol of a militant and puissant\nChristianity. It tells of \"love divine, all loves excelling.\" It\nsustains hope in the final victory of good. It establishes faith in the\npersistent reality of truth. The Gospel of the Cross proclaims\nredemption from sin, reconciliation with God, realization of goodwill to\nall people. There is absolutely nothing else to equal the appeal of the\nCross in its power to produce the most desirable changes in the\nindividual and in society. Wherever it has been preached with the\nconviction of experience and the constraint of passion, the Holy Christ\nhas won trophies in lives recovered from the waste of sin, renewed by\nthe power of grace, enriched by the practices of purity and peace.\n\nIndeed, the only cure for our distracted age is found in the Atoning\nChrist. This is endorsed by the voices of redeemed multitudes of every\nage and land. The testimony from life is conclusive. It holds us by a\nresolute determination to announce its message of pardon and joy to\neveryone. In the words of John Oxenham,\n\n \"Love, with the lifted hands and thorn-crowned head;\n Still conquers death, though life itself be fled,--\n His Cross still stands!\n\n Yes,--Love triumphant stands, and stands for more,\n In our great need, than e'er it stood before!\n His Cross still stands!\"[21]\n\n\nThe Cross makes a universal appeal, as in this incident related by Miss\nMargaret Sangster[22] when\n\n\n All Wanted the Same Song\n\n\"I was in a radio studio, the other night, listening to the broadcast of\na program. Naturally I was interested. Interested in what the performers\ndid and how they were handled and the precision with which the timing\nwas accomplished. But the one thing that interested me more than the\nactual happenings in the studio, was something quite apart from the\nespecial broadcast that was taking place. For, as I sat there, I was\nconscious of a great flurry going on in an outer office. I could see, as\nI sat there, a constant stream of messenger boys--and I was conscious of\nan equally constant answering of telephones. I couldn't help feeling\nthat some great event was taking place--or was about to take place.\n\n\"And so the moment that the broadcast was over, I went into that outer\noffice and began to ask questions. 'Why the excitement?' I asked of a\npretty stenographer. 'I've never seen such a bustling about.' The girl\nsmiled as she replied: 'A very popular singer is going to broadcast\ntonight,' she told me, 'and people are sending in requests that he sing\ntheir favorite song. Curiously enough, with hardly an exception, it's\nthe same song!'\n\n\"'What song is it?' I asked. And I was both amazed and stirred to learn\nthat the radio audience was asking for one of the splendid old revival\nhymns--'The Old Rugged Cross!'\"\n\n \"On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,\n The emblem of suff'ring and shame;\n And I love that old cross where the dearest and best\n For a world of lost sinners was slain.\"\n\n\nThomas D. Whittles tells this story in his book, _The Parish of the\nPines_,[23] about\n\n\n Gospel Music in the Lumber Camps\n\nAn upturned barrel serves for pulpit, and a horse blanket, bearing the\nmanufacturer's name in large letters, is the embroidered altar cloth. No\nGenevan gown lends grace to the minister, but coatless he stands--a\nshirt-sleeved messenger of God.\n\nThe opening of a service conducted by Frank Higgins, the Sky Pilot, is\nthus described:\n\n\"'Sing No. 31, boys; it's easy and it's a good one. Let her go!'\n\n \"Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?\n And did my Sovereign die?\"\n\n\"The hymn is old and the boys welcome it lustily. The music lacks in\nsweetness: in volume it abounds.\n\n\"'You can do better. Hit it harder on the next verse.'\n\n\"They do; they shout it forth in full voice, pleased with the song, glad\nfor the privilege of singing. Then the chorus: 'At the cross, at the\ncross, where I first saw the light,' shakes the bunkhouse and wanders\nover the far reaches of the night-bound forest. In our fashionable\nchurches, trained voices blend in superb harmony; but this is the music\nof songless lives.\"\n\n\nHowever different may be our views on many questions of religion, most\nof us agree that\n\n\n The Cross Remains\n\nMatthew Arnold was visiting his brother-in-law, Mr. Cropper, and went\nwith him to a service at Seton Park Church, Liverpool, England. The\nminister, Dr. John Watson (\"Ian Maclaren\"), preached on \"The Shadow of\nthe Cross,\" and the congregation afterwards sang the familiar hymn:\n\n \"When I survey the wondrous cross\n On which the Prince of Glory died.\"\n\nAt lunch that day Mr. Arnold referred to the hymn, which he said he\nconsidered the finest in the English language. Appreciative reference\nwas also made to the sermon; and the poet mentioned especially an\nillustration which the preacher had drawn from a Riviera earthquake.\n\n\"In one village,\" said Dr. Watson, \"the huge crucifix above the altar,\nwith a part of the chancel, remained unshaken amid the ruins, and round\nthe cross the people sheltered.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" remarked Arnold in speaking of this, \"the cross remains, and in\nthe straits of the soul makes its ancient appeal.\"\n\nThis recalls an incident mentioned in a lecture, when the speaker\ndescribed a scene in Paris in which a number of men, when a cathedral\nwas dedicated on a hill, attempted to blot out the illumination of the\ncross on the spire by raising large clouds of smoke with chemicals.\n\"Instead of blotting it out,\" said the lecturer, \"the cross stood out in\ngreater magnificence and splendor.\"\n\nNever does the Cross fail men in their need; but\n\n \"His cross like a far-seen beacon stands\n In the midst of a world of sin;\n And stretched out are His bleeding hands\n To gather the wanderers in.\"\n\n\nThe truth of reliance upon the Christ of the Cross is well brought out\nin\n\n\n \"Rock of Ages\"\n\nThe original title of this hymn was \"A Living and Dying Prayer for the\nHoliest Believer in the World.\" But, as a matter of fact, the hymn is a\nfavorite of the best saint and the worst sinner. It can be used\nappropriately in every condition of life. In a shipwreck off the Bay of\nBiscay, the last man who left the ship said he heard the passengers\nsinging,\n\n \"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,\n Let me hide myself in Thee!\"\n\n\nThe glory of the Cross found an impressive testimony in\n\n\n Henry Drummond's Hymn on His Last Sunday\n\nDeath called the brilliant Henry Drummond hence while he was still in\nthe prime of life. On the afternoon of the last Sunday he spent on earth\nthis noble Scotchman, with his scientific mind and evangelical spirit,\nheard his friend, Dr. Barbour, play to him the music of the hymn, \"Art\nThou Weary, Art Thou Languid?\" and other hymn tunes. There was no\nresponse. Then he tried the old Scots melody of \"Martyrdom,\" to which\nDrummond beat time with his hand, and joined in the words:\n\n \"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,\n Or to defend His cause;\n Maintain the honor of His word,\n The glory of His cross.\"\n\nWhen they finished singing this hymn by Isaac Watts, Drummond said,\n\"There's nothing to beat that, Hugh.\" The following Thursday he passed\nto greet his Lord of whom he had been a radiant follower.\n\n\nThe everlasting Gospel of the Cross is assuredly\n\n\n The Only Word for Discord and Distress\n\nHow truly it meets our needs is finely suggested in one of the best\nhymns, \"My Faith Looks Up to Thee.\" It was written by Dr. Ray Palmer at\nthe age of twenty-two while still a theological student, suffering from\npoor health, laboring under many discouragements and realizing that God\nwas his only help. During the Civil War some soldiers met in a tent for\nprayer before a great battle; they decided to draw up and sign a paper,\nexpressing their trust in that stern hour. One of the men knew this hymn\nand he wrote it out and each man signed his name. Only one of them lived\nthrough the battle to tell of this death covenant and to send the\nprecious document to the loved ones of those who fell. Well might each\nof them have prayed:\n\n \"My faith looks up to Thee,\n Thou Lamb of Calvary,\n Saviour divine!\n Now hear me while I pray,\n Take all my guilt away,\n O let me from this day\n Be wholly Thine!\"\n\n\nThe voice of the true Christian is the same regardless of nationality or\ncolor, as is seen in this incident about\n\n\n What Frances Wanted Sung\n\nFrances Phillips, a young girl of Alaska, was the first pupil to\ngraduate in the eighth grade in the Training School at Sitka. Soon\nafterwards she married a young man named Sam Johnson. Both were\nChristians. Frances died in 1924, a few days after the death of her\nlittle son. Dr. Samuel Hall Young tells us that he had been going to see\nher daily for a week when, on Sunday morning, word was brought that she\nwas dying. \"The little church was not far distant, and Frances sent word\nto open the doors and windows and to sing:\n\n 'My hope is built on nothing less\n Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.'\n\n\"The dying woman joined feebly, with an ecstatic smile on her wan face\nand soon passed away. Before her death she had started a subscription in\nAngoon to build a new church. Sam and his brothers took up this work,\nand a beautiful little building called 'The Frances Johnson Memorial\nChurch' was erected, almost entirely by the Indians.\"[24]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n _Hymns of Youth_\n\n\nThe questioning attitude of youth is impelled by a desire for deeper\nreality. Some of their words and ways may scandalize the conventional,\nbut back of it all we find eager sincerity and animated purposefulness\nto make life count for more. We need to show the patience of confidence\ntowards skeptical young people. We must encourage them to work out their\nproblems not by holding up danger signals, but by magnifying the ways of\nsure deliverance. We are not wedded to methods but are inspired by\nmotives. So long as these latter are right we might well disagree about\nhow they are to be expressed.\n\nAn interesting sidelight on the essential loyalty of young people was\nrecently given when, at a summer institute attended exclusively by them,\na popular vote was taken of the best ten hymns. The following were\nnamed: \"Holy, Holy, Holy;\" \"Nearer, My God, to Thee;\" \"Rock of Ages;\"\n\"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross;\" \"Abide With Me;\" \"Sweet Hour of\nPrayer;\" \"Jesus, Lover of My Soul;\" \"O Love, That Wilt Not Let Me Go;\"\n\"Just As I Am;\" \"Lead Kindly Light.\"\n\nThis is certainly not the choice of erratic radicals, but of rational\nconservatives who desire to retain what is best in the past while going\nforward with characteristic adventuresomeness to new fields of activity\nand of achievement.\n\n\nThe new program of religious education is an attempt more satisfactorily\nto meet the needs of children and adolescents. Previous efforts had\ntheir limitations but all who grew up under the conditions of the former\ngeneration will appreciate this testimony from Sir Harry Lauder in\n_Roamin' in the Gloamin'_ about\n\n\n The Influence of the Sunday School\n\n\"I forget many of the hymns we sang at the Band of Hope, but such\nfavorites as 'Shall We Gather at the River?', 'Throw Out the Life Line,'\nand similar haunting airs stand out in my memory. I loved every note of\nthem and yelled them out most lustily. The old Scottish psalm tunes we\noccasionally sang at the Band of Hope, and also at the Sunday School I\nattended, likewise made an extraordinary appeal to me. 'All People That\nOn Earth Do Dwell,' to the tune of the 'Old Hundred;' 'O, God of Bethel\nby Whose Hand' to the tune of 'St. Kilda,' were among my favorites. The\nlast mentioned melody is in a most unusual minor key. It was written by\na young Scottish musician named Bloomfield, who died early in life and\nwhose body, I have been told, is lying in an ancient cemetery in\nAberdeen.\"[25]\n\n\nThese words recall an experience of Captain John Lauder in France, which\nled him to declare he was\n\n\n Glad He Learned the Hymn in Sunday School\n\nWhile convalescing in the hospital he went one day to the piano and\nbegan playing very softly. One of the nurses then came up to him and\nsaid a Captain Webster of the Gordon Highlanders who knew his father,\nSir Harry, wanted to see him. What followed had best be stated in his\nown words, quoted in _A Minstrel in France_[26] by Harry Lauder:\n\n\"This man had gone through ten operations in less than a week. I thought\nperhaps my playing had disturbed him, but when I went to his bedside, he\ngrasped my hand, pressed it with what little strength he had left, and\nthanked me. He asked me if I could play a hymn. He said he would like to\nhear 'Lead, Kindly Light.' So I went back to the piano and played it as\nsoftly and as gently as I could. It was his last request. He died an\nhour later. I was very glad I was able to soothe his last moments a\nlittle. I am very glad that I learned the hymn at Sunday School as a\nboy.\"\n\n\nDr. R. J. Campbell tells a touching story about a mother and her only\nchild whose request was\n\n\n \"Sing, Muzzer, Sing\"\n\nThis young English mother made a living for herself and child by singing\nin the concert halls of London, and so at night she was compelled to\nleave him while meeting her engagements. One night she had a foreboding\nof evil but she had to keep her appointment. The rapture of the crowds\nand the encores were nothing to her as on this night she hurried back to\nthe lad. She took him up in her arms and held him as if he could never\nslip away. But he was dying, and his broken words were, \"Sing, muzzer,\nsing.\" What an ordeal! But she responded. Her clear sweet voice broke\nupon the hush of that tenement room in the words of the matchless hymn\nof the children:\n\n \"I think when I read that sweet story of old,\n When Jesus was here among men;\n How He called little children like lambs to His fold,\n I should like to have been with Him then.\"\n\n\nAnother hymn made a moving impression upon a large congregation when\n\n\n Children Sang of the Love of Jesus\n\nA group of fresh-air children from New York City were being entertained\nat East Northfield, the home of the schools established by D. L. Moody.\nOne Sunday, sitting in a body in the great auditorium, they were\npresented to the audience, and then invited to the platform to sing for\nthe assembled company. The little folks marched to the front of the\nbuilding, faced the many hundreds of people, and gleefully sang:\n\n \"I am so glad that our Father in heaven\n Tells of His love in the Book He has given,\n Wonderful things in the Bible I see;\n This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.\"\n\nChildren of parents who came from many different nations across the\nAtlantic, living amid hard conditions in the great city of New York,\nlife had not afforded them much in the form of pleasure. But their faces\nfairly radiated happiness as they lustily sang:\n\n \"I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me,\n I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves even me.\"\n\n\nThis incident is given in _Through Jade Gate_, by M. Cable and F.\nFrench, about\n\n\n A Youthful Daniel\n\nIn our city-visiting we soon discovered that the first difficult plowing\nof the ground was being done for us by the children. Everywhere we were\nwelcomed, and mothers, whom we had never seen, repeated Scripture texts,\nhymns, and sentences of prayer with surprising accuracy. One little\nfellow, unconscious that he was being watched, walked down the street\nsinging at the top of his voice, \"Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand\nalone,\" then coming to a stop before a peanut vendor and looking him in\nthe face, said, \"Did you _know_ that there is only one God, and one Lord\nJesus Christ?\"\n\n\"Why, no,\" said the man bewildered.\n\n\"Well, it is true,\" answered the child, and passed on singing, \"'Dare to\nhave a purpose firm, dare to make it known.'\"\n\n\nHere is a suggestive story quoted from _The Sunday School Times_ about\n\n\n Jazz and Sacred Music\n\nA Christian mother recently found no little difficulty in leading her\n'teen-age girls to overcome the habit of singing jazz. It is what they\nheard over the neighbor's radio, in school, on the street, everywhere.\nAnd in order to cure the habit there seemed to be need for something\nmore than the negative command, \"Don't sing such songs, girls!\" At\nlength she hit upon a solution to the problem. When the girls burst into\n\"Carolina moon, keep shining,\" the mother would begin, very quietly and\nwith apparent lack of purpose,\n\n \"He leadeth me! oh! blessed thought!\n Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught.\"\n\nAnd it was not long until the singing voices began to follow her.\n\n\nThe central message of the Gospel is well illustrated in this\n\n\n Spiritual Experience in Song\n\nAt a world's convention of Christian Endeavor Societies, the various\ndelegations went to their respective places in the tent, singing\ndifferent hymns. The New Zealand deputation marched in singing,\n\n \"O for a thousand tongues to sing\n My great Redeemer's praise,\n The glories of my God and King,\n The triumph of His grace!\"\n\nThey were listened to in silence, until they reached the stanza:\n\n \"He breaks the power of canceled sin,\n He sets the prisoner free;\n His blood can make the foulest clean;\n His blood availed for me.\"\n\nThen the vast audience could no longer refrain from joining them, for\nthe verse truthfully expressed the spiritual experience of all the\ncompany.\n\n\nIt was an impressive experience which strengthened the bond of unity\nwhen a group joined in this\n\n\n Evening Prayer of Young Campers\n\nThe young people who had spent the evening together were about to\nseparate and go to their several tents and cottages. \"Why not a\nsong-prayer together?\" asked one. The suggestion was favorably received.\nThese were the words they sang just before they retired:\n\n \"Glory to Thee, my God, this night,\n For all the blessings of the light:\n Keep me, O keep me, King of kings,\n Beneath the shadow of Thy Wings.\n\n Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son,\n The ill which I this day have done;\n That with the world, myself, and Thee,\n I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n O let my soul on Thee repose,\n And may sweet sleep mine eyelids close;\n Sleep which shall me more vigorous make,\n To serve my God, when I awake.\"\n\n\nThe culminating moment at a missionary meeting was reached when the\nassembly sang a hymn,\n\n\n Acknowledging God's Claims\n\nIt was at one of the anniversaries of the London Missionary Society at\nQueen's Hall, London. There were present a number of young men and women\nwho were about to leave for their several mission fields. Instead of\nsome modern hymns which are convicted of false sentiment, there was\nselected Doddridge's hymn for this notable occasion. The first verse is:\n\n \"My gracious Lord, I own Thy right\n To every service I can pay,\n And call it my supreme delight\n To hear Thy dictates and obey.\"\n\nOne can imagine the enthusiasm of those prospective missionaries as they\nsang:\n\n \"'Tis to my Saviour I would live\n To Him who for my ransom died;\n Nor could all worldly honor give\n Such bliss as crowns me at His side.\"\n\n\nThe courage of conviction was strikingly exhibited in connection with a\nwell-known chorus,\n\n\n \"Can the Lord Depend on You?\"\n\nThree thousand people had gathered in a beautiful grove for the annual\nreunion of one of the State societies of Los Angeles. The musical\nprogram consisted of old sacred melodies with variations and they were\nreceived with enthusiasm. The president then announced that three young\nladies would perform a special dance and he requested the pianist to\nplay for the dancers. Much to his surprise and chagrin a polite negative\nreply was given. \"But there is no one else here to play for the dance,\"\nsaid the president.\n\nThe pianist insisted on refusal, declaring that he had never used his\ntalent in that connection and never so intended. The president then\nthreatened to expose him to the vast audience, and no sooner had he done\nso than the pianist took the platform and said: \"My reason for not\nplaying for the dance is that my talent is not my own. It is dedicated\nto a far higher and nobler service. It is devoted wholly to the service\nof Christ.\" The impression produced upon the gathering had an effect\ndifferent from that of the president of this state society. On\nadjournment, several got into conversation with the pianist, which led\nto complete decisions for Christ.\n\n\nThe great heart of the nation was heard on a notable occasion when, in a\nspirit of unity,\n\n\n Young America Made Music\n\nThis took place during the sessions of the National Education\nAssociation at Dallas, Texas. It was on the last evening of the\nconvention, which for five days had engaged in earnest discussion on the\neducation of children in the United States.\n\nFive thousand persons applauded when the curtain rose; and the\nspectators were thrilled when they saw on the stage eight hundred boys\nand girls dressed in pure white. These were the best singers in the\nDallas elementary schools. For an hour they sang, never missing a word\nor a note, without a scrap of paper before their eyes. The last third of\nthe program was the cantata of \"Rip Van Winkle,\" which was rendered with\na sweetness possible only to the unspoiled voices of children who sing\nbecause they love to sing.\n\nThe curtain rose the second time, and the scene changed. The National\nHigh School Orchestra appeared for the first time in history before the\nNational Education Association. Two hundred and sixty-six boys and girls\nfrom thirty-nine states sat there \"with their handsome instruments.\"\nThey were selected from six hundred who were competent and anxious to\nattend. It was a thrilling sight to watch these young people who sat\ntogether regardless of the states from which they came, and whose faces\nhad \"the features of every nation under heaven.\" The program was\narranged to recreate the moods of life--of play, heroism, questioning,\nhope, despair, fantasy, and religious fervor. The musical selections\nwere from the masters, and they were rendered with perfect harmony.\n\nFor two hours these young people stirred the depths of their vast\naudience. It was like a glimpse of the great scene described in the\nBible, \"of the company out of every nation and kindred and tribe before\nthe throne of God, whose anthem of praise is like the sound of the sea.\"\n\nThe closing number was most impressive. Led by the youthful orchestra,\nthe audience sang the evening hymn of Sabine Baring Gould:\n\n \"Now the day is over,\n Night is drawing nigh,\n Shadows of the evening\n Steal across the sky.\"\n\nSo the music swept on until the closing stanza was reached:\n\n \"When the morning wakens,\n Then may I arise\n Pure, and fresh, and sinless\n In Thy holy eyes.\"\n\nThis incident is fully described in _Yankee Notions_, by Henry T.\nBailey.[27] He concludes his account with an impressive sentence: \"I\nheard the great heart of my country singing as never before, and the\nharmony was as rich and deep as human brotherhood itself.\"\n\n\nHere is a testimony to faith and hope suggested by\n\n\n Hymns Used at the Dedication of a College Chapel\n\nHendricks Memorial Chapel of Syracuse University was dedicated on June\n8, 1930. It is the third in size of all college chapels in the United\nStates and is to be the center for the religious guidance of the\nstudents.\n\nThe hymns used on this occasion were full of significance. The first had\na national application and was written by a physician, Dr. Alfred A.\nWoodhull. Six thousand voices blended in singing:\n\n \"Great God of nations, now to Thee\n Our hymn of gratitude we raise;\n With humble heart and bending knee\n We offer Thee our song of praise.\"\n\nThis was followed by \"Faith of Our Fathers.\" The closing hymn was\nwritten by Dr. M. W. Stryker, one of the distinguished presidents of\nHamilton College:\n\n \"Almighty Lord, with one accord,\n We offer Thee our youth.\"\n\nAt the afternoon service of dedication the first hymn was\n\n \"Glorious things of Thee are spoken\n Zion, City of our God.\"\n\nThe next was Professor Caleb T. Winchester's striking hymn:\n\n \"The Lord our God alone is strong,\n His hands build not for one brief day;\n His wondrous works, through ages long,\n His wisdom and His power display.\"\n\nDeeply prayerful was the last stanza:\n\n \"And let those learn, who here shall meet,\n True wisdom is with reverence crowned,\n And science walks with humble feet\n To seek the God that faith hath found.\"\n\nThe hymn of dedication was most appropriate. It was written by William\nCullen Bryant, who was a student in Williams College. And it was from\noccasional summer afternoons of meditation in the chapel of this college\nthat Senator Francis Hendricks conceived the idea of providing this\nmemorial chapel for Syracuse University. Here are two stanzas:\n\n \"Thou, whose unmeasured temple stands,\n Built over earth and sea,\n Accept the walls that human hands\n Have raised, O God, to Thee.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n May faith grow firm, and love grow warm,\n And pure devotion rise,\n While round these hallowed walls the storm\n Of earthborn passion dies.\"\n\nAt night was held the installation service of the Dean of Hendricks\nChapel. It began with the immortal hymn of Isaac Watts:\n\n \"O God, our help in ages past,\n Our hope for years to come,\n Our shelter from the stormy blast,\n And our eternal home!\"\n\nThe last hymn on that eventful day was one which came from Dr.\nWashington Gladden, a man who exercised a large influence in our\nnational religious life. The desires and hopes of all were thus deeply\nexpressed as they sang:\n\n \"O Master, let me walk with Thee,\n In lowly paths of service free;\n Tell me Thy secret; help me bear\n The strain of toil, the fret of care.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n In hope that sends a shining ray\n Far down the future's broadening way;\n In peace that only Thou canst give,\n With Thee, O Master, let me live.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI\n _Hymns as Prayers_\n\n\nWhen our feelings are deeply stirred by a crisis it is the most natural\nthing to turn to God in prayer. Such an acknowledgment of the divine\nresourcefulness in the face of human helplessness advertises the\ninherent dignity of man, who finds that he is best able to overcome\ndifficulties by reliance upon God. Any person who is able to make such a\ncontact with the Source of Power through prayer is well equipped for the\ntasks of life.\n\nIt is the filial spirit which inspires the tone and quality of prayer,\nwhereby we receive spiritual insight and moral strength for duty. It has\nbeen well said that \"prayer is the discipline of desire in the light of\nthe best consciousness of God that we can attain unto.\" We must recover\nthis practice of prayer for right living. It will reinforce us with\nvirtue and vitality to keep true to our best selves and fit us to meet\nevery demand. It is in actual experience and not by mere theorizing that\nwe find out the real efficacy of prayer.\n\n\nBishop Edwin H. Hughes, in _The Pastor Looks at His Work_,[28] reports\nsome of his experiences to show that\n\n\n Hymns Are Prayers\n\n\"A little while ago I was in a service where a minister of no little\neminence was suddenly called on to pray. His response was simply the\nrepeating of the entire hymn, whose first stanza reads:\n\n 'My faith looks up to Thee,\n Thou Lamb of Calvary,\n Saviour Divine!\n Now hear me while I pray,\n Take all my guilt away,\n Oh, let me from this day\n Be wholly Thine!'\n\nIf one man's experience was typical, that individual hymn with its 'I'\nand 'My' brought scores of people into a spiritual aggregate and made a\n'common supplication.'\n\n\"Much of the same thing happened in the bishops' meeting not so long\nago. We were having a prayer service, only that, and it must have\ncontinued for two and a half hours. One bishop's prayer that night was\nsimply a repeating of Whittier's hymn:\n\n 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind,\n Forgive our feverish ways;\n Reclothe us in our rightful mind,\n In purer lives Thy service find,\n In deeper reverence, praise.'\n\nAs we were all on our knees we were led to treat that hymn as a public\nprayer; and it was at once an inspiring and exalting thing. Our services\nwould be enriched beyond measure if only this spirit of prayer could be\nmore definitely attached to the songs of our corporate worship.\"\n\n\nHere is a personal testimony from Fanny Crosby concerning\n\n\n The Constant Companion of the Pilgrim Journey\n\n\"Toward the close of a day in the year 1874, I was sitting in my room\nthinking of the nearness of God through Christ as the constant companion\nof the pilgrim journey, when my heart burst out with the words:\n\n 'Thou my everlasting portion,\n More than friend or life to me,\n All along my pilgrim journey,\n Saviour, let me walk with Thee.'\"\n\n\nHow prayer is the inevitable opening for guidance is finely illustrated\nin the circumstances which resulted in the writing of\n\n\n \"Lead, Kindly Light\"\n\nThis well-known hymn was written by John Henry Newman when, as a young\nclergyman of the Anglican Church, he lay sick and troubled in a vessel\nwhich was becalmed in the Gulf of Palermo. He was restless to return to\nEngland and perplexed concerning the future. His feelings were expressed\non the afternoon of June 16, 1833, in this prayer for guidance. The\nwell-known tune, \"Lux Benigna,\" to which it is usually sung, was\ncomposed in 1865 by Dr. J. B. Dykes as he walked through the crowded\nStrand in London. It was done in ten minutes in what might seem to have\nbeen an unfavorable place, and yet faith shows its power in overcoming\ndistractions and difficulties, as was done by this musician.\n\nThe author of this hymn later entered the Roman Catholic Church. He is\nbest known as Cardinal Newman but none of his writings, not even his\n_Apologia Pro Vita Sua_, has exercised the influence of this prayer\nhymn. To be sure, all who use it have not been guided as was the\ncardinal. A friend recently remarked to me: \"I was in the habit of\nrepeating these lines on board the ship which was bringing me a stranger\nto the United States. The assurance that the Light still will lead me on\nhas remained with me during the years nor have I any reason to expect\nthat it will be different in the days to come.\"\n\n\nHere is an experience about\n\n\n An Eventide Prayer\n\nA minister of long service and extensive travel went into the church of\na denomination other than that to which he belonged when away from home,\nfor evening worship. He was deeply impressed when the pastor offered as\nthe evening prayer some stanzas from a hymn:\n\n \"At even, ere the sun was set,\n The sick, O Lord, around Thee lay;\n O in what divers pain they met!\n O with what joy they went away!\n\n Once more 'tis eventide, and we,\n Oppressed with various ills, draw near;\n What if Thy form we cannot see?\n We know and feel that Thou are here.\n\n O Saviour Christ, our woes dispel;\n For some are sick, and some are sad,\n And some have never loved Thee well,\n And some have lost the love they had.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Thy touch has still its ancient power,\n No word from Thee can fruitless fall;\n Hear in this solemn evening hour,\n And in Thy mercy heal us all.\"\n\nNo words other than those of the hymn were spoken; but the visiting\nminister affirmed that he never heard a more appropriate or appealing\nprayer.\n\n\nHow calmness and poise are obtained are related in an experience\n\n\n \"Through the Long Night Watches\"\n\nA minister was once confined to bed by sickness. When Sunday came he\ncould hear the hymns which the congregation sang, for the parsonage\nadjoined the church. Evening found him feverish and restless, but with\nsoothing effect came the closing hymn. Through the open window came the\nprayerful lines:\n\n \"Now the day is over,\n Night is drawing nigh;\n Shadows of the evening\n Steal across the sky;\n\n Jesus, grant the weary\n Calm and sweet repose;\n With Thy tenderest blessing\n May our eyelids close.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Through the long night watches\n May Thine angels spread\n Their white wings above me,\n Watching round my bed.\"\n\nThe next Sunday morning the minister was back in his pulpit, and with a\nspirit of gratitude announced the hymn:\n\n \"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!\n Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;\n Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,\n God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.\"\n\n\nHow there was a change for the better during a sickness is revealed in\nthis account:\n\n\n \"Why, That's For Me\"\n\nA minister's wife with whom I am well acquainted has told of the time\nwhen her only sister lay on a bed of pain in a hospital in one of the\nsuburbs of Chicago. Her father and mother, being sent for, reached the\nbedside at nightfall. A brief interview was permitted. The father,\nbending low above his girl, heard her faintly say, \"Oh, Dad, I've lost\nmy grip.\" Great anxiety, therefore, was on his mind as he left the room.\n\nFearing the answer he might receive, yet hungering for news, the father\ntelephoned as early the next morning as he dared. \"How is the girl\ntoday?\" was his agonized question.\n\n\"Holding her own. In fact, she has made slight progress through the\nnight,\" was the glad and astonishing answer. Father and mother,\ntherefore, soon hastened to the hospital. There they learned that the\ndaughter's recovery was now a possibility.\n\nLater the parents learned the cause of the happy change. A window had\nbeen opened by a nurse, and there came through it to the accompaniment\nof a piano a clear baritone voice singing: \"What a Friend we have in\nJesus!\"\n\n\"Why, that's for me,\" whispered the sufferer, as she heard the words:\n\n \"Are we weak and heavy laden,\n Cumbered with a load of care?\n Precious Saviour, still our refuge,\n Take it to the Lord in prayer.\"\n\nRestful assurance was expressed in the closing lines:\n\n \"In His arms He'll take and shield thee,\n Thou wilt find a solace there.\"\n\nMaking the words her prayer, by asking Christ to take and shield her,\nshe turned her face to the wall and the first natural sleep for weeks\nfollowed. From that hour her recovery began.\n\n\nHarriet Beecher Stowe awoke one morning to find herself famous as the\nauthor of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. The excellent reception given this book\nwas gratifying, but more than anything else was\n\n\n The Satisfying Consciousness of God's Presence\n\nShe wrote her husband at this time, from the home of her brother, Henry\nWard Beecher, that she felt a wonderful consciousness of God's presence,\nwhich above all else quieted and comforted and satisfied her soul. Then\nshe wrote out this experience in the beautiful hymn, \"Still, still with\nThee,\" which first appeared in the Plymouth Hymnal. Set to Mendelssohn's\nmusic, it is one of the richest recent additions to hymnology. This\nhymn-prayer was the response of her soul and voiced a deep experience of\nthe peace that passeth all understanding. It tells most impressively\nwhat are some of the benefits of prayer:\n\n \"Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,\n When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;\n Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,\n Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Still, still with Thee! As to each newborn morning\n A fresh and solemn splendor still is given,\n So does this blessed consciousness, awaking,\n Breathe each day nearness unto Thee and heaven.\"\n\n\nWhat the divine presence means is strikingly seen where a man in danger\nwas able to pray and to realize that he was\n\n\n Not Alone\n\nSeven men were buried beneath thousands of tons of rocks which fell\nwithout a moment's warning in a Cornish tin mine early in the twentieth\ncentury. Willing hands immediately began the work of rescue, though all\ndespaired of finding anyone alive. Their worst fears, however, were not\nrealized. One man was found a little distance from his comrades, and was\nuninjured. The rocks had formed an arch over him.\n\nEncouraged by finding this one miner, those who were engaged in the work\nof rescue called loudly to ascertain if any others were alive and able\nto speak. One man answered. He was an active Christian, and Sunday\nSchool superintendent. \"Are you alone?\" he was asked. The questioner, of\ncourse, was thinking of his fellow laborers. \"No; Christ is with me,\"\nwas the reply. \"Are you injured?\" was the next question. \"Yes,\" answered\nthe imprisoned man, \"my legs are held fast by something.\"\n\nThose engaged in the conversation were then greatly surprised as they\nheard this man, who often sang when descending to and ascending from his\ndaily task, now begin to sing in a feeble voice:\n\n \"Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide;\n The darkness deepens--Lord, with me abide!\n When other helpers fail and comforts flee,\n Help of the helpless, O abide with me.\"\n\nThey heard no more from him. Two days later he was found with his legs\ncrushed by a huge rock which rested on them. Both his life and his last\nwords of song, however, gave the assurance that he had gone to be\n\"forever with the Lord.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII\n _Songs of the Negroes_\n\n\nWhatever else may be said about _The Green Pastures_ by Marc Connelly,\nit obviously represents the naive and simple faith of thousands of\nuntutored black Christians in the South. They accept the wonders of the\nOld Testament with crude literalness and they unhesitatingly believe\nthat these marvels can be reproduced in their own lives.\n\nOne of the chief values of this play is the discerning use made of the\nunique spirituals which are a distinctive contribution of America to\nmusic. No one who has ever heard them sung can forget the impression of\npathos at times rising to the heights of astonishing power. Without any\nregard for rhyme, rhythm or meter, these dialect songs express the long\nsuppressed longings for freedom and happiness. The Negro furthermore\nfirmly believes that these benefits are to be realized by means of\nreligion alone. However sensuous may be some of the figures of speech,\nthe emphasis is always on the supremacy of spiritual values.\n\nThere are other features in Negro singing especially connected with\nreligious revivals which throw light on the characteristic traits of\nthis people. Aggrey of Africa was a remarkable representative of the\nNegro race. His life, written by Edwin W. Smith, is one of the\noutstanding biographies of recent times. He once said, \"I believe that\nthe Negro has a great gift for the world; the gift of the idea of\nmeeting injustice and ostracism and oppression by sunny light-hearted\nlove and work. I believe he is going to teach that to Asia and the white\nfolk.\" His attitude to life is best expressed in songs as indicated by a\nfew illustrations in this chapter.\n\n\nDr. Willis J. King, president of Samuel Houston College, Austin, Texas,\nin a recent article in _The Christian Advocate_, pointed out\n\n\n The Value of Negro Spirituals\n\n\"The peculiarity of both the melody and the dialect of the spirituals\ntends to make them difficult for people other than American Negroes to\nrender. But these difficulties are being overcome. With increasing\nfrequency they are being rendered by white American choirs and\ncongregations. Some of them, like 'Lord, I Want to be a Christian' and\n'Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?' are quite singable, after\nbrief rehearsals, by the ordinary church group of any race or\nnationality. So it would seem not too much to expect that a number of\nthese spirituals will ultimately find their place among the great hymns\nof the Church, and be sung down through the ages by Christians of every\nland.\"\n\n\nThe ability to sing the spirituals depends upon\n\n\n Finding the Soul of the Song\n\nDr. Bruce S. Wright tells of a well-known American-Italian tenor who\nsaid that he never sang a selection until he found out the soul of the\nnumber. For that reason he refrained from singing Negro spirituals until\nhe had spent considerable time in the South living among the Negroes,\nlistening to them sing. So today he sings \"Steal Away\" as he heard it\nsung at a Negro revival; and he sings \"Goin' Home\" as he heard it sung\nat the dying bed of an aged Negro in a Negro's cabin.\n\n\nHere is a vivid description by Annemarie Ewing in _The Christian\nHerald_:\n\n\n How the Negroes Sing\n\n\"In the huge stadium, dropped like a bowl beneath the starlit sky,\nthousands of people sit waiting to hear the Hall Johnson Choir. Overhead\nthe sky is indigo, dotted with twinkling stars, glorious with the cool\nsilver of a full moon. A tender, capricious wind breathes softly over\nthe semicircle of the waiting crowd.\n\n\"Now they come--a handful of Negroes, perhaps a dozen men and a half\ndozen women. So small a group looks lost on the big platform. At a\nsignal from their leader they begin.\n\n 'Wade in de water, chillun,\n God's a'goin' to trouble de water...'\n\n\"Challenging as the voice of a delivered soul, the strong, clear bass\ngives out the words; others join in--a soprano acquiescence, a contralto\nsurge of content, the ecstatic agreement of the tenor. Joy throbs\nthrough the singers' throats, their cup of joy runneth over!\n\n 'See dat band all dressed in white,\n De leader looks like the Israelite...'\n\n\"How the leader draws them out--to send their message surging across the\nsummer night into the hearts of thousands!\n\n 'Wade in de water,\n God's a-goin' to trouble de water...'\n\n\"The last note swells and is still.\n\n\"In a moment they begin again. This time it is a joyous refrain, pulsing\nwith the firmness of blessed assurance--assurance that warms the heart\nand moistens the eyes.\n\n 'My God is so high you can't get above Him,\n My God is so low you can't get below Him,\n My God is so wide you can't get around Him,\n You must come in through de door...'\n\n\"Your soul thrills to the swinging certainty. Yes, He is so high, you\ncan't get above Him, so low you can't get below Him; so wide you can't\nget around Him! There is no way in but through the Gate!\n\n\"The music dies away, far above the stars gleam--detached, assured,\neternal. From your eyes, quite unashamed, you brush away the tears.\n\n\"Thus do they worship our Lord!\"\n\n\nIt was a memorable day in one man's life when\n\n\n Black Uncle's Song Made a Minister\n\nA well-known white minister in the Middle West owed his conversion and\nhis entrance into the ministry to an unexpected circumstance. He\nbelonged to a company that was playing in Louisville. After the\nperformance he left the theater at a late hour to take a turn around the\nstreets of the city. He passed through a little park and saw a bent old\nNegro \"uncle\" sitting on a bench. As he approached the actor heard him\nsinging softly to himself. And the song was \"Jesus, Lovah uv Mah Soul.\"\nThe tenderness and feeling of the darky's song and the clear tone of his\naged voice held the listener spellbound.\n\nWhen the last verse was sung the youthful actor went up to the singer\nand pulling out a big bill said: \"Uncle, you're an old man, and it's\nlate for you to be out like this. If you have no home, this will help\nyou a bit. Take it and go and be comfortable for a few days, anyway.\"\n\nThe Negro took off his hat and said, \"Dat's pow'ful kind uv you, boss.\nAh's ol', an' Ah ain't got no home, an' ef hit's jes' de same to you\nAh'll take jes' a bit uv dat money--'case somehow or udder de good Lawd\nhe sen's me a bit ev'y day. But Ah don't need any mo', 'case he allus\nloks arter me, ev'y day. An' hit don't matter, boss, ef an ol' man's\nol', an' ain't got no home, jes' so's he kin sing dat 'ere song uv mine.\nAh'd like to sing hit again to yo', jes' case you done gib me dis. Hit's\na wunnerful song, boss. Hit's called, 'Jesus, Lovah uv Mah Soul!'\"\n\nHe then sang it again softly. The actor heard him through and then\nshaking hands with the Negro, to his surprise, said, \"Good night, uncle.\nYou've done a good night's work with that song--better than ever I've\ndone with my life. Because you've started me doing something--for I'm\ngoing to learn to sing that song, too!\"\n\nThat was the beginning of an experience which resulted in a gifted man\nbecoming a minister of Christ.\n\n\nThe characteristic gratitude of the dark race was illustrated when\n\n\n A Negro Family Sang at John Brown's Funeral\n\n\"John Brown's Body Rests Amid the Mountains,\" wrote Mary Lee in _The New\nYork Times_, October, 1929, as she vividly told the story of the life of\nthis dramatic figure in a fascinating manner. At that time, she\naffirmed, there was still living at North Elba one man who could\nremember John Brown. His name was Lyman Epps, \"the son of one of those\nNegroes whom John Brown came to North Elba to help.\" This writer adds:\n\"The Epps family it was who sang as a quartet at John Brown's funeral in\n1859. Lyman Epps remembers it to this day--how he stood at the foot of\nthe open casket singing bass, his father at the head, singing tenor, and\nhis two sisters, Amelia and Evelyn, singing soprano and alto, at his\nside.\" The hymn they sang was John Brown's favorite:\n\n \"Blow ye the trumpet, blow!\n The gladly solemn sound\n Let all the nations know,\n To earth's remotest bound,\n The year of jubilee is come!\n Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n _Christmas and Easter Melodies_\n\n\nThese two great festivals of the Christian year fittingly celebrate the\nIncarnation and Resurrection of Christ. Just as hope came with the\nSaviour of the world, so hope was quickened when He won the signal\nvictory over death. He is indeed the unspeakable gift of God, and the\nspirit of gratitude for this marvelous blessing is best celebrated in\nsong.\n\nThe greatest hymns of the Church are inspired by these two events, which\nhave liberated the human spirit and filled it with faith, joy,\nenthusiasm, loyalty. All the greatest poets, artists, musicians, were\nilluminated by the Christmas and Easter messages, and excelled\nthemselves in setting forth the jubilant truths of redemption and\neternal life through Christ the Lord of love and light. These\nproductions have enriched the thought, excited the imagination and\nennobled the lives of multitudes through all the Christian centuries.\nThis they will continue to do to the end of time.\n\nThe fount of poetic and artistic inspiration still flows, and from time\nto time there are added new contributions to swell the jubilation of\nthese two seasons and to spread peace and goodwill among men.\n\n\nBishop F. W. Warne recalls\n\n\n An Incarnation Hymn that Fires the Imagination\n\n\"The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ for two thousand years, on the\nanniversary of the sinless Incarnation, has sung hymns of joy and\npraise. Here is a part of the hymn that, when a child, fired my heart\nand imagination, when I heard it sung on such anniversaries, and it\nfires them still:\n\n 'Mortals, awake, with angels join,\n And chant the solemn lay;\n Joy, love, and gratitude combine,\n To hail the auspicious day.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n Hail, Prince of Life, forever hail!\n Hail, Brother, Friend!\n Though earth, and time, and life shall fail,\n The praise shall never end.'\"\n\n\nCarols have invariably been sung on Christmas Eve, and the following\nincident from the Syracuse _Post Standard_ illustrates\n\n\n The Joy of Christmas\n\nAll members of the family were gathered in the cozy living room of a\nsouth side home. The lights were out, but the mellow glow from a cheery\nfireplace illuminated the room with the soft light which seems to\nsymbolize peace and quiet. Children romped on the floor; a playful puppy\nbounded here and there, yipping joyously; the old cat blinked sleepily\nand purred with contentment. Father was reading the paper and mother was\nperusing a magazine.\n\nIn the windows hung red bells, and through the window the snow lay white\nand sparkling under the street lamps. A playful wind whipped up little\nswirling flurries of snow at intervals. Suddenly it came, clear through\nthe night. Soft music, then a burst of song--\"It Came Upon the Midnight\nClear.\"\n\nAll within listened to the music in the night--Christmas music, carols.\nThen as it came nearer all rushed to the windows and saw a band of boys\nand men marching bravely by, blowing trumpets, horns--what not? The\nspirit of Christmas.\n\n\nCarols are also a part of the celebration on Christmas Day, and how they\ncheered the patients in a hospital is described when\n\n\n Nurses Sang Carols\n\nThe nurses enjoyed a breakfast served by candle light at 6:30 on\nChristmas morning at the Faxton Hospital in Utica, New York, and then\nexchanged greetings. After this, clad in their uniforms, including their\nblue capes, attractively red-lined, they formed in a procession and\nmarched from floor to floor of the building singing the familiar\nChristmas songs. Young mothers and their little babies, in the maternity\nbuilding, were not forgotten. The nurses marched from the main building\nin the cold morning and sang as they walked along the sidewalk until\nthey reached the maternity department, where they continued their\ncarols.\n\nThis self-appointed task conveyed pleasure beyond the power of words to\nexpress to the patients, some of whom were far away from loved ones. The\nact was one of those beautiful touches which unites the whole Christian\nworld in a kindred feeling on Christmas Day.\n\n\nThe thoughtful hospitality of the Maier family in the village of\nOberndorf, Germany, led one of the guests, the young priest Joseph Mohr,\nto write the well-known Christmas song,\n\n\n \"Silent Night\"\n\nAt this party a festival play was performed in view of the approaching\nChristmas. It so stirred the young priest that instead of returning home\nhe climbed the Totenberg, Mountain of the Dead, overlooking the village.\nHe stood there in quiet meditation. The silence of the night, the\nblinking of the stars, the murmur of the Salzach River, all inspired\nhim. Quickly he returned to his parish house and late that night the\nwords of \"Stille Nacht\" were written. The next day he hastened to his\norganist, Franz Gruber, and requested that he write the music for this\nsong. He composed the well-known tune. On Christmas Eve of 1818 the\npriest and organist were ready to offer their contribution for the first\ntime. The organ proved to be out of commission but Gruber was ingenious.\nHe hurried home and brought his guitar and to its accompaniment he and\nthe priest sang \"Stille Nacht\" as a duet. It touched the congregation\ndeeply and after the service the two friends, with tears of joy in their\neyes, embraced on the steps of the church in gratitude for this\nimpressive rendition. Since that evening the song has become one of the\nChristmas favorites all over the world.\n\n\nBishop Phillips Brooks was the friend of children as well as adults. His\npopularity as rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia was\nunbounded and it continued when he went to Trinity Church, Boston. It\nwas during a year's vacation that he had an experience which later\nresulted in his writing the well-known hymn,\n\n\n \"O Little Town of Bethlehem\"\n\nIn the course of his travels during this vacation he went to the Holy\nLand. On Christmas Eve he was in Bethlehem. He walked in the fields\nwhere the shepherds had heard the angelic chorus. He listened to the\nhymns of praise that kept ringing out upon the clear air. He saw the\nchildren of Bethlehem getting ready for Christmas. Two years later when\nhe was back home his mind went back to his experiences in Bethlehem. He\nrecalled the dark streets, the clear blue sky with stars, the quiet\nshepherds' fields; and under the spell of these memories, in 1868, he\nwrote this Christmas hymn especially for the children of his Sunday\nSchool. His organist, Lewis H. Render, wrote the music for this much\nbeloved song.\n\n\nThis graphic description by Annemarie Ewing in _The Christian Herald_\ntells of\n\n\n Carols Sung by Children\n\n\"I can't think of any holier sound for Christmas Eve than that of young\nvoices, clear and sweet in the cold, singing the simple, tuneful\nmelodies that can't grow old. Last year it was my pleasure and privilege\nto know a small group of youngsters who wanted to go caroling Christmas\nEve. They didn't mind the cold or the long walk or the wind and snow.\nThey wanted to sing!\n\n\"I can see those bobbing little heads now, all sizes and shapes--from\nRose Marie's tall, smartly hatted elegance to Babe's roly-poly woolen\ncap, just under my arm. How eager they were, and what stories I had to\ntell them to keep them quiet till we got to each place! We planned to\nsing under the windows of all our special friends.\n\n\"And how we did sing! I do not know whether it was sweeter to stand\nthere holding my hand before Babe's candle while her big blue eyes were\nlifted up to see the book (she had to stand on her very tip-toes!), or\nwhether it would have been more exquisite pleasure to have been sitting\nin my warm living-room, when the shrilly sweet voices of the children\nbegan with their own enthusiasm:\n\n 'Joy to the world! the Lord is come;\n Let earth receive her King!\n Let every heart prepare Him room,\n And Heav'n and Nature sing.\n And Heav'n and Nature sing,\n And Heav'n and Heav'n and Nature sing.'\n\n\"I know that there were tears in my own eyes when we reached 'Silent\nNight,' and that from the tight closed window of old Mr. Simmons,\ncrotchety and bad-tempered, there fell a shower of walnuts and pecans!\nIn the big house across the way where a little child lay ill the windows\nwere softly raised, and I could not help but stoop and kiss chubby Babe,\nwho pulled my arm to whisper that 'she hoped Margaret-who-was-sick\nheard.'\n\n\"Christmas Carols! Whether they are sung aloud or whether they buzz and\nchime through your heart--it is the same. Let them ring out!\"\n\n\nOne of the well-known celebrations is that on\n\n\n Easter Morning in America's Bethlehem\n\nThe Moravians celebrate Easter with impressive ceremonies in Bethlehem,\nPennsylvania. Early in the morning the trombonists walk through the\nquiet streets of the city and awaken the people with their inspiring\nanthem. Soon lights appear in the windows of the homes and the people\njoin the procession towards the old church, greeting each other with\ngladsome salutations. The Easter service in the church continues till\nsunrise when the congregation march out, led by the trombonists, to the\nancient burying-ground.\n\nAt this place of sacred memories the people stand in a large semicircle\nlooking towards the eastern hill, as a symbol of their devout faith. The\nministers and trombone choir stand apart, and the service proceeds with\nsong and responsive readings. The atmosphere of reverence and hope\npervades this company on the chilly morning of early spring, as they\nconfess their faith in the glorious resurrection and celebrate the\ntriumph of their loved ones in Christ. The appearance of the sun over\nthe hill is the signal for the outburst of a hymn of adoration and\npraise, to the accompaniment of the trombones. This Easter service,\nbegun in the church and concluded in the cemetery, is a memorable\noccasion, attended by thousands from all parts of the country, as has\nbeen done for many years. It is a testimony to a virile and victorious\nChristianity which sings, \"Christ the Lord is risen today, Hallelujah!\"\n\n\nHere is a fine Easter anthology from a sermon by Dr. George Elliott in\n_The Methodist Review_, which reminds us of what\n\n\n Hymn Writers Tell of Heaven\n\n\"Listen to Cardinal Newman, the Roman Catholic, as in the delicately\nbeautiful poem, 'Lead, Kindly Light,' he dreams and speaks about the\ntime when:\n\n 'The night is gone\n And in the morn those angel faces smile\n Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.'\n\n\"And then Isaac Watts, the Nonconformist, has no gloomy view when he\nsays:\n\n 'Give me the wings of faith to rise\n Within the veil and see\n The saints above, how great their joys,\n How bright their glories be.'\n\n\"And John Fawcett, the Baptist, who has written the very finest hymn of\nChristian fellowship, 'Blest Be the Tie That Binds,' sings for us:\n\n 'When we asunder part,\n It gives us inward pain;\n But we shall still be joined in heart,\n And hope to meet again.\n\n From sorrow, toil and pain,\n And sin we shall be free;\n And perfect love and friendship reign\n Through all eternity.'\n\n\"And Muhlenberg, the Episcopalian, joins in the chorus that the\npoet-choir are singing, and lifts his gaze to that heavenly country, and\nexultantly sings:\n\n 'Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet,\n Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet;\n While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll,\n And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul.'\n\n\"And Bonar, the Presbyterian, will not be left behind as he sings of the\nland\n\n 'Where none shall beckon us away,\n Nor bid our festival be done;\n Our meeting time the eternal day,\n Our meeting place the eternal throne.\n\n Then, hand in hand, firm linked at last,\n And heart to heart enfolded all,\n We'll smile upon the troubled past\n And wonder why we wept at all.'\n\n\"And best of all, Charles Wesley, who doubtless has been appointed to\nlead the choirs of heaven when the angel chorister is tired, sings for\nus, and with us:\n\n 'Come, let us join our friends above\n That have obtained the prize,\n And on the eagle wings of love\n To joys celestial rise:\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n One family we dwell in Him,\n One church, above, beneath,\n Though now divided by the stream,\n The narrow stream, of death:\n One army of the living God,\n To His command we bow;\n Part of His host have crossed the flood,\n And part are crossing now.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n O that we now might grasp our Guide!\n O that the word were given!\n Come, Lord of hosts, the waves divide,\n And land us all in heaven!'\"\n\n\nIt was a great open-air service when we were favored with\n\n\n Salvation Army Music on Easter Morning\n\nBrooklyn's Easter Dawn Service in 1930 found ten thousand people\nassembled at Prospect Park Plaza for a community gathering under the\nauspices of the Brooklyn Federation of Churches. The first in the order\nof worship was a selection by the Salvation Army Band.\n\n \"Low in the grave He lay--\n Jesus, my Saviour!\n Waiting the coming day--\n Jesus, my Lord!\n\n Up from the grave He arose,\n With a mighty triumph o'er His foes;\n He arose a victor from the dark domain,\n And He lives forever with His saints to reign:\n He arose! He arose!\n Hallelujah! Christ arose!\"\n\nIt was so appealingly appropriate that every listener seemed to be\ntouched, and men quietly lifted their hats even though the morning was\ncool.\n\nThe band led the various hymns, the closing one of which was--\n\n \"All hail the power of Jesus' name!\n Let angels prostrate fall;\n Bring forth the royal diadem,\n And crown Him Lord of all.\"\n\nWhat proved to be the climax of this exhilarating service was reached\nwhen the Salvation Army band left the scene playing their favorite\nmarching song of conquest, \"Onward, Christian Soldiers!\"\n\n\nHow the good we do comes back to us is seen in a familiar hymn,\n\n\n Sung by and for Sankey\n\nWhen lying in weakness and the darkness of blindness the musical genius\nof the evangelistic world, Ira D. Sankey, was visited by Dr. F. B.\nMeyer, of London, a long-time friend. \"Would you like me to sing\nsomething for you?\" asked Sankey as Meyer was about to leave. Then he\nbegan: \"There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes.\"\n\nThough weak, he continued through all four stanzas, ending with\n\n \"There'll be songs of greeting when Jesus comes,\n There'll be songs of greeting when Jesus comes;\n And a joyful meeting when Jesus comes\n To gather His loved ones home.\"\n\nOn an Easter morning a group of young people went to the home of Sankey\nin Brooklyn, when he was in his last illness, and outside the window\namid the morning sunshine sang the hymn which he had sung to thousands\nof others, and which he greatly cherished: \"There'll Be No Dark Valley\nWhen Jesus Comes.\"\n\nThe thoughtfulness of these young people was greatly appreciated by the\ngreat evangelistic singer. It was an inspiringly appropriate message for\na sunrise song service on an Easter morning.[29]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n _Funeral Music_\n\n\nThe Christian assurance of immortality brings its message of consolation\nmost appropriately in life's darkest hours when death invades the family\ncircle. No one has pierced the veil between the present and the future\nlife, but there is a sense of the fitness of things which has convinced\nmen of divers creeds that a life beyond is a reality. It is the desire\nfor completion and not merely for continuance which quickens in our\nbreast the hope of life everlasting. It is moreover certified to us by\nthe fact of the living Christ through whom we commune with God. This\nexperience convinces us that our earthly pilgrimage is the prelude to\nthe heavenly life of spiritual attainment and satisfaction.\n\nThus when the physical remains of our loved ones are consigned to the\nearth, we have the assured confidence of a reunion in the land that is\nfairer than day. Since Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to\nlight through the Gospel, we know that death does not sever the ties\nwhich bind us to those who have crossed the flood. We shall meet again\nwhen the day dawns and these shadows flee away. This is the outlook of\nfaith which comforts and cheers us.\n\n \"For what e'er befalls, Love conquers all,\n And Death shall not prevail.\"\n\n\nThe thought deepest in the soul often finds expression at a crisis. This\nfact is what led to the\n\n\n Hymn of Martyred President Sung by the Nation\n\n\"Good-bye, good-bye, all,\" said President William McKinley as he lay\ndying in Buffalo, a few days after he was shot on September 6, 1901. \"It\nis God's way. His will, not ours, be done,\" he added soon afterwards.\nToward the end in the presence of his wife and intimate friends, his\nlips moved again and with a light on his worn face, his inner soul\nexpressed itself in the lines of his favorite hymn:\n\n \"Nearer, my God, to Thee,\n Nearer to Thee!\n E'en though it be a cross--\"\n\nA moment of silence followed and then in a whisper he said, \"That has\nbeen my inextinguishable prayer.\"\n\nThe funeral services at the Capitol began with \"Lead, Kindly Light,\"\nsung by the choir, and concluded with \"Nearer, My God, to Thee.\" The\nfinal service was held in the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Canton,\nOhio, of which he was a member.\n\nDuring those days of sadness the nation sang this familiar hymn which\nprofoundly moved the popular heart. Possibly in all the history of the\nUnited States, the nation has never so unitedly joined in singing a\nparticular hymn as during those days. It was a national tribute to a\nfallen leader.\n\nIn the City of Utica, New York, the home of Vice-President James S.\nSherman, as soon as word was received of his death, October 30, 1912,\nthe leader of the orchestra in the chief hotel asked the company in the\ndining room to stand, while \"Nearer, My God, to Thee\" was played. Thus\nthe song which was sung for a fallen President was likewise rendered in\nhis home town when a Vice-President passed thence.\n\n\nIt is a hallowed custom to sing a person's favorite hymn at his funeral.\nThus it was that there was sung at his funeral,\n\n\n President Wilson's Favorite Hymn\n\nVisitors at the Chautauqua Assembly, especially in the days of its\nfounder, Bishop J. H. Vincent, can never forget the Sunday evening\nvesper services. One hymn in particular was always sung: \"Day is Dying\nin the West,\" written by Mary A. Lathbury, at Bishop Vincent's request.\n\nThis happened to be President Wilson's favorite hymn. His remains were\ncarried to Bethlehem Chapel on the cathedral grounds in Washington, D.\nC. Over the outer door of this chapel the inscription in the stone work\nis \"The Way of Peace.\" During the service the men's voices of the choir\nled by a clear tenor gave the favorite hymn an infinitely sweet appeal,\nespecially the lines:\n\n \"Gather us who seek Thy face\n To the fold of Thy embrace,\n For Thou art nigh.\"\n\n\nIt has been well said that some tunes and hymns are so closely united\nthat one recalls the other. Thus it was that\n\n\n Bells Played Hymns When Taft Was Buried\n\nThe service was held in the quaint little Unitarian Church in\nWashington, D. C. Floral wreaths and sprays abounded, representing the\ndeep affection and high respect for a former President of the United\nStates and later the Chief Justice. The dirge notes of Chopin's Funeral\nMarch, a flourish of trumpets saluting a President, and the tolling of\nthe great bell of All Souls' Church, as has been the practice since 1822\nat the passing of Presidents, constituted parts of this impressive\nservice. No hymns were sung but there was the soft music of the bells\nwhich pealed forth the strains of \"Abide With Me.\" The words were not\nspoken but the familiar verses ran through the minds of the\ncongregation:\n\n \"Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide,\n The darkness deepens--Lord, with me abide!\n When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,\n Help of the helpless, O, abide with me.\"\n\n\nFew hymns have had so many remarkable associations as, \"Peace, Perfect\nPeace,\" written by Bishop Edward H. Bickersteth. It has brought comfort\nto many and on one occasion, as stated below, the author himself was\n\n\n Comforted by His Own Hymn\n\nAn informed contributor to _The Churchman_ writes as follows of this\nhymn's vogue: \"It has been sung at the obsequies of princes and\nstatesmen as well as at the funerals of the poor. It has afforded\nconsolation to the mourner in the palace as well as to the\ngrief-stricken peasant in the cottage. It was a favorite hymn with the\ngood old Queen of England, and it was sung in her death chamber at\nOsborne. It has sustained the lonely soul of Bishop Hannington when he\nwas a caged prisoner in Central Africa awaiting execution from the hand\nof a heathen king. They were the sweet stanzas that bound up the broken\nheart of General Roberts when his only son was placed in a soldier's\ngrave in South Africa. It has been sung at the interment of authors,\nactors and statesmen in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's. When in the\ncemetery of the village of Chislebon, Wiltshire, England, the early\nharvest was being gathered and shepherds were folding their flocks, the\nvenerable prelate stood at the head of his eldest son's open grave as\nthis hymn, so often quoted in the hour of death and sung on the day of\nburial, struck a note of Christian hope to the bereaved spirit of its\nauthor. On this side of the Atlantic the hymn is sung at almost every\nfuneral service conducted in church, and Mr. Coldbeck's appropriate\ntune, 'Pax Tecum,' is singularly adapted to its soothing and inspiring\nstrains.\"\n\n\n\"A good hymn is the most difficult thing to write,\" said Alfred, Lord\nTennyson. It was not until his eighty-first year that he succeeded in\nwriting his single great hymn, \"Crossing the Bar,\" although stanzas from\nhis _In Memoriam_ are sung as hymns. It was, therefore, most fitting\nthat its first public use was as an anthem at the poet's funeral in\nWestminster Abbey on October 12, 1892. The description of the scene,\nwritten by the daughter of the Dean of Westminster, is here quoted in\npart of the singing of\n\n\n Tennyson's Hymn at His Funeral\n\n\"In the intense and solemn silence which followed the reading of the\nlesson were heard the voices of the choir singing in subdued and tender\ntones Tennyson's 'Crossing the Bar'--those beautiful words in which the\npoet, as it were, prophetically foretold his calm and peaceful deathbed.\nIn the second line the clear, thrilling notes of a boy's voice sounded\nlike a silver trumpet call amongst the arches, and it was only at\nintervals that one distinguished Dr. Bridge's beautiful organ\naccompaniment, which swelled gradually from a subdued murmur as of the\nmorning tide into a triumphant burst from the voices, so blended\ntogether were words and music.\"\n\nOne of the best hymns of fervent devotion is\n\n \"Take my life, and let it be\n Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.\"\n\n\nIllness and suffering had been the lot of its author. She worked under\ndifficulties and might well have said with the Apostle Paul, \"Most\ngladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power\nof Christ may rest upon me.\" Her characteristic confidence was, however,\nexpressed in the\n\n\n Text Selected by Miss Havergal for Her Tombstone\n\nHer last days found her at Caswell Bay, Swansea, Wales, where she had\ngone for a rest. When informed that she was approaching the end of her\nsufferings, she is said to have answered, \"If I am going, it is too good\nto be true.\" Death came on June 3, 1879, in the forty-third year of her\nage; and she was laid to rest in the Astley churchyard beside her\nfather, and close to the church and home of her childhood. By her own\ndesire her favorite text was carved on her tombstone: \"The Blood of\nJesus Christ His Son Cleanseth Us From All Sin.\"\n\n\nIt was an unusual scene, according to _The Standard_, that comforted the\nbereaved mother as well as the few persons present\n\n\n When Parepa Sang at Annie's Funeral\n\nThis famous singer, through a friend, attended the funeral of Annie, the\nonly daughter of a poor widowed mother, in the East End of London. This\nfriend's description is worth quoting:\n\n\"The undertaker came and bustled about. He looked at myself and Parepa,\nas if to say, 'It's time to go. The wretched funeral service is over.'\n\n\"Without a word, Parepa rose and walked to the head of the coffin. She\nlaid her white scarf on an empty chair, threw her cloak back from her\nshoulders, where it fell in long, soft, black lines from her noble\nfigure like the drapery of mourning. She laid her soft, fair hand on the\ncold forehead, passed it tenderly over the wasted, delicate face, looked\ndown at the dead girl a moment, and moved my flowers from the stained\nbox to the thin fingers, then lifted up her head, and, with illumined\neyes, sang the glorious melody:\n\n \"'Angels ever bright and fair,\n Take, oh, take me to thy care.'\n\n\"Her magnificent voice rose and fell in all its richness and power and\npity and beauty. She looked above the dingy room and the tired faces of\nthe men and women, the hard hands and the struggling hearts. She threw\nback her head and sang till the choirs of paradise must have paused to\nlisten to the music of that day. She passed her hand caressingly over\nthe girl's soft, dark hair, sang on and on; 'Take, oh, _take her_ to Thy\ncare.'\n\n\"The mother's face grew rapt and white. I held her hands and watched her\neyes. Suddenly she threw my hands off and knelt at Parepa's feet, close\nto the wooden trestles. She locked her fingers together, tears and sobs\nbreaking forth. She prayed aloud that God would bless the angel singing\nfor Annie. A patient smile settled about her lips, and the light came\nback into her poor, dulled eyes, and she kissed her daughter's face with\na love beyond all interpretation of human speech. I led her back to her\nseat as the last glorious notes of Parepa's voice rose triumphant over\nall earthly pain and sorrow.\n\n\"And I thought that no queen ever went to her grave with a greater\nceremony than this young daughter of poverty and toil, committed to the\ncare of angels.\"\n\n\nAn unusual funeral service was held when, instead of the family sitting\nin silence,\n\n\n Each Member of the Family Sang a Verse\n\nThe description must be quoted in full as it appeared in _The Christian\nAdvocate_:\n\n\"When I was in Rome a friend came to me asking if I would be a\npallbearer at the funeral of a young American girl. Her family wished\nonly Americans present at the little service. I went to the room where\nthe casket stood and presently the family entered--a noble lady,\nevidently the mother, a daughter and two sons, the eldest leading a\nlittle girl. They surrounded the casket and softly repeated the\nApostles' Creed. Then the mother's voice, uncertain and trembling,\nbegan:\n\n \"'Shall we gather at the river\n Where bright angel feet have trod,\n With its crystal tide forever\n Flowing by the throne of God?'\n\n\"All joined her in the chorus. Then the eldest son, a grown man, sang:\n\n 'On the margin of the river,\n Washing up its silver spray,\n We will walk and worship ever,\n All the happy golden day.'\n\n\"After the chorus there was silence--a choking silence that benumbed me.\nThen my friend whispered, 'It is their family prayer service and it is\nher verse.' Then the little girl was lifted in her father's arms, and\nsweet and clear and wonderingly came:\n\n 'Ere we reach the shining river\n Lay we every burden down,\n Grace our spirits will deliver\n And provide a robe and crown.'\n\n\"I do not know how I endured it, the emotion of that moment. In a broken\nmanner they sobbed through the chorus and then the younger brother, a\nlad of fourteen, sang:\n\n 'At the smiling of the river,\n Mirror of the Saviour's face\n Saints whom death will never sever\n Lift their songs of saving grace.'\n\n\"His voice was so confident that it steadied all present and the chorus\nrang out clearly. Then all together they sang:\n\n 'Soon we'll reach the silver river,\n Soon our pilgrimage will cease,\n Soon our happy hearts will quiver\n With the melody of peace.'\n\n\"And the chorus was strong, clear and almost exultant. After repeating\nthe Lord's Prayer, the minister read the service and we went to the\ngrave. On the way my friend told me of the many times he had been\npresent at this same little family service in the Michigan home when\neach sang his verse in the old hymn. 'The last verse was father's, and\nafter his death they all sang it for him, and now the little\ngranddaughter had picked up the broken thread of song for her sweet\nyoung auntie.'\n\n'What a wonderful glorification of a poor little hymn!'\n\n\"'Truly so,' he agreed. 'I never before had much respect for that\npiece.'\"\n\n\nThe faith and loyalty of a noble Christian were remembered when his\ndaughter\n\n\n Played Her Father's Favorite Hymn at a Memorial Service\n\nThis service conducted by the North Dakota Conference of the Methodist\nEpiscopal Church for Judge Charles S. Pollock was impressively\nbeautiful. Held for a layman, it yet followed the ordination of young\nmen for the ministry. Judge Pollock, a faithful follower of Jesus Christ\nand a courageous advocate of civic righteousness, had dutifully carried\nheavy responsibilities at the session of the General Conference in May,\n1928, and not long thereafter was summoned into the courts of heaven. On\nthat autumn day at this service the judge's daughter played on the organ\nher father's favorite hymn:\n\n \"O Master, let me walk with Thee\n In lowly paths of service free;\n Tell me Thy secret; help me bear\n The strain of toil, the fret of care.\n\n . . . . . . . . .\n\n In hope that sends a shining ray\n Far down the future's broadening way;\n In peace that only Thou canst give,\n With Thee, O Master, let me live.\"\n\n\nThe assurance of reunion was well advertised by\n\n\n Songs at a Missionary's Grave\n\nThe great missionary, James Gilmour, of Mongolia, lost his beloved wife\nat Peking. In a letter to his children's uncle in Scotland, to whom Mr.\nGilmour had decided to entrust the two boys after their mother's death,\nhe wrote: \"Oh, it is hard to think of them going off over the world in\nthat motherless fashion! We were at mamma's grave yesterday for the\nfirst time since September 21. We sang 'There's a Land That Is Fairer\nThan Day,' in Chinese, and also a Chinese hymn we have here with a\nchorus, which says, 'We'll soon go and see them in our heavenly home,'\nand in English, 'There is a happy land.' The children and I have no\nreluctance in speaking of mamma, and we don't think of her as here or\nburied, but as in a fine place, happy and well.\"\n\n\nAs the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse approached the end of his great career as\nminister and author he said to a brother minister concerning his funeral\nservice: \"There must be no mourning, no tears, no misery, no gloom. I go\nnot into the gloom but into the dawn. Start the service with 'Praise\nGod.' Take all the stops out of the organ and let everybody thunder it\nout.\" Thus it was that there were sung the\n\n\n Hallelujah Chorus and Doxology at the Funeral Service\n\nHis wishes were met, and the memorial service at Kingsway Hall, the\nheadquarters of the West London Mission, was unusual. The organist\nplayed \"I Know That My Redeemer Liveth\" as the people assembled. Then\ncame, \"Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow.\" The triumphant\n\"Hallelujah Chorus\" pealed forth at the close.\n\nThe hymns were:\n\n \"Come let us join our cheerful songs\n With angels around the throne.\"\n\n \"Nearer, my God, to Thee,\n Nearer to Thee.\"\n\n \"For all the saints, who from their labors rest,\n Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,\n Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.\n Hallelujah, Hallelujah!\"\n\n \"Jerusalem the golden,\n With milk and honey blest.\"\n\nThe last lines of the fourth hymn were a powerful wish which the saint\nhad realized:\n\n \"Jesus, in mercy bring us\n To that dear land of rest;\n Who art, with God the Father,\n And Spirit, ever blest.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV\n _Hymns on Patriotic Occasions_\n\n\nThe impelling motives of patriotism are best expressed in the national\nanthems of the nations and in songs which breathe the spirit of loyalty\nto country. Devotion to the ideals and institutions of the land of one's\nbirth or adoption is the indispensable qualification for the intelligent\nappreciation of what other peoples hold sacred among their national\npossessions. Such patriotism is neither of the hoot owl or spread eagle\ntype. It faces all the facts without evasion and frankly acknowledges\nerrors and omissions, with the determination to improve conditions. The\npatriot thus has no occasion to apologize or defend because he shows\nreason for his faith in the nation to which he has consecrated his best\npowers.\n\nThe greatness of any nation is evidenced in the quality of its\ncitizenship. So judged, we have cause for gratitude because the hymns\nwhich voice our sentiment impressively advertise the idealism which has\ninspired our activities. The same test can be satisfactorily met by\nother nations. It is, therefore, quite fitting that reference should be\nmade to their use of hymns on those special occasions when the heart is\nstirred with gratitude and thanksgiving.\n\nIndeed, the incidents related in this volume are taken from the annals\nof different nations. The chief interest is their testimony from\nexperience to what hymns have meant to them in the varied crises of\nlife. Such a consideration disregards racial barriers and denominational\ndifferences. Hymns speak the universal language of the heart, which\npenetrates deeper and travels farther than the formalities of customs\npeculiar to various peoples.\n\nIn these days of international appreciation and co-operation it is well\nto remind ourselves that the higher unity of all peoples is practicable\nonly through Jesus Christ. There is truly no stronger reminder than\nhymns of the unity of faith, the stability of hope, the harmony of love.\n\n \"For all are one in Thee\n And all are Thine.\"\n\n\nSince it was first published on July 4, 1895, in _The\nCongregationalist_,[30] multitudes of people have sung\n\n\n America, the Beautiful\n\nOne hundred thousand persons, it has been estimated, each day sing the\npatriotic poem of Miss Katherine Lee Bates, who was a teacher of English\nliterature in Wellesley College. Some schools make it a practice to have\nthe children sing it daily. At the commencement of Syracuse University\nin 1930, a strange thrill swept the company of over one thousand young\nmen and women who were assembled to receive their degrees, and the four\nthousand persons who were present to witness the graduation exercises,\nas they sang this hymn. Mighty was the volume of song as the words were\nreached:\n\n \"America! America!\n God shed His grace on thee,\n And crown thy good with brotherhood\n From sea to shining sea.\"\n\nThe source of the inspiration of this poem was related by Beatrice York\nHoughton. In an interview Miss Bates said that she and some friends had\ngone up Pike's Peak and the vision from that great height exalted her\nsoul into poetic fervor. The wide reaches of country--her country--the\ndizzy height which set her above it all, gave her a god-like\ninspiration, and the lines which came into her mind were remembered,\nafterwards to be set down.\n\n\nThe origin of a nation's life was strikingly evidenced in\n\n\n A Praise Service\n\nSt. Paul's Cathedral, London, is \"the Parish Church of the British\nEmpire.\" When the repairs were completed after seventeen years in 1930,\na memorable thanksgiving service was held under the renovated dome which\nwas Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. This famous architect was the\nson of a clergyman and such was his consuming devotion to his work that\nhe could have said with Michael Angelo: \"It is enough to have bread and\nto live in the faith of Christ.\"\n\nThe Thanksgiving service was attended by one hundred and sixty bishops\nof the Anglican Church, assembled from all parts of the Empire. It was\nbroadcast to New York, Melbourne, Calcutta, Toronto and other cities.\nDean Inge, of St. Paul's, standing on the chancel steps, exhorted\neveryone to \"give praise to God that he hath called us to take part in\nthe joy and adventure of his glorious Kingdom.\" The feelings of the\noccasion were voiced by seven thousand people through Henry Lyte's hymn:\n\n \"Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven!\n To His feet thy tribute bring;\n Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,\n Who, like me, His Praise should sing?\n Praise Him! praise Him! praise Him! praise Him!\n Praise the Everlasting King!\"\n\n\nIn _The War Romance of the Salvation Army_, by Hill and Booth,[31] there\nis a reference to what was\n\n\n Sung on Memorial Day in France\n\n\"The girls went down to decorate the two hundred American graves at\nMandres, and even while they bent over the flaming blossoms and laid\nthem on the mounds, an air battle was going on over their heads. Close\nat hand was the American artillery being moved to the front on a little\nnarrow-gauge railroad that ran near to the graveyard, and the Germans\nwere firing and trying to get them. But the girls went steadily on with\ntheir work, scattering flowers and setting flags until their service of\nlove was over. Then they stood aside for the prayer and a song. One of\nthe Salvation Army captains with a fine voice began to sing:\n\n 'For loved ones in the Homeland\n Are waiting me to come\n Where neither death nor sorrow\n Invades their holy home:\n O dear, dear native country!\n O rest and peace above!\n Christ, bring us all to the Homeland\n Of His eternal love.'\n\n\"Into the midst of the song came the engine on the little narrow track\nstraight toward where he stood, and he had to step aside on to a pile of\ndirt to finish his song. The same captain went on ahead to the Homeland\nnot long after when the epidemic of influenza swept over the world; and\nhe was given the honor of a military funeral.\"\n\n\nEdward Marshall had an article in _Scribner's Magazine_ in 1898 which is\nhere abbreviated, about the unique conditions under which the boys sang\n\n\n \"America\" After the Battle\n\n\"There is one incident of the day which shines out in my memory above\nall others now as I lie in a New York hospital writing. It occurred at\nthe field hospital. About a dozen of us were lying there. The surgeons,\nwith hands and bared arms dripping, and clothes literally saturated with\nblood, were straining every nerve to prepare the wounded for the journey\ndown to Siboney. It was a doleful group. Amputation and death stared its\nmembers in their gloomy faces. Suddenly a voice started softly,\n\n 'My country, 'tis of thee,\n Sweet land of liberty,\n Of thee I sing.'\n\n\"Other voices took it up:\n\n 'Land where my fathers died,\n Land of the pilgrims' pride--'\n\n\"The quivering, quavering chorus, punctuated by groans and made\nspasmodic by pain, trembled up from that little group of wounded\nAmericans in the midst of the Cuban solitude--the pluckiest, most\nheartfelt song that human beings ever sang. There was one voice that did\nnot quite keep up with the others. It was so weak that I did not hear it\nuntil all the rest had finished with the line, 'Let freedom ring.' Then\nhalting, struggling, faint, it repeated slowly:\n\n 'Land--of--the--pilgrims'--pride,\n Let--freedom--'\n\n\"The last word was a woeful cry. One more son had died as died the\nfathers.\"\n\n\nUnder different circumstances but in the same spirit of loyalty the tune\nof \"America\" was played in France as \"our boys\" promptly obeyed the\norder,\n\n\n \"Salute America!\"\n\nExercises were held on Memorial Day at Menil-la-Tour when the World War\nwas raging in France. Two regimental bands took up their positions in\nopposite corners of the cemetery. The commanding general placed a flag\non each of the eighty-one graves. He and the soldiers then saluted the\nlarge flag, while battle was still being waged about a mile away.\n\nThe general then faced the west, and pointed in that direction as he\naddressed the soldiers. He said: \"Out there are Washington and the\nPresident, and all the people of the United States, who are looking to\nyou.... Over there are the mothers who bade you good-bye with tears and\nsent you forth, and are waiting at home and praying for you, trusting in\nyou. Out there are the fathers and the sisters and the sweethearts you\nhave left behind, all depending on you to do your best. Now,\" said he in\na clear ringing voice, \"turn and salute America!\" All turned and saluted\ntoward the west, while the flags fluttered on the breeze and the band\nplayed softly,\n\n \"My country, 'tis of thee,\n Sweet land of liberty,\n Of thee I sing:\n Land where my fathers died,\n Land of the pilgrims' pride,\n From every mountain side\n Let freedom ring.\"\n\n\nA distinction with a difference was clearly evidenced when Britishers\nsang a German's hymn,\n\n\n \"Now Thank We All Our God\"\n\nI quote from _The Christian Advocate_:\n\n\"At the dedication of the British War memorial at the Menin Gate of\nYpres, where its arch spans the main street, three great hymns were\nsung: 'O God, Our Help in Ages Past,' by Isaac Watts; 'For All the\nSaints Who From Their Labors Rest,' by Bishop How, and 'Now Thank We All\nOur God,' which is a translation by Catherine Winkworth from the German\nof Martin Rinkart! Time heals wounds. Who would have believed it, had he\nbeen told soon after the Armistice that this hymn--noble and beautiful\nas it is--would be selected and sung by British soldiers at the\ndedication of a monument erected to the memory of those who fell in a\nwar against Germans? Yet no one raised a word of protest or remarked\nupon any incongruity, for the instincts of the human heart are deeper\nthan the traditional and conventional differences which separate\nnations.\"\n\n\n_The New York Times_ for August 18, 1929, had an article, \"Georgia Lower\nHouse Opens Day with Song.\"[32] It is interesting to note this reference\nto\n\n\n A Singing Legislature\n\n\"The Rev. W. D. Hammack, 'Uncle Billie,' has been the chaplain of the\nLower House for several years. He is a great believer in the power of\nsong. He likes to 'raise a tune,' and he doesn't care whether the\nGovernor of Georgia and the Legislature are at loggerheads or at peace;\nhe thinks a legislator should be made to sing whether he can sing or\nnot. So every morning for ten minutes he lines up the early arrivals\njust before the House opens for the day and starts on some of the\nold-time religious vocal numbers.\n\n\"Richard Russell Jr., Speaker of the House, gives Mr. Hammack carte\nblanche to lead his flock of lawmakers just as far in the harmony line\nas he can, and 'Uncle Billie' has made good. He pitches the tune every\nmorning and the House sings. Sometimes it is 'Jesus, Lover of My Soul'\nand the next morning it is 'Nearer, My God, to Thee.' Another favorite\nis 'All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name.' Once or twice they have tackled\n'Gimme the Old-Time Religion' with much success.\n\n\"Many years ago a philosopher said, 'Let me but write the songs of a\nnation and I care not who makes its laws.' And the Rev. Mr. Hammack,\nalthough he had written none of them, has done a lot with his songs\nduring the dog days of the legislative session. Georgia has probably the\nonly singing legislature in captivity.\"\n\n\nNo better song could have expressed the feelings of our nation, and so\nit was that we sang\n\n\n The Doxology on Armistice Day\n\nNew York City, in common with other parts of the United States, was wild\nwith excitement on Armistice Day, 1918. The fighting was over, and men,\nwomen and children gave expression to their happiness in various ways.\nCity, village and hamlet alike had some kind of wild demonstration.\nSeeing the excited crowd, a young woman, an officer of the Salvation\nArmy, as reported in the newspapers at that time, stood on the steps of\nthe great Public Library in New York and began to sing the old Doxology.\nInstantly the crowd took up the strain, and in a moment, as though by\nmagic, thousands of voices blended in the noble words of thanksgiving:\n\n \"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;\n Praise Him all creatures here below;\n Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;\n Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\"\n\nMen reverently removed their hats, and the eyes of women filled with\ntears. The words of Thomas Ken that day expressed the gratitude of a\ngreat multitude. Among the many things done through that entire day,\nperhaps there was none more appropriate or beautiful than that which the\nSalvation Army lassie did.\n\nAnd with this reference to the Doxology we conclude our story of the\ninfluence of hymns in the experience of \"all peoples that on earth do\ndwell.\"\n\n\n\n\n FOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1]Published by the J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.\n\n[2]Published by The Dial Press, New York.\n\n[3]Tate and Brady.\n\n[4]Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.\n\n[5]Used by permission of John A. Davis.\n\n[6]Published by the Methodist Book Concern, New York. Used by\n permission.\n\n[7]Used by permission of the author.\n\n[8]Published by The Century Company, New York. Used by permission.\n\n[9]Used by permission of The Methodist Book Concern, New York.\n\n[10]Published by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, Pa. Used by\n permission.\n\n[11]Used by permission of The Rodeheaver Company, Chicago.\n\n[12]Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Used by permission.\n\n[13]From _The Ladies' Home Journal_, Philadelphia.\n\n[14]Used by permission of J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.\n\n[15]Used by permission of Hope Publishing Company, Chicago.\n\n[16]From _My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns_, by Ira D. Sankey.\n Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.\n\n[17]By Mrs. Frank A. Breck. Used by permission of Grant Colfax Tullar,\n New York.\n\n[18]Used by permission of John A. Davis.\n\n[19]Published by Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. Used by\n permission.\n\n[20]Used by permission of The Hope Publishing Company, Chicago.\n\n[21]From _All's Well_, published by Doubleday, Doran and Company, New\n York. Used by permission.\n\n[22]From _The Christian Herald_, New York.\n\n[23]Used by permission of The Fleming H. Revell Company, New York.\n\n[24]This incident is found in _Hall Young of Alaska_, published by The\n Fleming H. Revell Company, New York.\n\n[25]With permission of J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.\n\n[26]Published by The Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, New York. Used by\n permission.\n\n[27]Published by Washburn and Thomas, Cambridge, Mass.\n\n[28]Published in pamphlet form by The Commission on Courses of Study of\n the Methodist Episcopal Church, New York.\n\n[29]For further stories of the use of this hymn, which was one of Mr.\n Sankey's favorites, see _My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns_,\n by Ira D. Sankey.\n\n[30]Boston.\n\n[31]With permission of J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.\n\n[32]Printed with permission.\n\n\n\n\n INDEX OF HYMNS\n\n\n A\n A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, 38\n Abide With Me, 18, 21, 58, 66, 136, 164, 192\n Alas, and Did My Saviour Bleed, 130\n All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, 186, 214\n All People That on Earth Do Dwell, 137\n Almighty Lord, with One Accord, 150\n Angels Ever Bright and Fair, 196\n Art Thou Weary, Art Thou Languid?, 133\n At Even, Ere the Sun Was Set, 157\n\n\n B\n Be Not Dismayed Whate'er Betide, 19, 41, 46, 108\n Beloved, Now Are We the Sons of God, 76\n Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine, 92\n Blest Be the Tie That Binds, 54, 183\n Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow, 172\n\n\n C\n Can the Lord Depend on You?, 145\n Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, 182\n Come, Every Soul by Sin Oppressed, 55\n Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs, 203\n Come, Let Us Join Our Friends Above, 184\n Come On, My Partners in Distress, 85\n Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, 76, 108\n Come, Ye That Love the Lord, 69, 108\n\n\n D\n Dare to be a Daniel, 141\n Day by Day the Manna Fell, 74\n Day Is Dying in the West, 191\n Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, 155\n\n\n E\n Eternal Father, Strong to Save, 10, 35\n\n\n F\n Face to Face with Christ My Saviour, 99, 106\n Faith of Our Fathers, 150\n For All the Saints, 203, 212\n\n\n G\n Give Me the Wings of Faith to Rise, 182\n Gimme the Old Time Religion, 214\n Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, 150\n Glory to Thee, My God, This Night, 144\n God Be With You Till We Meet Again, 92\n Goin' Home, 167\n Great God of Nations, Now to Thee, 149\n Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, 77, 84\n\n\n H\n Hark, Hark, My Soul, 51\n Have You Had a Kindness Shown?, 111\n He Leadeth Me, 36, 142\n Holy Father, in Thy Mercy, 100\n Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, 136, 159\n How Bright These Glorious Spirits Shine, 87\n How Firm a Foundation, 60, 89\n\n\n I\n I Am So Glad That Our Father in Heaven, 140\n I Grieved My Lord From Day to Day, 59\n I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, 202\n I Need Thee Every Hour, 48, 73\n I Think When I Read That Sweet Story of Old, 140\n I to the Hills Will Lift Mine Eyes, 93\n I Will Sing the Wondrous Story, 17\n I Would Not Live Alway, 183\n If on a Quiet Sea, 8\n I'll Praise My Maker, 6\n I'm Not Ashamed to Own My Lord, 133\n I'm the Child of a King, 107\n In Heavenly Love Abiding, 60\n In the Warfare That Is Raging, 145\n It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, 175\n It May Not Be on the Mountain's Height, 71\n I've Reached the Land of Corn and Wine, 22\n\n\n J\n Jerusalem the Golden, 203\n Jesus Is Tenderly Calling, 100\n Jesus, Lover of My Soul, 5, 11, 49, 53, 75, 82, 109, 136, 170, 214\n Jesus Shall Reign, 5\n Jesus, the Calm That Fills My Breast, 45\n Jesus, the First and Last, 47\n Joy to the World, 180\n Just As I Am, 120, 137\n\n\n L\n Last Night I Lay A-sleeping, 101\n Lead, Kindly Light, 40, 137, 139, 156, 182, 190\n Leader of Faithful Souls, 56\n Lord, I Want to Be a Christian, 166\n Lord of All Being, Throned Afar, 3\n Low in the Grave He Lay, 185\n\n\n M\n Mortals, Awake, with Angels Join, 174\n My Country, 'Tis of Thee, 210, 212\n My Faith Looks Up to Thee, 134, 154\n My Father Is Rich, 107\n My God, My Father, While I Stray, 34\n My Gracious God, I Own Thy Right, 145\n My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less, 135\n My Jesus, I Love Thee, 117\n\n\n N\n Nearer, My God, to Thee, 30, 54, 60, 136, 189, 190, 203, 214\n Now Thank We All Our God, 212\n Now the Day Is Over, 148, 159\n\n\n O\n O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, 206\n O Day of Rest and Gladness, 14\n O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, 143\n O God of Bethel, 138\n O God, Our Help in Ages Past, 36, 151, 212\n O Joyful Sound of Gospel Grace, 5\n O Little Town of Bethlehem, 178\n O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go, 42, 49, 137\n O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee, 152, 201\n O Thou in Whose Presence, 62\n O Thou Who Camest from Above, 25\n On a Hill Far Away, 129\n One More Day's Work for Jesus, 70\n One Sweetly Solemn Thought, 124\n Onward, Christian Soldiers, 25, 186\n\n\n P\n Pardon the Debt and Make Me Free, 98\n Peace, Perfect Peace, 63, 192\n Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, 202, 214\n Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven, 15, 208\n\n\n R\n Rejoice for a Brother Deceased, 57\n Remember Now Thy Creator, 12\n Rescue the Perishing, 115\n Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, 58, 132, 136\n\n\n S\n See That Band All Dressed in White, 168\n Shall We Gather at the River?, 137, 198\n Silent Night, 177, 180\n Sowing the Seed by the Daylight Fair, 114\n Stand Up, Stand Up, for Jesus, 104\n Steal Away, 167\n Still, Still with Thee, 162\n Sun of My Soul, 9\n Sunset and Evening Star, 194\n Sweet Hour of Prayer, 136\n\n\n T\n Take My Life, and Let It Be, 24, 195\n Take the Name of Jesus with You, 50\n The Homeland, 209\n The Light of the World Is Jesus, 16\n The Lord Our God Alone Is Strong, 150\n The Son of God Goes Forth to War, 105\n There Is a Happy Land, 202\n There Is a Land of Pure Delight, 4, 10, 68, 84\n There Were Ninety and Nine, 122\n There'll Be No Dark Valley, 186\n There's a Church in the Valley by the Wildwood, 27\n There's a Land That Is Fairer Than Day, 79, 202\n There's Sunshine in My Soul, 88\n Thou Hidden Love of God, 3\n Thou, My Everlasting Portion, 155\n Thou, Whose Unmeasured Temple, 151\n Through All the Changing Scenes, 7\n Throw Out the Life Line, 120, 137\n\n\n W\n Wade in De Water, 168\n Were You There?, 166\n What a Friend We Have in Jesus, 119, 160\n What Means This Eager, Anxious Throng?, 123\n When All My Labors and Trials Are O'er, 96\n When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, 64, 131, 136\n While the Days Are Going By, 60\n\n\n\n\n Transcriber's Notes\n\n\n--Retained copyright information from the printed edition: this eBook is\n public-domain in the country of publication.\n\n--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.\n\n--In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by\n _underscores_.","title":"Hymns in Human Experience","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":40078}