pressure of his great pain. No sooner was the fierce spasm past than he rose, seated himself once more at his desk, and resumed his labor till seized by another intolerable spasm. And thus the day would wear on, labor and anguish alternating many times; until at last, utterly exhausted by the weary conflict, he would lie still and prostrate on the ground."

This is one story; there are many others like it. How true is Shelley's utterance:

Most wretched men

Are cradled into poetry by wrong,

They learn in suffering what they teach in song.

The best of our hymns tell of heavenly light and strength afforded to struggling souls. Hence their power.

III. The stamp of truest catholicity, the catholicity of the heart, is upon our hymnal. It has welcomed words of celestial song from writers belonging to the historic churches. It has clasped to its heart the lays of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Lutherans; nor in doing so, has it failed to find a place for the "Quaker" poet, Bernard Barton, the "Irvingite," E. W. Eddis, and the "Plymouth Brother," J. G. Deck. If a motto were needed for "The hymnal revised and enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-two," it might well be, "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

IV. St. Paul declares: "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the understanding also." So, with the Spirit and with the understanding in happy unison, let us devoutly cry:

492

One sole baptismal sign,

One Lord, below, above,

One faith, one hope divine,

One only watchword, Love:

From different temples though it rise,
One song ascendeth to the skies.

Our sacrifice is one,

One Priest before the throne,

The slain, the risen Son,

Redeemer, Lord alone!

And sighs from contrite hearts that spring,

Our chief, our choicest offering.

Head of Thy Church beneath,
The catholic, the true,
On all her members breathe,

Her broken frame renew!

Then shall Thy perfect will be done,

When Christians love and live as one.

XIX.

Biographical Notes