so many calls
for his services that he gave up everything and devoted himself to his
tuneful art. "Your Mission" so gladly welcomed at Washington made him
the first gospel songster, chanting round the world the divine message
of the hymns. It was the singing by Philip Phillips that first impressed
Ira D. Sankey with the amazing power of evangelical solo song, and
helped him years later to resign his lucrative business as a revenue
officer and consecrate his own rare vocal gift to the Christian ministry
of sacred music. Heaven alone can show the birth-records of souls won to
God all along the journeys of the "Singing Pilgrims," and the rich
succession of Mr. Sankey's melodies, that can be traced back by a chain
of causes to the poem that "wrote itself" and became a hymn. And the
chain may not yet be complete. In the words of that providential poem--

Though they may forget the singer
They will not forget the song.

Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates, whose reputation as an author was made by this
beautiful and always timely poem, was born in Torrington, Ct., and is
the youngest sister of the late Collis P. Huntington. Her
hymns--included in this volume and in other publications--are much
admired and loved, both for their sweetness and elevated religious
feeling, and for their poetic quality. Among her published books of
verse are "Night," "At Noontide," and "Treasures of Kurium." Her address
is New York City.

_THE TUNE._

Sidney Martin Grannis, author of the tune, was born Sept. 23, 1827, in
Geneseo, Livingston county, N.Y. Lived in Leroy, of the same state, from
1831 to 1884, when he removed to Los Angeles, Cal., where several of his
admirers presented him a cottage and grounds, which at last accounts he
still occupies. Mr. Grannis won his first reputation as a popular
musician by his song "Do They Miss Me at Home," and his "Only Waiting,"
"Cling to the Union," and "People Will Talk You Know," had an equally
wide currency. As a solo singer his voice was remarkable, covering a
range of two octaves, and while travelling with members of the "Amphion
Troupe," to which he belonged, he sang at more than five thousand
concerts. His tune to "Your Mission" was composed in New Haven, Ct., in
1864.

"TOO LATE! TOO LATE! YE CANNOT ENTER NOW."

"Too Late" is a thrilling fragment or side-song of Alfred Tennyson's,
representing the vain plea of the five Foolish Virgins. Its tune bears
the name of a London lady, "Miss Lindsa