n, for unity's sake--with a fuller notice of the greatest of
hymn-writers at the end of the series.

Early, my God, without delay
I haste to seek Thy face,
My thirsty spirit faints away
Without Thy cheering grace.

In the memories of very old men and women, who sang the fugue music of
Morgan's "Montgomery," still lingers the second stanza and some of the
"spirit and understanding" with which it used to be rendered in meeting
on Sunday mornings.

So pilgrims on the scorching sand,
Beneath a burning sky,
Long for a cooling stream at hand
And they must drink or die.

_THE TUNE._

Many of the earlier pieces assigned to this hymn were either too noisy
or too tame. The best and longest-serving is "Lanesboro," which, with
its expressive duet in the middle and its soaring final strain of
harmony, never fails to carry the meaning of the words. It was composed
by William Dixon, and arranged and adapted by Lowell Mason.

William Dixon, an English composer, was a music engraver and publisher,
and author also of several glees and anthems. He was born 1750, and died
about 1825.

Lowell Mason, born in Medfield, Mass., 1792, has been called, not
without reason, "the father of American choir singing." Returning from
Savannah, Ga., where he spent sixteen years of his younger life as clerk
in a bank, he located in Boston (1827), being already known there as the
composer of "The Missionary Hymn." He had not neglected his musical
studies while living in the South, and it was in Savannah that he made
the glorious harmony of that tune.

He became president of the Handel and Haydn Society, went abroad for
special study, was made Doctor of Music, and collected a store of themes
among the great models of song to bring home for his future work.

The Boston Academy of Music was founded by him and what he did for the
song-service of the Church in America by his singing schools, and
musical conventions, and published manuals, to form and organize the
choral branch of divine worship, has no parallel, unless it is Noah
Webster's service to the English language.

Dr. Mason died in Orange, N.J., in 1872.

"SWEET IS THE WORK, MY GOD, MY KING."

This is one of the hymns that helped to give its author the title of
"The Seraphic Watts."

Sweet is the work, my God, my King
To praise Thy name, give thanks and sing
To show Thy love by morning light,
And talk of all Thy truth at ni