an run,
Nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun;
Both speed them to their source:
So a soul that's born of God
Pants to view His glorious face,
Upward tends to His abode
To rest in His embrace.

* * * * *

Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn,
Press onward to the prize;
Soon your Saviour will return
Triumphant in the skies.
Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance will be given;
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchanged for heaven.

This hymn must have found its predestinated organ when it found--

_THE TUNE._

"Amsterdam," the work of James Nares, had its birth and baptism soon
after the work of Seagrave; and they have been breath and bugle to the
church of God ever since they became one song. In _The Great Musicians_,
edited by Francis Huffer, is found this account of James Nares:

"He was born at Hanwell, Middlesex, in 1715; was admitted chorister at
the Chapel Royal, under Bernard Gates, and when he was able to play the
organ was appointed deputy for Pigott, of St. George's Chapel, Windsor,
and became organist at York Minster in 1734. He succeeded Greene as
organist and composer to the Chapel Royal in 1756, and in the same year
was made Doctor of Music at Cambridge. He was appointed master of the
children of the Chapel Royal in 1757, on the death of Gates. This post
he resigned in 1780, and he died in 1783, (February 10,) and was buried
in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster.

"He had the reputation of being an excellent trainer of boy's voices,
many of his anthems having been written to exhibit the accomplishments
of his young pupils. The degree of excellence the boys attained was not
won in those days without the infliction of much corporal punishment."

Judging from the high pulse and action in the music of "Amsterdam," one
would guess the energy of the man who made boy choirs--and made good
ones. In the old time the rule was, "Birds that can sing and won't sing,
must be made to sing"; and the rule was sometimes enforced with the
master's time-stick.

A tune entitled "Excelsius," written a hundred years later by John Henry
Cornell, so nearly resembles "Amsterdam" as to suggest an intention to
amend it. It changes the modal note from G to A, but while it marches
at the same pace it lacks the jubilant modulations and the choral glory
of the 18th-century piece.

SIR