1773 to 1836, and in 1787 he published a songmanual called A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, etc., in which "How Firm a Foundation' appears as a new piece, with the signature “K—.” The popularity of the hymn in America has been remarkable, and promises to continue. Indeed, there are few more reviving or more spiritually helpful. It is too familiar to need quotation. But one cannot suppress the last stanza, with its powerful and affecting emphasis on the Divine promise— The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose I will not, I will not, desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, THE TUNE. The grand harmony of "Portuguese Hymn" has always been identified with this song of trust. One opinion of the date of the music writes it "about 1780." Since the habit of crediting it to John Reading (1677-1764) has been discontinued, it has been in several hymnals ascribed to Marco Portogallo (Mark, the Portuguese), a musician born in Lisbon, 1763, who became a composer of operas in Italy, but was made Chapel-Master to the Portuguese King. In 1807, when Napoleon invaded the Peninsula and dethroned the royal house of Braganza, Old King John VI. fled to Brazil and took Marco with him, where he lived till 1815, but returned and died in Italy, in 1830. Such is the story, and it is all true, only the man's name was Simao, instead of Marco. Grove's Dictionary appends to Simao's biography the single sentence, "His brother wrote for the church." That the Brazilian episode may have been connected with this brother's history by a confusion of names, is imaginable, but it is not known that the brother's name was Marco. On the whole, this account of the authorship of the "Portuguese Hymn"—originally written for the old Christmas church song "Adeste Fideles”is late and uncertain. Heard (perhaps for the first time) in the Portuguese Chapel, London, it was given the name which still clings to it. If proofs of its Portuguese origin exist, they may yet be found. "How Firm a Foundation" was the favorite of Deborah Jackson, President Andrew Jackson's beloved wife, and on his death-bed the warrior and statesman called for it. It was the favorite of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and was sung at his funeral. The American love and familiar preference for the remarkable hymn was never more strikingly illustrated than when on Christmas Eve, 1898, a whole corps of the United States army Northern and Southern, encamped on the Quemados hills, near Havana, took up the sacred tune and words "Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed." Lieut. Col. Curtis Guild (since Governor Guild of Massachusetts) related the story in the Sunday School Times for Dec. 7, 1901, and Dr. Benson quotes it in his book. "WHILE THEE I SEEK, PROTECTING POWER." Miss Helen Maria Williams, who wrote this gentle hymn of confidence, in 1786, was born in the north of England in 1762. When but a girl she won reputation by her brilliant literary talents and a mental grasp and vigor that led her, like Gail Hamilton, "to discuss public affairs, besides clothing bright fancies and devout thoughts in graceful verse. Most of her life was spent in London, and in Paris, where she died, Dec. 14, 1827. Old "Norwich," from Day's Psalter, and "Simpson," adapted from Louis Spohr, are found with the hymn in several later manuals. In the memories of older worshipers "Brattle-Street," with its melodious choral and duet arranged from Pleyel |