Or sink in endless woe."
When to the law I trembling fled, It poured its curses on my head: I no relief could find.
This fearful truth increased my pain, "The sinner must be born again,"
And whelmed my troubled mind.
But while I thus in anguish lay, Jesus of Nazareth pa.s.sed that way; I felt His pity move.
The sinner, once by justice slain, Now by His grace is born again, And sings eternal Love!
The rugged original has been so often and so variously altered and "toned down," that only a few unusually accurate aged memories can recall it. The hymn began going out of use fifty years ago, and is now seldom seen.
The name "S. Chandler," attached to "Ganges," leaves the ident.i.ty of the composer in shadow. It is supposed he was born in 1760. The tune appeared about 1790.
"WHERE NOW ARE THE HEBREW CHILDREN?"
This quaint old unison, repeating the above three times, followed by the answer (thrice repeated) and climaxed with--
Safely in the Promised Land,
--was a favorite at ancient camp-meetings, and a good leader could keep it going in a congregation or a happy group of vocalists, improvising a new start-line after every stop until his memory or invention gave out.
They went up from the fiery furnace, They went up from the fiery furnace, They went up from the fiery furnace, Safely to the Promised Land.
Sometimes it was--
Where now is the good Elijah?
--and,--
He went up in a chariot of fire;
--and again,--
Where now is the good old Daniel?
He went up from the den of lions;
--and so on, finally announcing--
By and by we"ll go home for to meet him, [three times]
Safely in the Promised Land.
The enthusiasm excited by the swinging rhythm of the tune sometimes rose to a pa.s.sionate pitch, and it was seldom used in the more controlled religious a.s.semblies. If any attempt was ever made to print the song[22]
the singers had little need to read the music. Like the ancient runes, it came into being by spontaneous generation, and lived in phonetic tradition.
[Footnote 22: Mr. Hubert P. Main believes he once saw "The Hebrew Children" in print in one of Horace Waters" editions of the _Sabbath Bell_.]
A strange, wild paean of exultant song was one often heard from Peter Cartwright, the muscular circuit-preacher. A remembered fragment shows its quality:
Then my soul mounted higher In a chariot of fire, And the moon it was under my feet.
There is a tradition that he sang it over a stalwart blacksmith while chastising him for an unG.o.dly defiance and a.s.sault in the course of one of his gospel journeys--and that the defeated blacksmith became his friend and follower.
Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst county, Va., Sept. 1, 1785, and died near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon county, Ill., Sept., 1872.
"THE EDEN OF LOVE."
This song, written early in the last century, by John J. Hicks, recalls the name of the eccentric traveling evangelist, Lorenzo Dow, born in Coventry, Ct., October 16, 1777; died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2, 1834. It was the favorite hymn of his wife, the beloved Peggy Dow, and has furnished the key-word of more than one devotional rhyme that has uplifted the toiling souls of rural evangelists and their greenwood congregations:
How sweet to reflect on the joys that await me In yon blissful region, the haven of rest, Where glorified spirits with welcome shall greet me, And lead me to mansions prepared for the blest.
There, dwelling in light, and with glory enshrouded, My happiness perfect, my mind"s sky unclouded, I"ll bathe in the ocean of pleasure unbounded, And range with delight through the Eden of love.
The words and tune were printed in _Leavitt"s Christian Lyre_, 1830.
The same strain in the same metre is continued in the hymn of Rev. Wm.
Hunter, D.D., (1842) printed in his _Minstrel of Zion_ (1845). J.W.
Dadmun"s _Melodian_ (1860) copied it, retaining, apparently, the original music, with an added refrain of invitation, "Will you go? will you go?"
We are bound for the land of the pure and the holy, The home of the happy, the kingdom of love; Ye wand"rers from G.o.d on the broad road of folly, O say, will you go to the Eden above?
The old hymn-tune has a brisk out-door delivery, and is full of revival fervor and the ozone of the pines.
"O CANA-AN, BRIGHT CANA-AN"
Was one of the stimulating melodies of the old-time awakenings, which were simply airs, and were sung unisonously. "O Cana-an" (p.r.o.nounced in three syllables) was the chorus, the hymn-lines being either improvised or picked up miscellaneously from memory, the interline, "I am bound for the land of Cana-an," occurring between every two. John Wesley"s "How happy is the pilgrim"s lot" was one of the s.n.a.t.c.hed stanzas swept into the current of the song. An example of the tune-leader"s improvisations to keep the hymn going was--
If you get there before I do,-- _I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_ Look out for me, I"m coming too-- _I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_
And then hymn and tune took possession of the a.s.sembly and rolled on in a circle with--
O Cana-an, bright Cana-an!
I am bound for the land of Cana-an; O Cana-an it is my hap-py home, I am bound for the land of Cana-an
--till the voices came back to another starting-line and began again.
There was always a movement to the front when that tune was sung, and--with all due abatement for superficial results in the sensation of the moment--it is undeniable that many souls were truly born into the kingdom of G.o.d under the sound of that rude woodland song.
Both its words and music are credited to Rev. John Maffit, who probably wrote the piece about 1829.
"A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE."
This hymn of Charles Wesley was often heard at the camp grounds, from the rows of tents in the morning while the good women prepared their pancakes and coffee, and
_THE TUNE._