to many, and in America it is
probably the oftenest sung to the words.

Dr. David Breed, speaking of Faber's "unusual" imagination, says, "He
got more out of language than any other poet of the English tongue, and
used words--even simple words--so that they rendered him a service which
no other poet ever secured from them." The above hymns are
characteristic to a degree, but the telling simplicity of his
style--almost quaint at times--is more marked in "There's a Wideness in
God's Mercy," given on p. 234.

[Illustration: Horatius Bonar, D.D.]

"BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING."

This song of hope--one of the most strangely tuneful and rune-like of
Dr. Bonar's hymn-poems--is less frequently sung owing to the peculiarity
of its stanza form. But it scarcely needs a staff of notes--

Beyond the smiling and the weeping
I shall be soon;
Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping
I shall be soon.

REFRAIN
Love, rest and home!
Sweet hope!
Lord, tarry not, but come.

* * * * *

Beyond the parting and the meeting
I shall be soon;
Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond the pulses' fever-beating
I shall be soon.
Love, rest and home!

Beyond the frost-chain and the fever
I shall be soon;
Beyond the rock-waste and the river
Beyond the ever and the never
I shall be soon.
Love, rest and home!

The wild contrasts and reverses of earthly vicissitude are spoken and
felt here in the sequence of words. Perpetual black-and-white through
time; then the settled life and untreacherous peace of eternity.
Everywhere in the song the note of heavenly hope interrupts the wail of
disappointment, and the chorus returns to transport the soul from the
land of emotional whirlwinds to unbroken rest.

_THE TUNES._

Mr. Bradbury wrote an admirable tune to this hymn, though the one since
composed by Mr. Stebbins has in some localities superseded it in popular
favor. Skill in following the accent and unequal rhythms produces a
melodious tone-poem, and completes the impression of Bonar's singular
but sweet lyric of hope which suggests a chant-choral rather than a
regular polyphonic harmony. W.A. Tarbutton and the young composer, Karl
Harrington, have set the hymn to music, but the success of their work
awaits the public test.