Who hath ripened the fruits into golden and red? Harvest home! Let us chant, etc. For the smile of the sunshine, again and again, Let us chant, etc. We shall gather a harvest of glory, we know, Let us chant, etc. Thanksgiving Hymn. Boston, 1890. Theron Brown. Tune "To the Work, To the Work." W. H. Doane. "THE GOD OF HARVEST PRAISE." Written by James Montgomery in 1840, and published in the Evangelical Magazine as the Harvest Hymn for that year. The God of harvest praise; The streams rejoice. The God of harvest praise; With sweet accord; From field to garner throng, Bearing your sheaves along, And in your harvest song Bless Tune, "Dort"-Lowell Mason. MORNING. "STILL, STILL WITH THEE." These stanzas of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with their poetic beauty and grateful religious spirit, have furnished an orison worthy of a place in all the hymn books. In feeling and in faith the hymn is a matin song for the world, supplying words and thoughts to any and every heart that worships. Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight, Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee. Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows In the calm dew and freshness of the morn. When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber, THE TUNES. Barnby's "Windsor," and "Stowe" by Charles H. Morse (1893)-both written to the words. Mendelssohn's "Consolation" is a classic interpretation of the hymn, and finely impressive when skillfully sung, but simpler-and sweeter to the popular ear-is Mason's "Henley," written to Mrs. Eslings' "Come unto me when shadows darkly gather." EVENING HYMNS. John Keble's beautiful meditation— John Leland's The day is past and gone; and Phebe Brown's I love to steal awhile away; -have already been noticed. Bishop Doane's gentle and spiritual lines express nearly everything that a worshipping soul would include in a moment of evening thought. The first and last stanzas are the ones most commonly sung. Softly now the light of day Lord I would commune with Thee. * **** Soon for me the light of day Shall forever pass away; Then, from sin and sorrow free, Take me, Lord, to dwell with Thee. THE TUNE. Both Kozeluck and J. E. Gould, besides Louis M. Gottschalk and Dr. Henry John Gauntlett, have tried their skill in fitting music to this hymn, but only Gottschalk and Kozeluck approach the mood into which its quiet words charm a pious and reflective mind. Possibly its frequent association with "Holley," composed by George Hews, may influence a hearer's judgement of other melodies but there is something in that tune that makes it cling to the hymn as if by instinctive kinship. Others may have as much or more artistic music but "Holley" in its soft modulations seems to breathe the spirit of every word. It was this tune to which a stranger recently heard a group of mill-girls singing Bishop Doane's verses. The lady, a well-known Christian worker, visited a certain factory, and the superintendent, after showing her through the building, opened a door into a long work-room, where the singing of the girls delighted and surprised her. It was sunset, and their hymn was— Softly now the light of day. Several of the girls were Sunday-school teachers, who had encouraged others to sing at that hour, and it had become a habit. "Has it made a difference?" the lady inquired. "There is seldom any quarrelling or coarse joking among them now," said the superintendent with a smile. Dr. S. F. Smith's hymn of much the same tone and tenor Softly fades the twilight ray Of the holy Sabbath day, --is commonly sung to the tune of "Holley." George Hews, an American composer and pianomaker, was born in Massachusetts 1800, and died July 6, 1873. No intelligence of him or his work or former locality is at hand, beyond this brief note in Baptie, "He is believed to have followed his trade in Boston, and written music for some of Mason's earlier books. DEDICATION. "CHRIST IS OUR CORNER-STONE.” This reproduces in Chandler's translation a songservice in an ancient Latin liturgy (angulare fundamentum). |