IN LATER YEARS -1856-1905 565 



best church music, from Bach and Handel to Mason and 

 Neale : but the sort of revival hymns which are generally 

 sung in Christian Associations, and which date mainly 

 from the Moody and Sankey period, do not appeal to my 

 best feelings in any respect. They seem to me very thin 

 and gushy. This feeling of mine is not essentially un 

 orthodox, for I once heard it expressed by an eminent 

 orthodox clergyman in terms much stronger than any 

 which I have ever used. Said he, &quot;When I was young, 

 congregations used to sing such psalms as this: 



&quot; The Lord descended from above, 



And bowed the heavens most high ; 

 And underneath His feet He cast 

 The darkness of the sky. 



&quot; On cherubim and seraphim 



Right royally He rode, 

 And on the wings of mighty winds 

 Came flying all abroad. 



&quot; His seat is on the mighty floods, 



Their fury to restrain ; 

 And He, our everlasting Lord, 

 Forevermore shall reign. 



But now, he continued, the congregation gets together 

 and a lot of boys and girls sing : 



&quot; Lawd, how oft I long to know 



Oft it gives me anxious thought 

 Do I love Thee, Lawd, or no ; 

 Ami Thine, or am I nawt ! 



There,&quot; said he, &quot;is the difference between a religion 

 which believes in a righteous sovereign Ruler of the uni 

 verse, and a maudlin sentiment incapable of any real, 

 continued, determined effort.&quot; 



I must confess that this view of my orthodox friend 

 strikes me as just. It seems to me that one of the first 



