le kind; and for the good of the church--and the
nation--it is important that at least this elementary education in the
school of Christ should be supplied them.

It is the popular hymn tunes that speed a reformation. So say history
and experience. Once in two hundred years a great revival movement may
produce a Charles Wesley, but the humbler singers carry the divine fire
that quickens religious life in the years between.

All this is not saying that the gospel hymns, as a whole, are or ever
professed to be suitable for the stated service of the sanctuary. Their
very style and movement show exactly what they were made for--to win the
hearing of the multitude, and put the music of God's praise and Jesus'
love into the mouths and hearts of thousands who had been strangers to
both. They are the modern lay songs that go with the modern lay sermons.
They give voice to the spirit and sentiment of the conference, prayer
and inquiry meetings, the Epworth League and Christian Endeavor
meetings, the temperance and other reform meetings, and of the
mass-meetings in the cities or the seaside camps.

During their evangelistic mission in England and Scotland in 1873,
Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey used the hymnbook of Philip Phillips,
a compilation entitled _Hallowed Songs_, some of them his own. To these
Mr. Sankey added others of his own composing from time to time which
were so enthusiastically received that he published them in a pamphlet.
This, with the simultaneous publication in America of the revival
melodies of Philip P. Bliss, was the beginning of that series of popular
hymn-and-tune books, which finally numbered six volumes. Sankey's
_Sacred Songs and Solos_ combined with Bliss's _Gospel Songs_ were the
foundation of the _Gospel Hymns_.

Subjectively their utterances are indicative of ardent piety and
unquestioning faith, and on the other hand their direct and intimate
appeal and dramatic address are calculated to affect a throng as if each
individual in it was the person meant by the words. The refrain or
chorus feature is notable in nearly all.

A selection of between thirty and forty of the most characteristic is
here given.

"HALLELUJAH! 'TIS DONE."

This is named from its chorus. The song is one of the spontaneous
thanksgivings in revival meetings that break out at the announcement of
a new conversion.

'Tis the promise of God full salvation to give
Unto him who on Jesus His Son will believe,