f riches and despair of space that have
crowded this hymn--perhaps the sweetest that Watts ever wrote--out of
some of our church singing-books. It is pleasant to find it in the new
_Methodist Hymnal_, though with an indifferent tune.

Christians of today should surely sing the last two stanzas with the
same exalted joy and hope that made them sacred to pious generations
past and gone--

O if my Lord would come and meet,
My soul would stretch her wings in haste.
Fly fearless through death's iron gate,
Nor feel the terrors as she passed.
Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on His breast I lean my head
And breathe my life out sweetly there.

_THE TUNE._

The plain-music of William Boyd's "Pentecost," (with modulations in the
tenor), creates a new accent for the familiar lines. Preferable in every
sense are Bradbury's tender "Zephyr" or "Rest."

No coming generation will ever feel the pious gladness of Amariah Hall's
"All Saints New" in E flat major as it stirred the Christian choirs of
seventy five years ago. Fitted to this heart-felt lyric of Watts, it
opened with the words--

O if my Lord would come and meet,

in full harmony and four-four time, continuing to the end of the stanza.
The melody, with its slurred syllables and beautiful modulations was
almost blithe in its brightness, while the strong musical bass and the
striking chords of the "counter," chastened it and held the anthem to
its due solemnity of tone and expression. Then the fugue took up--

Jesus can make a dying bed,

--bass, treble and tenor adding voice after voice in the manner of the
old "canon" song, and the full harmony again carried the words, with
loving repetitions, to the final bar. The music closed with a minor
concord that was strangely effective and sweet.

Amariah Hall was born in Raynham, Mass., April 28, 1785, and died there
Feb. 8, 1827. He "farmed it," manufactured straw-bonnets, kept tavern
and taught singing-school. Music was only an avocation with him, but he
was an artist in his way, and among his compositions are found in some
ancient Tune books his "Morning Glory," "Canaan," "Falmouth,"
"Restoration," "Massachusetts," "Raynham," "Crucifixion," "Harmony,"
"Devotion," "Zion," and "Hosanna."

"All Saints New" was his masterpiece.

"WHEN I CAN READ MY TITLE CLEAR."

No sacred song has been more profanely parodied by the thoughtless, or
m