feeling by a single line of his aggressive Calvinism. It is simply a song of Christian gratitude and joy. Your harps, ye trembling saints Down from the willows take; Though in a foreign land, Blest is the man, O God, That stays himself on Thee, Who waits for Thy salvation, Lord, THE TUNE. "Olmutz" was arranged by Lowell Mason from a Gregorian chant. He set it himself to Toplady's hymn, and it seems the natural music for it. The words are also sometimes written and sung to Jonathan Woodman's "State St.' Jonathan Call Woodman was born in Newburyport, Mass., July 12, 1813. He was the organist of St. George's Chapel, Flushing L.I. and a teacher, composer and compiler. His Musical Casket was not issued until Dec. 1858, but he wrote the tune of "State St." in August, 1844. It was a contribution to Bradbury's Psalmodist, which was published the same year. "YE GOLDEN LAMPS OF HEAVEN, FAREWELL.” Dr. Doddridge's "farewell" is not a note of regret. Unlike Bernard, he appreciates this world while he anticipates the better one, but his contemplation climbs from God's footstool to His throne. His thought is in the last two lines of the second stanza, where he takes leave of the sunMy soul that springs beyond thy sphere No more demands thine aid. But his fancy will find a function for the "golden lamps" even in the glory that swallows up their light Ye stars are but the shining dust Of my divine abode, The pavement of those heavenly courts Where I shall dwell with God. The Father of eternal light Shall there His beams display, Nor shall one moment's darkness mix THE TUNE. The hymn has been assigned to "Mt. Auburn," a composition of George Kingsley, but a far better interpretation-if not best of all-is H. K. Oliver's tune of "Merton," (1847,) older, but written purposely for the words. "TRIUMPHANT ZION, LIFT THY HEAD." This fine and stimulating lyric is Doddridge in another tone. Instead of singing hope to the in dividual, he sounds a note of encouragement to the church. Put all thy beauteous garments on, ****** God from on high has heard thy prayer; The tune, "Anvern," is one of Mason's charming melodies, full of vigor and cheerful life, and everything can be said of it that is said of the hymn. Duffield compares the hymn and tune to a ring and its jewel. It is one of the inevitable freaks of taste that puts so choice a strain of psalmody out of fashion. Many younger pieces in the church manuals could be better spared. "SHRINKING FROM THE COLD HAND OF DEATH." This is a hymn of contrast, the dark of recoiling nature making the background of the rainbow. Written by Charles Wesley, it has passed among his forgotten or mostly forgotten productions but is notable for the frequent use of its 3rd stanza by his brother John. John Wesley, in his old age, did not so much shrink from death as from the thought of its too slow approach. His almost constant prayer was, "Lord, let me not live to be useless." "At every place," says Belcher, "after giving to his societies what he desired them to consider his last advice, he invariably concluded with the stanza be ginning ""Oh that, without a lingering groan, I may the welcome word receive. great The anticipation of death itself by both the evangelists ended like the ending of the hymn No anxious doubt, no guilty gloom Shall daunt whom Jesus' presence cheers; My Light, my Life, my God is come, And glory in His face appears. "FOREVER WITH THE LORD." Montgomery had the Ambrosian gift of spiritual song-writing. Whatever may be thought of his more ambitious descriptive or heroic pages of verse, and his long narrative poems, his lyrics and cabinet pieces are gems. The poetry in some exquisite stanzas of his "Grave" is a dream of peace: There is a calm for those who weep, A rest for weary mortals found; The storms that wreck the winter's sky But in the poem, "At Home in Heaven," which we are considering-with its divine text in 1 Thess. 4:17-the Sheffield bard rises to the heights of vision. He wrote it when he was an old man. The contemplation so absorbed him that he could not quit his theme till he had composed twenty-two quatrains. Only four or five-or at most only seven of them-are now in general use. Like his "Prayer is the Soul's Sincere Desire," they have the pith of devotional thought in them, but are less subjective and analytical. Forever with the Lord! Amen, so let it be, Life from the dead is in that word; 'Tis immortality. Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home. My Father's house on high! I hear at morn and even, At noon and midnight hour, The choral harmonies of heaven The last line has been changed to read Seraphic music pour, —and finally the hymnals have dropped the verse and substituted others. The new line is an im |
