ege, Hamilton, N.Y., (now Madison
University), and was successively a pastor, editor and Hebrew professor.
Besides his work in these different callings, he wrote many helpful
hymns--in all one hundred and twenty-five--of which "Joyfully,
Joyfully," dated 1842, is the best. It began originally with the line--

Friends fondly cherished have passed on before,

--and the line,--

Home to the land of delight I will go.

--was written,--

Home to the land of bright spirits I'll go.

Dr. Hunter died in Ohio, 1877.

_THE TUNE._

Rev. Abraham Dow Merrill, the author of the music to this triumphal
death-song, was born in Salem, N.H., 1796, and died April 29, 1878. He
also was a Methodist minister, and is still everywhere remembered by the
denomination to which he belonged in New Hampshire and Vermont. He rode
over these states mingling in revival scenes many years. His picture
bears a close resemblance to that of Washington, and he was somewhat
famous for this resemblance. His work was everywhere blessed, and he
left an imperishable influence in New England. The tune, linked with Dr.
Hunter's hymn, formed the favorite melody which has been the dying song
of many who learned to sing it amid the old revival scenes:

Death, with thy weapons of war lay me low;
Strike, king of terrors; I fear not the blow.
Jesus has broken the bars of the tomb,
Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home.

"TIS THE OLD SHIP OF ZION, HALLELUJAH!"

This may be found, vocalized with full harmony, in the _American
Vocalist_. With all the parts together (more or less) it must have made
a vociferous song-service, but the hymn was oftener sung simply in
soprano unison; and there was sound enough in the single melody to
satisfy the most zealous.

All her passengers will land on the bright eternal shore,
O, glory hallelujah!
She has landed many thousands, and will land as many more,
O, glory hallelujah!

Both hymn and tune have lost their creators' names, and, like many
another "voice crying in the wilderness," they have left no record of
their beginning of days.

"MY BROTHER, I WISH YOU WELL."

My brother, I wish you well,
My brother, I wish you well;
When my Lord calls I trust you will
Be mentioned in the Promised Land.

Echoes that remain to us of those fervid and affectionate, as well as
resolute and vehement, expressions of religious life as sung in the
early reviv