the best work-songs for our meetings that we had." (Story of the Gospel Hymns.) The hymn, written in 1870, was first published in 1871 in "Pure Gold"-a book that had a sale of one million two hundred thousand copies. To the work! to the work! there is labor for all, CHORUS. Toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on! (rep) "O WHERE ARE THE REAPERS?" Matt. 13:30 is the text of this lyric from the Go out in the by-ways, and search them all, The wheat may be there though the weeds are tall; But gather them all for the home on high. CHORUS. Where are the reapers? O who will come, The sheaves of good from the fields of sin? THE TUNE. Hymn and tune are alike. The melody and harmony by Dr. George F. Root have all the eager trip and tread of so many of the gospel hymns, and of so much of his music, and the lines respond at every step. Any other composer could not have escaped the compulsion of the final spondees, and much less the author of "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and all the best martial song-tunes of the great war. In this case neither words nor notes can say to the other, "We have piped unto you and ye have not danced," but a little caution will guard too enthusiastic singing against falling into the drumrhythm, and travestying a sacred piece. Eben Eugene Rexford was born in Johnsburg, N. Y., July 16, 1841, and has been a writer since he was fourteen years oid. He is the author of several popular songs, as "Silver Threads Among the Gold," "Only a Pansy Blossom" etc., and many essays and treatises on flowers, of which he is passionately fond. "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL." Horatio Gates Spafford, the writer of this hymn, was a lawyer, a native of New York state, born Oct. 30, 1828. While connected with an institution in Chicago, as professor of medical jurisprudence, he lost a great part of his fortune by the great fire in that city. This disaster was followed by the loss of his children on the steamer, Ville de Havre, Nov. 22, 1873. He seems to have been a devout Christian, for he wrote his hymn of submissive faith towards the end of the same year— When peace like a river attendeth my way, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul." A friend of Spafford who knew his history read this hymn while repining under an inferior affliction of his own. "If he can feel like that after suffering what he has suffered," he said, "I will cease my complaints." It may not have been the weight of Mr. Spafford's sorrows wearing him down, but one would infer some mental disturbance in the man seven or eight years later. "In 1881" [writes Mr. Hubert P. Main]"he went to Jerusalem under the hallucination that he was a second Messiah-and died there on the seventh anniversary of his landing in Palestine, Sept. 5, 1888." The aberrations of an overwrought mind are beckonings to God's compassion. When reason wanders He takes the soul of His helpless child into his own keeping—and “it is well.” The tune to Spafford's hymn is by P. P. Bliss; a gentle, gliding melody that suits the mood of the words. "WAITING AND WATCHING FOR ME.” Written by Mrs. Marianne Farningham Hearn, born in Kent, Eng., Dec. 17, 1834. The hymn was first published in the fall of 1864 in the London Church World. Its unrythmical first line When mysterious whispers are floating about, -was replaced by the one now familiar— When my final farewell to the world I have said, When softly the watchers shall say, "He is dead,” And when with my glorified vision at last Will any one there at the Beautiful Gate Mrs. Hearn a member of the Baptist denomination-has long been the editor of the (English) Sunday School Times, but her literary work has been more largely in connection with the Christian World newspaper of which she has been a staffmember since its foundation. THE TUNE. The long lines, not easily manageable for congregational singing, are wisely set by Mr. Bliss to duet music. There is a weighty thought in the hymn for every Christian, and experience has shown that a pair of good singers can make it very affecting, but the only use of the repeat, by way of a chorus, seems to be to give the miscellaneous voices a brief chance to sing. "HE WILL HIDE ME." (Isa. 49:2.) Miss Mary Elizabeth Servoss, the author of this trustful hymn, was born in Schenectady, N. Y., Aug. 22, 1849. When a very young girl her ad miration of Fanny Crosby's writings, and the great and good service they were doing in the world, inspired her with a longing to resemble her. Though her burden was as real, it was not like the other's, and her opportunities for religious meditation and literary work were fewer than those of the elder lady, but the limited number of hymns she has written have much of the spirit and beauty of their model. Providence decreed for her a life of domestic care and patient waiting. For eighteen years she was the constant attendant of a disabled grandmother, and long afterwards love and duty made her the home nurse during her mother's protracted illness and the last sickness of her father, until both parents passed away. From her present home in Edeson, Ill., some utterances of her chastened spirit have found their way to the public, and been a gospel of blessing. Besides "He Will Hide Me," other hymns of Miss Servoss are "Portals of Light," "He Careth," "Patiently Enduring," and "Gates of Praise," the last being the best known. When the storms of life are raging, I will seek a place of refuge In the shadow of God's hand. CHORUS. He will hide me, He will hide me, |