8. Rev. Dr. Armitage of New York, in a lecture on "Our Female Hymn Writers," has recently brought to light the touching history of the hymn, beginning,

"I want to be an angel."

"It was written," he says, "by Mrs. Sydney P. Gill, in Philadelphia. In the Sunday-school of Dr. Joel Parker's church she taught the infant class. She had been teaching a lesson on angels, when a little child said, 'I want to be an angel.' A few days after, the child died, the hymn was written for that Sunday-school to sing on her death, and it has struck a chord in every child's heart since 1845."

It was composed April 19, 1845, on the day of the death of a little girl named Annie Louisa Farrand, the Sunday-school scholar to whom Dr. Armitage refers.

The words "I want to be an angel" had at this time been made familiar by the following incident, written by Dr. Irenæus Prime, April 5, 1845, which was being copied by nearly all religious and Sunday-school papers:

"A child sat in the door of a cottage at the close of a summer Sabbath. The twilight was fading, and as the shades of evening darkened, one after another of the stars stood in the sky and looked down on the child in his thoughtful mood. He was looking up at the stars and counting them as they came, till there were too many to be counted, and his eyes wandered all over the heavens, watching the bright worlds above. They seemed just like "holes in the floor of heaven to let the glory through," but he knew better. Yet he loved to look up

there, and was so absorbed, that his mother called to him and said:

"My son, what are you thinking of?'

"He started as if suddenly aroused from sleep, and answered,

"I was thinking

"Yes,' said his mother, 'I know you were thinking, but what were you thinking about?'

"Oh,' said he, and his little eyes sparkled with the thought, 'I want to be an angel.

"And why, my son, would you be an angel?'

"Heaven is up there, is it not, mother? and there the angels live and love God, and are happy. I do wish I was good, and God would take me there, and let me wait on him for ever.'

"The mother called him to her knee, and he leaned on her bosom and wept. She wept too, and smoothed the soft hair of his head as he stood there, and kissed his forehead, and then told him that if he would give his heart to God, now while he was young, the Saviour would forgive all his sins and take him up to heaven. when he died, and he would then be with God for ever. "His young heart was comforted. He knelt at his mother's side and said:

"Jesus, Saviour, Son of God,

Wash me in thy precious blood;

I thy little lamb would be,

Help me, Lord, to look to thee

The mother took the young child to his chamber and soon he was asleep, dreaming perhaps of angels and

heaven. A few months afterwards sickness was on him,
and the light of that cottage, the joy of that mother's
heart, went out. He breathed his last in her arms, and
as he took her parting kiss, he whispered in her ear:
"I am going to be an angel."

9. 'Tis religion that can give
Sweetest pleasure while we live ;

'T is religion can supply

Solid comfort when we die.

After death its joys shall be
Lasting as eternity.

This poem, in six lines, is from an English book, by Mary Masters. In the preface to the work, we read, "The author of the following poems never read a treatise of rhetoric or an art of poetry, nor was ever taught her English grammar. Her education rose no higher than the spelling-book or her writing-master. Her genius to poetry was always discountenanced by her parents, and till her merit got the better of her fortune, she was shut out from all commerce with the more knowing and polite part of the world."

10. The American Sunday-school hymn, beginning,

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus,"

was composed by George Duffield, a Presbyterian clergyman in Detroit. He was born at Carlisle, Penn., in 1818, and graduated at Yale College in 1837. He has written a number of hymns, of which, "Stand up for Jesus," owing perhaps to its associations, is best known. It was composed to be sung after a sermon delivered by the

writer on the sudden death of Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, whose dying words to his Christian brothers were, " Stand up for Jesus."

Dudley Atkins Tyng was born on the 12th of January, 1825, in a quiet parsonage in Prince George Co., Va. His father, Dr. Dudley A. Tyng, removed to St. George's Church, Philadelphia, in which parish Dudley passed his boyhood. He was a precocious scholar. He was able to read the Latin authors at the age of seven, and he entered the University of Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen.

He became the subject of converting grace and experimental religion in 1841. His father relates the following touching incident in connection with his conversion: "Late one night, when all the family had retired to rest, and left me to my closing hour of solitude in my study, I heard the sound of feet descending the stairs. It was this dear boy, who had risen from his bed in sleepless sorrow. As he came into my room and pressed his arms around my neck, he said, "Dear father, I cannot sleep, I am so sinful. Father, will you pray for me?"

In 1854, Mr. Tyng became rector of the church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, and he entered with glowing zeal and love for souls into the revival work associated with the great religious awakening which, soon after his instalment, manifested itself at Philadelphia and in the principal cities of the United States. He was the favorite leader of the great union prayer-meetings held in Philadelphia, and it is said that he met more inquirers during the revival than any other pastor in the city.

In the spring following the great awakening, he met with a terrible accident that proved fatal in its results. "Dr. ," said the young pastor to his physician, "my friends have given me up; they say that I am dying; is that your opinion?" The doctor replied in the affirmative. "Then, doctor, I have something to say to you. I have loved you much as a friend; I long to love you as a brother in Jesus Christ. Let me entreat you now to come to Jesus."

He was asked if he had any message to his brethren in the ministry. He said, addressing his father,

"Father, stand up for Jesus. Tell them, let us all stand up for Jesus."

He became partially unconscious. He did not know any of the members of the family.

"Do you know Jesus?" he was asked.

His answer was jubilant.

"I know Jesus. I have a steadfast trust in Jesus—a calm and steadfast trust."

"Are you happy?"

Perfectly! perfectly."

He was buried amid the tears of more than ten thousand people.

II. The English Sunday-school hymn, so popular in Episcopal churches, beginning,

"Daily, daily sing the praises

Of the city God has made,"

was composed by Sabine Baring Gould, and originally printed on a card for the use of St. John's Mission, Horbury Bridge, Yorkshire. The same year it appeared in