_THE TUNE._

Holmes' hymn is sung in some churches to "Louvan," V.C. Taylor's
admirable praise tune. Other hymnals prefer with it the music of
"Keble," one of Dr. Dykes' appropriate and finished melodies.

Virgil Corydon Taylor, an American vocal composer, was born in
Barkhamstead, Conn., April 2, 1817, died 1891.

CHAPTER II.

SOME HYMNS OF GREAT WITNESSES.

JOHN OF DAMASCUS.

[Greek: Erchesthe, o pistoi,
Anastaseos Hemera.]

John of Damascus, called also St. John of Jerusalem, a theologian and
poet, was the last but one of the Christian Fathers of the Greek Church.
This eminent man was named by the Arabs "Ibn Mansur," Son (Servant?) of
a Conqueror, either in honor of his father Sergius or because it was a
Semitic translation of his family title. He was born in Damascus early
in the 8th century, and seems to have been in favor with the Caliph, and
served under him many years in some important civil capacity, until,
retiring to Palestine, he entered the monastic order, and late in life
was ordained a priest of the Jerusalem Church. He died in the Convent of
St. Sabas near that city about A.D. 780.

His lifetime appears to have been passed in comparative peace. Mohammed
having died before completing the conquest of Syria, the Moslem rule
before whose advance Oriental Christianity was to lose its first field
of triumph had not yet asserted its persecuting power in the north. This
devout monk, in his meditations at St. Sabas, dwelt much upon the birth
and the resurrection of Christ, and made hymns to celebrate them. It was
probably four hundred years before Bonaventura (?) wrote the Christmas
"Adeste Fideles" of the Latin West that John of Damascus composed his
Greek "Adeste Fideles" for a Resurrection song in Jerusalem.

Come ye faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness.

* * * * *

'Tis the spring of souls today
Christ hath burst His prison;
From the frost and gloom of death
Light and life have risen.

The nobler of the two hymns preserved to us, (or six stanzas of it)
through eleven centuries is entitled "The Day of Resurrection."

The day of resurrection,
Earth, tell its joys abroad:
The Passover of gladness,
The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over,
With hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from ev