Montgomery comparison with that of Watts. wrote it as a Christmas ode. It was sung Dec. 25, 1821, at a Moravian Convocation, but in 1822 he recited it at a great missionary meeting in Liverpool, and Dr. Adam Clarke was so charmed with it that he inserted it in his famous Commentary. In no long time afterwards it found its way into general use. The spirit of his missionary parents was Montgomery's Christian legacy, and in exalted poetical moments it stirred him as the divine afflatus kindled the old prophets. THE TUNE. The music editors in some hymnals have borrowed the favorite choral variously named "Webb" in honor of its author, and "The Morning Light is Breaking" from the first line of its hymn. Later hymnals have chosen Sebastian Wesley's "Aurelia" to fit the hymn, with a movement similar to that of "Webb"; also a German B flat melody "Ellacombe," undated, with livelier step and a ringing chime of parts. No one of these is inappropriate. Samuel Sebastian Wesley, grandson of Charles Wesley the great hymnist, was born in London, 1810. Like his father, Samuel, he became a distinguished musician, and was organist at Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester Cathedrals. Oxford gave him the degree of Doctor of Music. He composed instrumental melodies besides many anthems, services, and other sacred pieces for choir and congregational singing. Died in Gloucester, April 19, 1876. "FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS.” The familiar story of this hymn scarcely needs repeating; how one Saturday afternoon in the year 1819, young Reginald Heber, Rector of Hodnet, sitting with his father-in-law, Dean Shipley, and a few friends in the Wrexham Vicarage, was suddenly asked by the Dean to "write something to sing at the missionary meeting tomorrow," "and retired to another part of the room while the rest went on talking; how, very soon after, he returned with three stanzas, which were hailed with delighted approval; how he then insisted upon adding another cctrain to the hymn and came back with Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, -and how the great lyric was sung in Wrexham Church on Sunday morning for the first time in its life. The story is old but always fresh. Nothing could better have emphasized the good Dean's sermon that day in aid of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," than that unexpected and glorious lyric of his poet sonin-law. By common consent Heber's "Missionary Hymn" is the silver trumpet among all the rallying bugles of the church. THE TUNE. The union of words and music in this instance is an example of spiritual affinity. "What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." The story of the tune is a record of providential birth quite as interesting as that of the hymn. In 1823, a lady in Savannah, Ga., having received and admired a copy of Heber's lyric from England, desired to sing it or hear it sung, but knew no music to fit the metre. She finally thought of a young clerk in a bank close by, Lowell Mason by name, who sometimes wrote music for recreation, and sent her son to ask him if he would make a tune that would sing the lines. The boy returned in half an hour with the composition that doubled Heber's fame and made his own. In the words of Dr. Charles Robinson, "Like the hymn it voices, it was done at a stroke, and it will last through the ages.' "THE MORNING LIGHT IS BREAKING." Not far behind Dr. Heber's chef-d'œuvre in lyric merit is the still more famous missionary hymn of Dr. S. F. Smith, author of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Another missionary hymn of his which is widely used is Yes, my native land, I love thee, Can I leave you Far in heathen lands to dwell? Drs. Nutter and Breed speak of "The Morning Light is Breaking," and its charm as a hymn of peace and promise, and intimate that it has "gone farther and been more frequently sung than any other missionary hymn." Besides the English, there are versions of it in four Latin nations, the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and oriental translations in Chinese and several East Indian tongues and dialects, as well as one in Swedish. It author had the rare felicity, while on a visit to his son, a missionary in Burmah, of hearing it sung by native Christians in their language, and of being welcomed with an ovation when they knew who he was. The morning light is breaking! The darkness disappears; The sons of earth are waking To penitential tears; Each breeze that sweeps the ocean Brings tidings from afar, Of nations in commotion, Prepared for Zion's war. Rich dews of grace come o'er us In many a gentle shower, And brighter scenes before us Are opening every hour. Each cry to heaven going Blest river of Salvation, Pursue thy onward way; Nor in thy richness stay. Proclaim, "The Lord is come!" Samuel Francis Smith, D.D., was born in Boston in 1808, and educated in Harvard University (1825-1829). He prepared for the ministry, and was pastor of Baptist churches at Waterville, Me., and Newton, Mass., before entering the service of the American Baptist Missionary union as editor of its Missionary Magazine. He was a scholarly and graceful writer, both in verse and prose, and besides his editorial work, he was frequently an invited participant or guest of honor on public occasions, owing to his fame as author of the national hymn. His pure and gentle character made him everywhere beloved and reverenced, and to know him intimately in his happy old age was a benediction. He died suddenly and painlessly in his seat on a railway train, November 16, 1895 in his eighty-eighth year. Dr. Smith wrote twenty-six hymns now more or |