JAMES MONTGOMERY (Ayrshire,

―――

Scotland, Nov. 4, 1771 — Sheffield, England, April 30, 1854), editor, publisher, and poet, was the author of over four hundred hymns. He is the one layman, beside Cowper, who has attained fame as the writer of a hymn belonging in the front rank. As an editor be was an ardent reformer, and this cost him fines and imprisonment many times; but his fame as a poet led the government to grant him an annual pension in his later years. Dr. Benson's list of the best church hymns this one is given the tenth place. Its popularity is great in every land, and it has not only become a standard church hymn, but, set to many bright tunes, it is a favorite in religious meetings of all kinds.

In

JERUSALEM, MY HAPPY HOME

JERUSALEM, my happy home,

Name ever dear to me!

When shall my labors have an end,
In joy and peace and thee?

When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls
And pearly gates behold?
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong,
And streets of shining gold?

There happier bowers than Eden's bloom, Nor sin nor sorrow know.

Blest seats! thro' rude and stormy scenes

I onward press to you.
Why should I shrink at pain and woe,
Or feel at death dismay?
I've Canaan's goodly land in view,
And realms of endless day.

Apostles, martyrs, prophets, there

Around my Savior stand;
And soon my friends in Christ below
Will join the glorious band.
Jerusalem, my happy home!

My soul still pants for thee:
Then shall my labors have an end,
When I thy joys shall see.

JAMES MONTGOMERY

THE Rev. John Ellerton (London, Dec. 16,

1826 — White Roding, 1893) is the author of a number of the most stately of our familiar modern hymns. He was a clergyman of the English Episcopal church, educated at Trinity, Cambridge, spending his life in quiet country churches and writing these beautiful hymns. This Easter hymn he gave to the public in 1868 as a rendering of the "Salve, festa dies” of Fortunatus. The old Latin version is the one which Jerome of Prague is said to have sung on his way to death at the stake. English version, by Ellerton, will probably be sung on Easter Sunday morning in almost every church all over the world wherever that tongue is spoken.

The

EASTER HYMN

WELCOME, happy morning! Age to age

shall say

Hell to-day is vanquished, heaven is won to-day!
Lo! the dead is living, Lord for evermore!
Him, their true Creator, all his works adore!

Maker and Redeemer, life and health of all, Thou, from heaven beholding human nature's fall, Of the Father's godhead true and only son, Manhood to deliver, manhood didst put on.

Thou, of life the author, death did undergo, Tread the path of darkness, saving strength to

show.

Come, then, true and faithful, now fulfill thy word; 'Tis thine own third morning; rise, O buried Lord.

Loose the souls long prisoned, bound with Satan's chain;

All that now is fallen raise to life again;
Show thy face in brightness, bid the nations see,
Bring again our daylight; day returns with thee!

JOHN ELLERTON

THIS hymn of the Resurrection, by Charles
Wesley, has taken its place with the foremost
hymns of the church on this subject. It is
found in practically all the hymnals, and has
been ranked, both on popularity and on intrinsic
merit, among the best twenty-five hymns of
Christendom. It is
It is sung in a great many
churches all over the world on the morning
of Easter day, and most frequently in the form
given here, to the tune written by J. Worgan
and entitled " Easter Hymn."