OUR NATIONAL HYMN More purely religious and sung to the same tune, that which is most frequently used in the services of the church, is the following: "God bless our native land! "For her our prayer shall rise On Him we wait; Guarding with watchful eye, To Thee aloud we cry, God save the state!" It is a singular fact that this hymn has two authors. Originally it was credited to J. S. Dwight, but later claim to authorship was also made by C. T. Brooks. It is now generally credited to both. The fact seems to be that both these writers translated it from the German. Several similar translations are used in England, but claim to authorship is also made by William Edward Hickson. His translation, however, varies, and is not so good as that which is credited as the American translation, but which is growing in favor and in use in England. There are various stories as to the authorship of the music to which these words are sung. The melody itself is stirring and the words so in harmony with Christian patriotism as we use them in our American version in our churches that they fittingly form a part of any patriotic or national praise service. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming! And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes, and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just; And this be our motto-"In God is our trust"; And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! Often and rightly called our national anthem also, Francis Scott Key's "Star-Spangled Banner" was written during the "War of 1812." It was our last war with England. Mr. Key had gone under a flag of truce to the British flagship to secure the release of a friend. The flagship was at the mouth of the Patapsco River. As the British were preparing to attack Fort McHenry, lest their plans should be disclosed, Mr. Key was forbidden to return. Being thus forced to witness the attack on his country's flag, he paced the deck of the ship all through the night of the bombardment. As day began to break he saw the flag still flying at full mast over the fort, his patriotic anxiety was so relieved that he exultantly dashed off the lines as we now have them. He wrote them with a pencil on the back of a letter. As soon as he was released he took his lines to the city, and in a few hours they were printed on small sheets and circulated and sung on the streets to the air of "Anacreon in Heaven." This is the tune to which the "Star-spangled Banner" has ever since been sung. It is interesting to note that the original flag which waved over the fort and at which Key looked as he caught his inspiration in the gray dawn of that eventful morning, was made and presented to the garrison by a fifteen-year-old girl. She afterward became Mrs. Sanderson, of Baltimore. The family still preserves this flag as a relic. THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel; "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on." He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat; Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. This hymn, which had its birth in the stirring times of the war between the North and the South, was the product of the pen of a well-known woman, Julia Ward Howe. Mrs. Howe visited the soldiers camped on the banks of the Potomac in 1861. The story is that the trip fatigued her greatly and that she slept very soundly. At daybreak she awoke and through her mind there began to run the lines of a hymn which promised to suit the measure of the John Brown melody. The hymn was written out, after a fashion, in the dark, by Mrs. Howe, who then again fell asleep. The John Brown melody, which was caught from a religious melody, or "Glory Hallelujah" revival hymn, was very popular with the soldiers, who had begun to sing it at Fort Warren in Boston harbor, and had made it the marching chorus of the northern armies. Mrs. Howe, through her poem, has given to the country in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" a hymn which promises to run till battle hymns cease to be sung. HYMNS OF COMFORT HE fact that Christians are bidden to take up the cross and follow after Christ is in itself an evidence that the trials which test faith are a blessing. Man is born to trouble. No one escapes the cross. Hence it is that the hymns which comfort and cheer are hymns with a universal appeal. The true attitude of a child of God in facing trial is nowhere better expressed than it is in that beautiful hymn so expressive of Christian faith and submission to the will of God from the pen of Benjamin Schmolcke, "Mein Jesu, wie du willst." The hymn is based on St. Mark 14:36. It is in very wide use in the German churches, and has been translated by various writers, finding special favor in American and English hymnals. A most excellent translation, which, however, omits several of the verses of the original, is that by Miss Borthwick. MISS BORTHWICK'S TRANSLATION OF SCHMOLCKE'S HYMN My Jesus, as Thou wilt! O may Thy will be mine! I would my all resign. Conduct me as Thine own, And help me still to say, My Lord, Thy will be done! |