keep the hymn going was--

If you get there before I do,--
_I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_
Look out for me, I'm coming too--
_I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_

And then hymn and tune took possession of the assembly and rolled on in
a circle with--

O Cana-an, bright Cana-an!
I am bound for the land of Cana-an;
O Cana-an it is my hap-py home,
I am bound for the land of Cana-an

--till the voices came back to another starting-line and began again.
There was always a movement to the front when that tune was sung,
and--with all due abatement for superficial results in the sensation of
the moment--it is undeniable that many souls were truly born into the
kingdom of God under the sound of that rude woodland song.

Both its words and music are credited to Rev. John Maffit, who probably
wrote the piece about 1829.

"A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE."

This hymn of Charles Wesley was often heard at the camp grounds, from
the rows of tents in the morning while the good women prepared their
pancakes and coffee, and

_THE TUNE._

was invariably old "Kentucky," by Jeremiah Ingalls. Sung as a solo by a
sweet and spirited voice, it slightly resembled "Golden Hill," but
oftener its halting bars invited a more drawling style of execution
unworthy of a hymn that merits a tune like "St. Thomas."

Old "Kentucky" was not field music.

"CHRISTIANS, IF YOUR HEARTS ARE WARM."

Elder John Leland, born in Grafton, Mass., 1754, was not only a
strenuous personality in the Baptist denomination, but was well known
everywhere in New England, and, in fact, his preaching trip to
Washington (1801) with the "Cheshire Cheese" made his fame national. He
is spoken of as "the minister who wrote his own hymns"--a peculiarity in
which he imitated Watts and Doddridge. When some natural shrinking was
manifest in converts of his winter revivals, under his rigid rule of
immediate baptism, he wrote this hymn to fortify them:

Christians, if your hearts are warm,
Ice and cold can do no harm;
If by Jesus you are prized
Rise, believe and be baptized.

He found use for the hymn, too, in rallying church-members who staid
away from his meetings in bad weather. The "poetry" expressed what he
wanted to say--which, in his view, was sufficient apology for it. It was
sung in revival meetings like others that he wrote, and a few hymnbooks
now long obsolete contained it; but of Leland's hymns only on