Go ask the infidel what boon he brings us, What charm for aching hearts he can reveal, Sweet as that heavenly promise Hope sings us— Earth has no sorrow that God cannot heal. It is a good stanza, but, then, good hymns do not argue. For comments on Thomas Hastings see Hymn 120. _MUSIC._ CONSOLATOR, also known as “Consolation,” “Webbe,” “Alma” or “Alma Redemptor,” is an adaptation of a tune by Samuel Webbe. For comments on Samuel Webbe see Hymn 22. 244. I look to Thee in every need _Samuel Longfellow_, 1819-92 A hymn, much-needed, to express the effect of religious faith and trust upon mental and bodily health. The idea, so essential to the Gospel, has been too largely neglected in most Protestant Churches. The hymn is representative of the fine literary and devotional quality of the author’s poetry. Though an American hymn, it was introduced into the church’s worship in England before it was used in this country. For comments on Samuel Longfellow see Hymn 28. _MUSIC._ O JESU appeared in _J. B. Reimanns Org. v. Hirschb. alter und neuer Melodien Evangel. Lieder_, etc., 1747, where it was set to the hymn, “_O Jesu, warum legst du mir_.” In the original, the first and last notes of each line were half-notes. It is a tune “of a simple, familiar pattern but with a certain quiet dignity.” The composer, Johann Balthaser Reimann, 1702-47, was a German cantor and organist in churches in Neustadt, Breslau, and Hirschberg, Schleswig. 245. My God and Father, while I stray _Charlotte Elliott_, 1789-1871 A hymn written by one who had disciplined herself to accept with patience and resignation the bitter cross of ill health which was laid upon her. She writes of her experience: Oh, many struggles and apparently fruitless ones it has cost me to become resigned to the appointments of my Heavenly Father. But the struggle is now over. He knows, and he alone, what it is, day after day, hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness, languor, and exhaustion; to resolve not to yield to slothfulness, depression, and instability, such as the body causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined to take for my motto: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me.” The hymn is based on Matt. 26:42: “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” It is a hymn of humble resignation. Another hymn, setting forth the will of God as demanding active co-operation, is found at No. 342. Some fine stanzas have been omitted here: Though Thou hast called me to resign What most I prized, it ne’er was mine; I have but yielded what was Thine— “Thy will be done.” Should grief or sickness waste away My life in premature decay, My Father, still I strive to say, “Thy will be done.”