WORLD FRIENDSHIP AND PEACE 350. O God, we pray for all mankind _Howard J. Conover_, 1850-1925 A prayer for all the nations. The author, Howard J. Conover, was born in New Jersey, the son of devout Christian parents. He was educated at Pennington Seminary, Pennington, N. J., and Dickinson College. He took up the ministry and was known to be a studious, devout, and thoroughly faithful pastor, serving a number of churches in his native state. A nephew, Elbert M. Conover, is the director of The Interdenominational Bureau of Architecture, with offices in New York City, serving twenty-five denominations. _MUSIC._ ORTONVILLE. For comments on this tune see Hymn 120. 351. God the All-Merciful _Henry F. Chorley_, 1808-72 A touching cry for peace, based on the Russian national hymn by Chorley. This paraphrase was written by John Ellerton, in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. It was published in _Church Hymns_ in 1871. Henry F. Chorley, an English man of letters, received his education at the Royal Institution, Liverpool. He was a literary and music critic and a friend and great admirer of Charles Dickens. For 34 years he was on the editorial staff of the _Athenaeum_, published in London. _MUSIC._ RUSSIAN HYMN was composed for the words, “God save the Czar,” the national Russian anthem written in 1833. It is a stately, powerful tune which most congregations love to sing, especially after it has been used often enough to overcome certain of its difficulties. It was written at the command of the Czar who ordered it adopted for the army. But there is nothing about the tune itself to render it inappropriate for the churches. In his _Memoirs_, Lwoff says that in composing this tune he “felt and fully appreciated the necessity of accomplishing something which would be robust, stately, stirring, national in character, something worthy to reverberate either in a church, through the soldiers’ ranks, or amongst a crowd of people, something which would appeal alike to the lettered and the ignorant.” The composer, Alexis T. Lwoff, 1799-1871, was an eminent Russian musician, succeeding his father in St. Petersburg as head of the imperial choir where he not only maintained the traditions of that great organization, but raised it to still greater heights of eminence. He composed violin concertos, operas, and church music. Lwoff had a thorough understanding of the canonical services of the Russian Church, and his collection of ritual chants is still considered authoritative. 352. O God of love, O King of peace _Henry W. Baker_, 1821-77 An ardent prayer for universal peace. This noble hymn was contributed by the author to _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, London, 1861, a notable book of which Baker was chief editor. For comments on the author, Henry W. Baker, see Hymn 143. _MUSIC._ QUEBEC. For comments on this tune and its composer see Hymn 171.