s, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget.

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the law,
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget.

For heathen heart that puts her trust,
In recking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word
Thy mercy on thy people, Lord!

Had Kipling cared more for his poem, and kept it longer in hand, he
might have revised a line or two that would possibly seem commonplace
to him--and corrected the grammar in the first line of the second
stanza. But of so fine a composition there is no call for finical
criticism. The "Recessional" is a product of the poet's holiest mood.
"The Spirit of the Lord came upon him"--as the old Hebrew phrase is, and
for the time he was a rapt prophet, with a backward and a forward
vision. Providence saved the hymn, and it touched and sank into the
better mind of the nation. It is already learned by heart--and
sung--wherever English is the common speech, and will be heard in
numerous translations, with the wish that there were more patriotic
hymns of the same Christian temper and strength.

Rudyard Kipling was born in Hindostan in 1865. Even with his first
youthful experiments in the field of literature he was hailed as the
coming apostle of muscular poetry and prose. For a time he made America
his home, and it was while here that he faced death through a fearful
and protracted sickness that brought him very near to God. He has
visited many countries and described them all, and, though sometimes his
imagination drives a reckless pen, the Christian world hopes much from a
man whose genius can make the dullest souls listen.

_THE TUNE._

The music set to Kipling's hymn is Stainer's "Magdalen"--(not his
"Magdalina," which is a common-metre tune)--and wonderfully fits the
words and enhances their dignity. It is a grave and earnest melody in D
flat, with two bars in unison at "Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,"
making the utterance of the prayer a deep and powerful finale.

John Stainer, Doctor of Music, born June 6, 1840, was nine years the
chorister of St. Paul's, London, and afterwards organist to the
University of Oxford. He is a member of the various musical societies of
the K