The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 71

John Keble's beautiful meditation--

Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear;

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 Fades upon my sight away: Free from care, from labor free, Lord I would commune with Thee.

Soon for me the light of day Shall forever pa.s.s 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 a.s.sociation 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 coa.r.s.e 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 piano-maker, was born in Ma.s.sachusetts 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 song-service in an ancient Latin liturgy (_angulare fundamentum_).

Christ is our Corner-Stone; On Him alone we build, With His true saints alone The courts of heaven are filled, On His great love Our hopes we place Of present grace And joys above.

O then with hymns of praise These hallowed courts shall ring; Our voices we will raise The Three-in-One to sing.

And thus proclaim In joyful song But loud and long That glorious Name.

The Rev. John Chandler was born at Witley, Surrey, Eng. June 16, 1806.

He took his A.M. degree at Oxford, and entered the ministry of the Church of England, was Vicar of Witley many years, and became well-known for his translations of hymns of the primitive church. Died at Putney, July 1, 1876.

_THE TUNE._

Sebastian Wesley's "Harewood" is plainer and of less compa.s.s, but Zundel's "Brooklyn" is more than its rival, both in melody and vivacity.

"OH LORD OF HOSTS WHOSE GLORY FILLS THE BOUNDS OF THE ETERNAL HILLS."

A hymn of Dr. John Mason Neale--

Endue the creatures with Thy grace That shall adorn Thy dwelling-place The beauty of the oak and pine, The gold and silver, make them Thine.

The heads that guide endue with skill, The hands that work preserve from ill, That we who these foundations lay May raise the top-stone in its day.

_THE TUNE._

"Welton," by Rev. Caesar Malan--author of "Hendon," once familiar to American singers.

Henri Abraham Caesar Malan was born at Geneva, Switzerland, 1787, and educated at Geneva College. Ordained to the ministry of the State church, (Reformed,) he was dismissed for preaching against its formalism and spiritual apathy; but he built a chapel of his own, and became a leader with D'Aubigne, Monod, and others in reviving the purity of the Evangelical faith and laboring for the conversion of souls.

Malan wrote many hymns, and published a large collection, the "_Chants de Sion_," for the Evangelical Society and the French Reformed Church.

He composed the music of his own hymns. Died at Vandosurre, 1864.

"DAUGHTER OF ZION, FROM THE DUST."

Cases may occur where an _exhortation_ hymn earns a place with dedication hymns.

The charred fragment of a hymn-book leaf hangs in a frame on the auditorium wall of the "New England Church," Chicago. The former edifice of that church, all the homes of its resident members, and all their business offices except one, were destroyed in the great fire. In the ruins of their sanctuary the only sc.r.a.p of paper found on which there was a legible word was this bit of a hymn-book leaf with the two first stanzas of Montgomery's hymn,

Daughter of Zion, from the dust, Exalt thy fallen head; Again in thy Redeemer trust, He calls thee from the dead.

Awake, awake! put on thy strength, Thy beautiful array; The day of freedom dawns at length, The Lord's appointed day.

The third verse was not long in coming to every mind--

Rebuild thy walls! thy bounds enlarge!