and they were filled with dark
forebodings. The others went below to obtain some sleep, but Key
continued to pace the deck until the first streaks of dawn showed that
the "flag was still there."

His joy was so unbounded that he seized a piece of paper, and hastily
wrote the words of his famous anthem. It was not completed until later in
the day, when he reached Baltimore and joined in the victorious joy that
filled the city.

While "Star spangled banner" is not a Christian hymn, there are noble
sentiments in it that reveal the writer at once as a devout Christian,
and this was eminently true of Key.

As a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church he held a lay reader's
license, and for many years read the service and visited the sick. He
also conducted a Bible class in Sunday school. Although he lived in a
slave state, he was finally moved by conscientious scruples to free his
slaves. He also did much to alleviate conditions among other unfortunate
blacks.

When the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1823 appointed a committee to
prepare a new hymn-book for that body, Key was made a lay member of it.
Another member of the committee was Dr. William Muhlenberg, who in that
same year had published a little hymnal for use in his own congregation.
It was in this hymnal, known as "Church Poetry", that Key's beautiful
hymn, "Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise Thee," was first published.

In Dr. Muhlenberg's hymn-book the hymn had only three stanzas, and that
is the form in which it has since appeared in all other hymnals. In 1900,
however, Key's autograph copy of the hymn was discovered, and it was
found that the hymn originally had four stanzas. The missing one reads:

Praise thy Saviour God that drew thee
To that cross, new life to give,
Held a blood-sealed pardon to thee,
Bade thee look to Him and live.
Praise the grace whose threats alarmed thee,
Roused thee from thy fatal ease,
Praise the grace whose promise warmed thee,
Praise the grace that whispered peace.

Another excellent hymn, "Before the Lord we bow", was written by Key in
1832 for a Fourth of July celebration.

A bronze statue of Key, placed over his grave at Frederick, Md., shows
him with his hand outstretched, as at the moment when he discovered the
flag "still there," while his other hand is waving his hat exultantly.

Bryant's Home Mission Hymn

Look from Thy sphere of endl