lands, as Hold the Fort. There is nothing particularly meritorious in either the words or music, but it possesses an "indefinable something" that has made it more popular than anything else written or composed by him. The reader will remember that the song was inspired by the heroic act of General Corse, at Allatoona Pass, Georgia, on the fifth of October, 1864. John Murray Corse held the Federal fort, and for hours sustained a terrific artillery fire from the Confederates under General French. It seemed like a hopeless situation for the Union men. Corse's ear

and cheek-bone had been shot away, and besides suffering intense pain, he was terribly fatigued; but he directed his men and held the fort. Sherman was eighteen miles away, and when Corse signaled his perilous condition, the old warrior waved back the answer from the summit of Kenesaw Mountain"Hold the fort; I'm coming." Mr. Bliss wrote the words and music in 1871, and in a few months Hold the Fort was the song of millions. It is in many instances an inspiration to religious fervor. The floodtide of its popularity began across the sea when Moody and Sankey stirred Great Britain with their gospel meetings. It was the keynote of the wonderful campaign against evil, inaugurated in New York city by Mr. Moody, on Monday night, February seventh, 1876. Eight thousand people had traveled through rain, slush, and mud, to fill every nook and corner of the vast Hippodrome. The first song was Hold the Fort; and when Mr. Sankey sang the des

criptive lines and the mighty audience joined in the refrain, everybody present was impressed with the fact that the meeting was the beginning of one of the greatest religious revivals ever witnessed in New York city.

A few instances of the influence and popularity of the song will be of special interest. When Mr. Moody was in Dublin in 1874, his revival meetings interfered with the attendance at the Royal circus, and a few weeks later the clowns attempted to ridicule the evangelists, but the audience hissed them out of the ring; and when some courageous person started Hold the Fort, the people all joined with glad voices in the rousing chorus. The Earl of Shaftesbury once said that if Messrs. Moody and Sankey had done no more than to teach the English people to sing such songs as Hold the Fort, they had by that alone conferred on them an inestimable blessing. The late Dr. Goodwin of Chicago, once told of a missionary in South Africa, who established a mission in a Zulu hut, and the first thing he heard the natives sing was Hold the Fort. In the great city of Birmingham, England, where meetings were held by the evangelists, Bingley Hall was filled night after night with vast audiences, and the delight of the people seemed almost supreme when Sankey invited them to join in the chorus of the song.

Such a thrilling use of Hold the Fort as that recorded in Birmingham and in the Hippodrome was witnessed at all the meetings conducted by Moody

and Sankey in the large cities of Great Britain and the United States. People have seen strange things come from the singing of this song; and have been puzzled beyond the hope of enlightenment in the effort to discover what there is in the words or music to move so profoundly the hearts of women and

men.

Once Mr. Bliss said to Mr. Sankey: "I have written better songs than Hold the Fort, and I hope I shall not be known to the world only as the author of that hymn." But it was a strange irony of fate that when a large monument was reared to Mr. Bliss's memory at the place of his birth, there was inscribed thereon in bold letters, the living and inspiring motto: "Hold the Fort."

Another shining name in gospel hymnody is the Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry of the Baptist denomination, born in Philadelphia, in 1823, and died in 1899. He edited some twenty different hymn-books for Sunday Schools and praise services; and is the writer and composer of many beautiful hymns and tunes. His most popular hymn, though perhaps not his best is Shall we Gather at the River? which came to him "like a cloud-burst," one day in July, 1864, at his home in Brooklyn, New York. We are told that the doctor wondered why so many hymn-writers said so much about the "river of death," and so little about the "river of life;" and that the words and music were the fruitage of that thought. It is a bright song, with a happy, march-like movement to it, and

is a favorite with brass-bands, and largely for that reason Dr. Lowry never thought much of it. But the taste of the great mass of people as to songs is peculiar, and Shall we Gather at the River? has attained a popularity that is almost worldwide.

In May, 1865, the hymn was sung by forty thousand children in one body at the Brooklyn Sunday School anniversary. Lady Colin Campbell, who did such distinguished service among the poor of London, was tendered a public reception at Mission Hall, not many years ago. In noting the event The Pall Mall Gazette said that what every one present wanted to hear besides the speeches was Shall we Gather at the River? by Lady Colin; and when she responded, the hymn was sung with a refinement of tone and feeling that seemed to pass into the care-worn faces of the poor people who had joined in the royal greeting. Dr. Lowry attended the Robert Raikes centennial in London in 1880, at which delegates from America, Asia, and various parts of Europe, were present. Sir Charles Reed, member of Parliament, presided; and after the last speaker had left the platform, the chairman was told that the author of Shall we Gather at the River? was in the hall. The doctor, who sat in a rear seat, unknown to those about him, was called forward and introduced to the audience. The hymn had made his name familiar to the many nationalities in the convention, and his reception was marked by wild demonstrations of joy. The hymn has been

translated into many languages and is used at numerous mission stations in foreign fields.

Simple hymns, adapted to bright, singable tunes, win the most favor regardless of creed or nationality. Some thirty years ago, the Rev. William Orcutt Cushing, born in Massachusetts, in 1823, wrote a little song beginning with the lines,

When He cometh

When He cometh

To make up His jewels.

George F. Root set the words to music as simple and attractive as the hymn itself, and Jewels, a title by which the song is commonly known, has ever since been traveling around the world. I am indebted to Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth for the following incident: An English steamer was coming to Canada, and one day the minister in the steerage asked: "What shall we sing? It must be something we all know, for nearly all countries of Europe are gathered here." The master of the steerage answered: "Then it must be an American tune; try Jewels." There were a thousand people in the steerage, speaking several different tongues, but with one voice they sang in full chorus, When He Cometh. The vessel landed at Quebec, and the emigrants filled two long trains of cars, one going east and the other to Georgian Bay; and as they parted each began to sing When He Cometh. "The tune made the hymn a common language."

There is a hymn of recent date and of pathetic origin that will surely make history in future evan