ght at the
age of six. Twelve years of her younger life were spent in the New York
Institution for the Blind, where she became a teacher, and in 1858 was
happily married to a fellow inmate, Mr. Alexander Van Alstyne, a
musician.

George F. Root was for a time musical instructor at the Institution, and
she began early to write words to his popular song-tunes. "Rosalie, the
Prairie Flower," and the long favorite melody, "There's Music in the
Air" are among the many to which she supplied the text and the song
name.

She resides in Bridgeport, Ct., where she enjoys a serene and happy old
age. She has written over six thousand hymns, and possibly will add
other pearls to the cluster before she goes up to join the singing
saints.

Jesus, keep me near the Cross,
There a precious Fountain
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calv'ry's mountain.

CHORUS.
In the Cross, in the Cross
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

* * * * *

Near the Cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadows o'er me.

CHORUS.

William Howard Doane, writer of the music to this hymn, was born in
Preston, Ct., Feb. 3, 1831. He studied at Woodstock Academy, and
subsequently acquired a musical education which earned him the degree of
Doctor of Music conferred upon him by Denison University in 1875. Having
a mechanical as well as musical gift, he patented more than seventy
inventions, and was for some years engaged with manufacturing concerns,
both as employee and manager, but his interest in song-worship and in
Sunday-school and church work never abated, and he is well known as a
trainer of choirs and composer of some of the best modern devotional
tunes. His home is in Cincinnati, O.

"I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY."

This threnody (we may almost call it) of W.A. Muhlenberg, illustrating
one phase of Christian experience, was the outpouring of a poetic
melancholy not uncommon to young and finely strung souls. He composed it
in his twenties,--long before he became "Doctor" Muhlenberg,--and for
years afterwards tried repeatedly to alter it to a more cheerful tone.
But the poem had its mission, and it had fastened itself in the public
imagination, either by its contagious sentiment or the felicity of its
tune, and the author was obliged to accept the fame of it as