The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 45

I wish that His hands had been laid on my head, And I had been placed on His knee, And that I might have seen His kind look when He said, "Let the little ones come unto me."

This is not poetry, but it phrases a wish in a child's own way, to be melodized and fixed in a child's reverent and sensitive memory.

Mrs. Luke was born at Colebrook Terrace, near London, Aug. 19, 1813. She was an accomplished and benevolent lady who did much for the education and welfare of the poor. Her hymn--of five stanzas--was first sung in a village school at Poundford Park, and was not published until 1841.

_THE TUNE._

It is interesting, not to say curious, testimony to the vital quality of this meek production that so many composers have set it to music, or that successive hymn-book editors have kept it, and printed it to so many different harmonies. All the chorals that carry it have substantially the same movement--for the spondaic accent of the long lines is compulsory--but their offerings sing "to one clear harp in divers tones."

The appearance of the words in one hymnal with Sir William Davenant's air (full scored) to Moore's love-song, "Believe me, if all those endearing young charms," now known as the tune of "Fair Harvard," is rather startling at first, but the adoption is quite in keeping with the policy of Luther and Wesley.

"St. Kevin" written to it forty years ago by John Henry Cornell, organist of St. Paul's, New York City, is sweet and sympathetic.

The newest church collection (1905) gives the beautiful air and harmony of "Athens" to the hymn, and notes the music as a "Greek Melody."

But the nameless English tune, of uncertain authors.h.i.+p[31] that accompanies the words in the smaller old manuals, and which delighted Sunday-schools for a generation, is still the favorite in the memory of thousands, and may be the very music first written.

[Footnote 31: Harmonized by Hubert P. Main.]

"WE SPEAK OF THE REALMS OF THE BLEST."

Mrs. Elizabeth Mills, wife of the Hon. Thomas Mills, M.P., was born at Stoke Newington, Eng., 1805. She was one of the brief voices that sing one song and die. This hymn was the only note of her minstrelsy, and it has outlived her by more than three-quarters of a century. She wrote it about three weeks before her decease in Finsbury Place, London, April 21, 1839, at the age of twenty-four.

We speak of the land of the blest, A country so bright and so fair, And oft are its glories confest, But what must it be to be there!

We speak of its freedom from sin, From sorrow, temptation and care, From trials without and within, But what must it be to be there!

_THE TUNE._

The hymn, like several of the Gospel hymns besides, was carried into the Sunday-schools by its music. Mr. Stebbins' popular duet-and-chorus is fluent and easily learned and rendered by rote; and while it captures the ear and compels the voice of the youngest, it expresses both the pathos and the exaltation of the words.

George Coles Stebbins was born in East Carleton, Orleans Co., N.Y., Feb.

26, 1846. Educated at common school, and an academy in Albany, he turned his attention to music and studied in Rochester, Chicago, and Boston. It was in Chicago that his musical career began, while chorister at the First Baptist Church; and while holding the same position at Clarendon St. Church, Boston, (1874-6), he entered on a course of evangelistic work with D.L. Moody as gospel singer and composer. He was co-editor with Sankey and McGranahan of _Gospel Hymns_.

"ONLY REMEMBERED."

This hymn, beginning originally with the lines,--

Up and away like the dew of the morning, Soaring from earth to its home in the sun,

--has been repeatedly altered since it left Dr. Bonar's hands. Besides the change of metaphors, the first personal p.r.o.noun singular is changed to the plural. There was strength, and a natural vivacity in--

So let _me_ steal away gently and lovingly, Only remembered for what _I_ have done.

As at present sung the first stanza reads--,

Fading away like the stars of the morning Losing their light in the glorious sun, Thus would _we_ pa.s.s from the earth and its toiling Only remembered for what _we_ have done.

The idea voiced in the refrain is true and beautiful, and the very euphony of its words helps to enforce its meaning and make the song pleasant and suggestive for young and old. It has pa.s.sed into popular quotation, and become almost a proverb.

_THE TUNE._

The tune (in _Gospel Hymns No. 6_) is Mr. Sankey's.

Ira David Sankey was born in Edinburgh, Lawrence Co., Pa., Aug. 28, 1840. He united with the Methodist Church at the age of fifteen, and became choir leader, Sunday-school superintendent and president of the Y.M.C.A., all in his native town. Hearing Philip Phillips sing impressed him deeply, when a young man, with the power of a gifted solo vocalist over a.s.sembled mult.i.tudes, but he did not fully realize his own capability till Dwight L. Moody heard his remarkable voice and convinced him of his divine mission to be a gospel singer.

The success of his revival tours with Mr. Moody in America and England is history.

Mr. Sankey has compiled at least five singing books, and has written the _Story of the Gospel Hymns_. Until overtaken by blindness, in his later years he frequently appeared as a lecturer on sacred music. The ma.n.u.script of his story of the _Gospel Hymns_ was destroyed by accident, but, undismayed by the ruin of his work, and the loss of his eye-sight, like Sir Isaac Newton and Thomas Carlyle, he began his task again. With the help of an amanuensis the book was restored and, in 1905, given to the public. (See page 258.)

"SAVIOUR, LIKE A SHEPHERD LEAD US."

Mrs. Dorothy Ann Thrupp, of Paddington Green, London, the author of this hymn, was born June 20, 1799, and died, in London, Dec. 14, 1847. Her hymns first appeared in Mrs. Herbert Mayo's _Selection of Poetry and Hymns for the Use of Infant and Juvenile Schools_, (1838).

We are Thine, do Thou befriend us, Be the Guardian of our way: Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, Seek us when we go astray; Blessed Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray.

The tune everywhere accepted and loved is W.B. Bradbury's; written in 1856.

"YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION"

A much used and valued hymn, with a captivating tune and chorus for young a.s.semblies. Both words and music are by H.R. Palmer, composed in 1868.

Yield not to temptation, For yielding is sin; Each vict'ry will help you Some other to win.

Fight manfully onward, Dark pa.s.sions subdue; Look ever to Jesus, He will carry you through.

Horatio Richmond Palmer was born in Sherburne, N.Y., April 26. 1834, of a musical family, and sang alto in his father's choir when only nine. He studied music unremittingly, and taught music at fifteen. Brought up in a Christian home, his religious life began in his youth, and he consecrated his art to the good of man and the glory of G.o.d.

He became well-known as a composer of sacred music, and as a publisher--the sales of his _Song Queen_ amounting to 200,000 copies. As a leader of musical conventions and in the Church Choral Union, his influence in elevating the standard of song-wors.h.i.+p has been widely felt.

"THERE ARE LONELY HEARTS TO CHERISH."

"While the days are going by" is the refrain of the song, and the line by which it is recognized. The hymn or poem was written by George Cooper. He was born in New York City, May 14, 1840--a writer of poems and magazine articles,--composed "While the days are going by" in 1870.

There are lonely hearts to cherish While the days are going by.

There are weary souls who perish While the days are going by.

Up! then, trusty hearts and true, Though the day comes, night comes, too: Oh, the good we all may do While the days are going by!