ingdom, and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. His talent for
sacred music is rare and versatile, and he seems to have consecrated
himself as a musician and composer to the service of the church.

* * * * *

Every civilized nation has its patriotic hymns. In fact what makes a
nation a nation is largely the unifying influences of its common song.
Even the homeless Hebrew nation is kept together by its patriotic
Psalms. The ethnic melodies would fill a volume with their story. The
few presented in this chapter represent their range of quality and
character--defiant as the Marseillaise, thrilling as "Scots' wha hae,"
joyful as "The Star-spangled Banner," breezy and bold as the "Ranz de
Vaches," or sweet as the "Switzers' Song of Home."

CHAPTER X.

SAILORS' HYMNS.

The oldest sailors' hymn is found in the 107th Psalm, vss. 23-30:

They that go down to the sea in ships,
To do business in great waters,
These see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep, etc.

Montgomery has made this metrical rendering of these verses:

They that toil upon the deep,
And in vessels light and frail
O'er the mighty waters sweep
With the billows and the gale,

Mark what wonders God performs
When He speaks, and, unconfined,
Rush to battle all His storms
In the chariots of the wind.

The hymn is not in the collections, and has no tune. Addison paraphrased
the succeeding verses of the Psalm in his hymn, "How are thy servants
blessed O Lord," sung to Hugh Wilson's[35] tune of "Avon":

When by the dreadful tempest borne
High on the broken wave,
They know Thou art not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.

The storm is laid, the winds retire,
Obedient to Thy will;
The sea that roars at Thy command,
At Thy command is still.

[Footnote 35: Hugh Wilson was a Scotch weaver of Kilmarnock, born 1764;
died 1824.]

"FIERCE WAS THE WILD BILLOW."

([Greek: Zopheras trikumias])

The ancient writer, Anatolius, who composed this hymn has for centuries
been confounded with "St" Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople, who
died A.D. 458. The author of the hymn lived in the seventh century, and
except that he wrote several hymns, and also poems in praise of the
martyrs, nothing or next to nothing, is known of him. The "Wild Billow"
song was the principle seaman's hymn of the early church. It