From angels bending near the earth "Peace to the earth, good will to men From Heaven's all-gracious King." Still through the cloven skies they come Above its sad and lonely plains THE TUNE. No more sympathetic music has been written to these lines than "Carol," the tune composed by Richard Storrs Willis, a brother of Nathaniel Parker Willis the poet, and son of Deacon Nathaniel Willis, the founder of the Youth's Companion. He was born Feb. 10, 1819, graduated at Yale in 1841, and followed literature as a profession. profession. He was also a musician and composer. For many years he edited the N. Y. Musical World, and, besides contributing frequently to current literature, published Church Chorals and Choir Studies, Our Church Music and several other volumes on musical subjects. Dicd in Detroit, May 7, 1900. The much-loved and constantly used advent psalm of Mr. Sears, Calm on the listening ear of night Come heaven's melodious strains -was set to music by John Edgar Gould, and the smooth choral with its sweet chords is a remarkable example of blended voice and verse. "O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM!" Phillips Brooks, the eloquent bishop of Massachusetts, loved to write simple and tender poems for the children of his church and diocese. They all reveal his loving heart and the beauty of his consecrated imagination. This one, the best of his Christmas Songs, was slow in coming to public notice, but finally found its place in hymn-tune collections. O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light; The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight. For Christ is born of Mary, And gathered all above, While mortals sleep, the angels keep And praises sing to God the King And peace to men on earth. How silently, how silently, The wondrous gift is given! No ear may hear His coming, Where meek souls will receive Him still The dear Christ enters in. Phillips Brooks, late bishop of the diocese of Massachusetts, was born in Boston, Dec. 13, 1835; died Jan. 23, 1893. He was graduated at Harvard in 1855, and at the Episcopal Divinity School of Alexandria, Va., 1859. The first ten years of his ministry were spent in Pennsylvania, after which he became rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and was elected bishop in 1891. He was an inspiring teacher and preacher, an eloquent pulpit orator, and a man of deep and rich religious life. The hymn was written in 1868, and it was, no doubt, the ripened thought of his never-forgotten visit to the "little town of Bethlehem" two years before. THE TUNE. "Bethlehem" is the appropriate name of a tune written by J. Barnby, and adapted to the words, but it is the hymn's first melody (named "St. Louis" by the compiler who first printed it in the Church Porch from original leaflets) that has the credit of carrying it to popularity. The composer was Mr. Redner, organist of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, of which Rector Brooks was then in charge. Lewis Henry Redner, born 1831, was not only near the age of his friend and pastor but as much devoted to the interests of the Sunday-school, for whose use the hymn was written, and he had promised to write a score to which it could be sung on the coming Sabbath. Waking in the middle of the night, after a busy Saturday that sent him to bed with his brain "in a whirl," he heard "an angel strain," and immediately rose and pricked the notes of the melody. The tune had come to him just in time to be sung. A much admired tune has also been written to this hymn by Hubert P. Main. PALM SUNDAY. FAURE'S "PALM BRANCHES." Sur nos chemins les rameaux et les fleurs O'er all the way green palms and blossoms gay Where Jesus comes to wipe our tears away. Jean Baptiste Faure, author of the words and music, was born at Moulins, France, Jan. 15, 1830. As a boy he was gifted with a beautiful voice, and crowds used to gather wherever he sang in the streets of Paris. Little is known of his parentage, and apparently the sweet voice of the wandering lad was his only fortune. He found wealthy friends who sent him to the Conservatoire, but when his voice matured it ceased to serve him as a singer. He went on with his study of instrumental music, but mourned for his lost vocal triumphs, and his longing became a subject of prayer. He promised God that if his power to sing were given back to him he would use it for charity and the good of mankind. By degrees he recovered his voice, and became known as a great baritone. As professional singer and composer at the Paris Grand Opera, he had been employed largely in dramatic work, but his "Ode to Charity" is one of his enduring and celebrated pieces, and his songs written for benevolent and religious services have found their way into all Christian lands. His "Palm-Branches" has come to be a sine qua non on its calendar Sunday wherever church worship is planned with any regard to the Feasts of the Christian year. EASTER. Perhaps the most notable feature in the early hymnology of the Oriental Church was its Resurrection songs. Being hymns of joy, they called forth all the ceremony and spectacle of ecclesias |