O Cana-an it is my hap-py home, I am bound for the land of Cana-an -till the voices came back to another starting-line and began again. There was always a movement to the front when that tune was sung, and—with all due abatement for superficial results in the sensation of the moment-it is undeniable that many souls were truly born into the kingdom of God under the sound of that rude woodland song. Both its words and music are credited to Rev. John Maffit, who probably wrote the piece about 1829. "A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE." This hymn of Charles Wesley was often heard at the camp grounds, from the rows of tents in the morning while the good women prepared their pancakes and coffee, and THE TUNE. was invariably old "Kentucky," by Jeremiah Ingalls. Sung as a solo by a sweet and spirited voice, it slightly resembled "Golden Hill," but oftener its halting bars invited a more drawling style of execution unworthy of a hymn that merits a tune like "St.Thomas." Old "Kentucky" was not field music. "CHRISTIANS, IF YOUR HEARTS ARE WARM." Elder John Leland, born in Grafton, Mass., 1754, was not only a strenuous personality in the Baptist denomination, but was well known everywhere in New England, and, in fact, his preaching trip to Washington (1801) with the "Cheshire Cheese" made his fame national. He is spoken of as "the minister who wrote his own hymns"-a peculiarity in which he imitated Watts and Doddridge. When some natural shrinking was manifest in converts of his winter revivals, under his rigid rule of immediate baptism, he wrote this hymn to fortify them: Christians, if your hearts are warm, Ice and cold can do no harm; If by Jesus you are prized He found use for the hymn, too, in rallying church-members who staid away from his meetings in bad weather. The "poetry" expressed what he wanted to say--which, in his view, was sufficient apology for it. It was sung in revival meetings like others that he wrote, and a few hymnbooks now long obsolete contained it; but of Leland's hymns only one survives. Gray-headed men and women remember being sung to sleep by their mothers with that old-fashioned evening song to Amzi Chapin's* tune The day is past and gone, The evening shades appear, The night of death draws near; *Amzi Chapin has left, apparently, nothing more than the record of his birth, March 2, 1768, and the memory of his tune. It appeared as early as --and with all its solemnity and other-worldness it is dear to recollection, and its five stanzas are lovingly hunted up in the few hymnals where it is found. Bradbury's "Braden," (Baptist Praise Book, 1873,) is one of its tunes. Elder Leland was a remarkable revival preacher, and his prayers as was said of Elder Jabez Swan's fifty or sixty years later-"brought heaven and earth together.' He traveled through the Eastern States as an evangelist, and spent a season in Virginia in the same work. In 1801 he revisited that region on a curious errand. The farmers of Cheshire, Mass., where Leland was then a settled pastor, conceived the plan of sending "the biggest cheese in America" to President Jefferson, and Leland (who was a good democrat) offered to go to Washington on an ox-team with it, and "preach all the way"-which he actually did. The cheese weighed 1450 lbs. Elder Leland died in North Adams, Mass., Jan. 14, 1844. Another of his hymns, which deserved to live with his "Evening Song," seemed to be answered in the brightness of his death-bed hope: O when shall I see Jesus And reign with Him above, “AWAKE, MY SOUL, TO JOYFUL LAYS.” This glad hymn of Samuel Medley is his thanksgiving song, written soon after his conversion. In the places of rural worship no lay of Christian praise and gratitude was ever more heartily sung than this at the testimony meetings. Awake, my soul, to joyful lays, And sing thy great Redeemer's praise; THE TUNE, With its queer curvet in every second line, had no other name than "Loving-Kindness," and was probably a camp-meeting melody in use for some time before its publication. It is found in Leavitt's Christian Lyre as early as 1830. The name "William Caldwell" is all that is known of its composer, though he is supposed to have lived in Tennessee. "THE LORD INTO HIS GARDEN COMES.” Was a common old-time piece sure to be heard at every religious rally, and every one present, saint and sinner, had it by heart, or at least the chorus of it— Amen, amen, my soul replies, I'm bound to meet you in the skies, And claim my mansion there, etc. The anonymous* "Garden Hymn, as old, at *A "Rev." Mr. Campbell, author of "The Glorious Light of Zion," "There is a Holy City," and "There is a Land of Pleasure," has been sometimes credited with the origin of the Garden Hymn. least, as 1800," has nearly passed out of reach, except by the long arm of the antiquary; but it served its generation. Its vigorous tune is credited to Jeremiah Ingalls (1764-1838). The Lord into His garden comes; Which makes the dead revive. "THE CHARIOT! THE CHARIOT!" Henry Hart Milman, generally known as Dean Milman, was born in 1791, and was educated at Oxford. In 1821 he was installed as university professor of poetry at Oxford, and it was while filling this position that he wrote this celebrated hymn, under the title of "The Last Day." It is not only a hymn, but a poem-a sublime ode that recalls, in a different movement, the tones of the "Dies Irae." Dean Milman (of St Paul's), besides his many striking poems and learned historical works, wrote at least twelve hymns, among which are Ride on, ride on in majesty, O help us Lord; each hour of need When our heads are bowed with woe, |