difficult one that he had in mind a secular air that was familiar to the crowd. But the hymn is not one of Wesley's poems. Compilers who object to its lilting measure omit it from their books, but it holds its place in public use, for it carries weighty thoughts in swift sentences.

O that each in the Day of His coming may say,

"I have fought my way through,

I have finished the work Thou didst give me to do."
O that each from the Lord may receive the glad word,
"Well and faithfully done,

Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne."

For a hundred and fifty years this has been sung in the Methodist watch-meetings, and it will be long before it ceases to be sung-and reprinted in Methodist, and some Baptist hymnals.

The tune of "Lucas," named after James Lucas, its composer, is the favorite vehicle of song for the "Watch-hymn." Like the tune to "O How Happy Are They," it has the movement of the words and the emphasis of their meaning.

No knowledge of James Lucas is at hand except that he lived in England, where one brief reference gives his birth-date as 1762 and "about 1805" as the birth-date of the tune.

"GREAT GOD, WE SING THAT MIGHTY HAND."

The admirable hymn of Dr. Doddridge may be noted in this division with its equally admirable

tune of "Melancthon," one of the old Lutheran chorals of Germany.

Great God, we sing that mighty hand
By which supported still we stand.
The opening year Thy mercy shows;
Thy mercy crown it till its close!

By day, by night, at home, abroad,
Still we are guarded by our God.

As this last couplet stood-and ought now to stand-pious parents teaching the hymn to their children heard them repeat—

By day, by night, at home, abroad,
We are surrounded still with God.

Many are now living whose first impressive sense of the Divine Omnipresence came with that line.

PARTING.

"GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN."

A lyric of benediction, born, apparently, at the divine moment for the need of the great “Society of Christian Endeavor," and now adopted into the Christian song-service of all lands. The author, Rev. Jeremiah Eames Rankin, D. D., LL.D., was born in Thornton, N. H., Jan. 2, 1828. He was graduated at Middlebury College, Vt., in 1848, and labored as a Congregational pastor more

than thirty years. For thirteen years he was President of Howard University, Washington, D.C. Besides the "Parting Hymn" he wrote The Auld Scotch Mither, Ingleside Rhymes, Hymns pro Patria, and various practical works and religious essays. Died 1904.

THE TUNE.

As in a thousand other partnerships of hymnist and musician, Dr. Rankin was fortunate in his composer. The tune is a symphony of heartssubdued at first, but breaking into a chorus strong with the uplift of hope. It is a farewell with a spiritual thrill in it.

Its author, William Gould Tomer, was born in Finesville, Warren Co., N. J., October 5, 1832; died in Phillipsburg, N. J., Sept. 26, 1896. He was a soldier in the Civil War and a writer of good ability as well as a composer. For some time he was editor of the High Bridge Gazette, and music with him was an avocation rather than a profession. He wrote the melody to Dr. Rankin's hymn in 1880, Prof. J. W. Bischoff supplying the harmony, and the tune was first published in Gospel Bells the same year.

FUNERALS.

The style of singing at funerals, as well as the character of the hymns, has greatly changed-if,