INDIAN HYMNS.

IN de dark wood, no Indian nigh,
Den me look heaben, and send up cry,
Upon my knees so low.

Dat God on high, in shinee place,
See me in night, with teary face,
De priest, he tell me so.

God send he angels take me care;
He come heself and hear my prayer,
If inside heart do pray.

God see me now, he know me here.
He say, poor Indian, neber fear,
Me wid you night and day.

So me lub God wid inside heart;
He fight for me, he take my part,
He save my life before.
God lub poor Indian in de wood;
So me lub God, and dat be good;

Me'll praise him two times more.

When me be old, me head be gray,
Den he no lebe me, so he say:

Me wid you till you die.

Den take me up to shinee place,

See white man, red man, black man's face,

All happy 'like on high.

Few days, den God will come to me,
He knock off chains, he set me free,
Den take me up on high.

Den Indian sing his praises blest,

And lub and praise him wid de rest,
And neber, neber cry.

The above hymn, which may be found in different forms in old New England tracts and hymn-books, and which used to be sung in Methodist conference and prayer-meetings, in the same way that old slave-hymns and the "Jubilee Singers" refrains are sometimes sung now, was composed by William Apes, a converted Indian, who was born in Massachusetts in 1798. His father was a white man, but married an Indian descended from the family of King Philip, the Indian warrior, and the last of the Indian chiefs. His grandmother was the king's granddaughter, as he claimed, and was famous for her personal beauty. He caused his autobiography and religious experience to be published. The original hymn is quite long, and contains some singular and characteristic expressions.

In the early days of New England, before the Indian missions had been brought to an end by the sweeping away of the tribes, several fine hymns were composed by Indians, and were used in the churches. The best known is that beginning,

"When shall we three meet again?"

It was composed by three Indians at the planting of a memorial pine on leaving Dartmouth College, where they

had been receiving a Christian education. The stanzas which follow are particularly fine:

66

Though in distant lands we sigh,
Parched beneath a burning sky,
Though the deep between us rolls,
Friendship shall unite our souls;
And in fancy's wide domain,
There we three shall meet again.

"When the dreams of life are fled,
When its wasted lamps are dead,
When in cold oblivion's shade
Beauty, health, and strength are laid,
Where immortal spirits reign,

There we three shall meet again."

These Indians afterwards met in the same place and composed another hymn, which is as beautiful and touching. It begins:

“Parted many a toil-spent year,
Pledged in youth to memory dear,
Still to friendship's magnet true,
We our social joys renew;
Bound by love's unsevered chafn,
Here on earth we meet again."

VII. RECENT HYMN-WRITERS

AND THEIR HYMNS.

1. FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER.

2. REV. JOHN KEBLE.

3. HORATIUS BONAR, D. D.

4. CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT.

5. SARAH FLOWER ADAMS.

6. PHOEBE CARY.

7. RAY PALMER, D. D.

8. REV. HENRY FRANCIS LYTE.

9. REV. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.