Ne'er think the vic'try won Nor lay thine armor down: Thy arduous work will not be done Till thou hast gained thy crown. Fight on, my soul till death Shall bring thee to thy God; He'll take thee at thy parting breath To His divine abode. "PEOPLE OF THE LIVING GOD." Montgomery felt every line of this hymn as he committed it to paper. He wrote it when, after years in the "swim" of social excitements and ambitions, where his young independence swept him on, he came back to the little church of his boyhood. His father and mother had gone to the West Indies as missionaries, and died there. He was forty-three years old when, led by divine light, he sought readmission to the Moravian" meeting" at Fulneck, and anchored happily in a haven of peace. People of the living God I have sought the world around, Peace and comfort nowhere found: Now to you my spirit turns Turns a fugitive unblest; Brethren, where your altar burns, Oh, receive me into rest. James Montgomery, son of Rev. John Montgomery, was born at Irvine, Ayeshire, Scotland, Nov. 4, 1771, and educated at the Moravian Seminary at Fulneck, Yorkshire, Eng. He be came the editor of the Sheffield Iris, and his pen was busy in non-professional as well as professional work until old age. He died in Sheffield, April 30, 1854. His literary career was singularly successful; and a glance through any complete edition of his poems will tell us why. His hymns were all published during his lifetime, and all, as well as his longer pieces, have the purity and polished beauty, if not the strength, of Addison's work. Like Addison, too, he could say that he had written no line which, dying, he would wish to blot. The best of Montgomery was in his hymns. These were too many to enumerate here, and the more enduring ones too familiar to need enumeration. The church and the world will not soon forget "The Home in Heaven,”— Nor Forever with the Lord, Amen, so let it be. Life from the dead is in that word; O where shall rest be found, -with its impressive couplet 'Tis not the whole of life to live Nor the haunting sweetness of There is a calm for those who weep. Nor, indeed, the hymn of Christian love just now before us. THE TUNE. The melody exactly suited to the gentle trochaic step of the home-song, "People of the living God," is "Whitman," composed for it by Lowell Mason. Few Christians, in America, we venture to say, could hear an instrument play "Whitman” without mentally repeating Montgomery's words. "TO LEAVE MY DEAR FRIENDS." This hymn, called "The Bower of Prayer," was dear to Christian hearts in many homes and especially in rural chapel worship half a century ago and earlier, and its sweet legato melody still lingers in the memories of aged men and women. Elder John Osborne, a New Hampshire preacher of the “Christian” (Christ-ian) denomination, is said to have composed the tune (and possibly the words) about 1815-though apparently the music was arranged from a flute interlude in one of Haydn's themes. The warbling notes of the air are full of heart-feeling, and usually the best available treble voice sang it as a solo. To leave my dear friends and from neighbors to part, I have chosen to pray. The early shrill notes of the loved nightingale As I went to prayer.* How sweet were the zephyrs perfumed by the pine, The joys that I tasted in answer to prayer, In answer to prayer. "SAVIOUR, THY DYING LOVE." This hymn of grateful piety was written in 1862, by Rev. S. Dryden Phelps, D.D., of New Haven, and first published in Pure Gold, 1871; afterwards in the (earlier) Baptist Hymn and Tune Book. Saviour, Thy dying love Thou gavest me, Nor should I aught withhold Give me a faithful heart, Henceforth may see Something for Thee. The penultimate line, originally "Some sinful wanderer won," was altered by the author him *The American Vocalist omits this stanza as too fanciful as well as too crude self. The hymn is found in most Baptist hymnals, and was inserted by Mr. Sankey in Gospel Hymns No. I. It has since won its way into several revival collections and undenominational manuals. Rev. Sylvester Dryden Phelps, D.D., was born in Suffield, Ct., May 15, 1816, and studied at the Connecticut Literary Institution in that town. An early call to the ministry turned his talents to the service of the church, and his long settlement -comprising what might be called his principal life work-was in New Haven, where he was pastor of the First Baptist church twenty-nine years. He died there Nov. 23, 1895. THE TUNE. The Rev. Robert Lowry admired the hymn, and gave it a tune perfectly suited to its metre and spirit. It has never been sung in any other. The usual title of it is "Something for Jesus." The meaning and sentiment of both words and music are not unlike Miss Havergal's— I gave my life for thee. "IN SOME WAY OR OTHER." This song of Christian confidence was written by Mrs. Martha A. W. Cook, wife of the Rev. Parsons Cook, editor of the Puritan Recorder, Boston. It was published in the American Messenger in 1870, and is still in use here, as a German ver |
