“I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee; O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!” “It was one of those rare moments,” said Dr. Bond to his English readers, “when a great tide of emotions sweeps over a big assembly and carries it out of itself.” Northfield’s Festival of Sacred Music The Northfield Festival of Sacred Music when introduced into the program of the Northfield General Conference in the decade preceding World War II proved to be a thrilling moving event. Coming on the closing Sunday of the many summer programs, it brought immense crowds to the annual gathering at East Northfield which D. L. Moody made so popular by the list of distinguished speakers that he enlisted from British and American pulpits and educational institutions. The fact that the Westminster Choir Summer School was holding its sessions at Mount Hermon, just a short distance across the river, with Dr. John Finley Williamson at its head, made possible Northfield’s festival of sacred music. Choirs from neighboring communities united with the group at the summer school, and for six weeks five hundred singers prepared for the memorable occasion. Twice the writer was in attendance. Much alike each year, yet particular interest attached itself to 1937. This was the season of the D. L. Moody Centenary Celebration, and the fifty-eighth session of the Northfield General Conference. The Festival Choir was divided into a few different groups for various purposes. Yet when the hymns were sung these all participated, and the audience was invited to join them. Within five minutes after the entrances were opened the great auditorium was filled. People also stood in a solid line near the walls. Newspapers reported that about two thousand additional people also stood outside in the hot sun during the rendering of the program, a part of which was broadcast. The audience, inside and outside the building, had its first opportunity to sing when they united in Luther’s soul-stirring hymn: “A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing.” The singing company made the most of it. “The very walls shook,” said my friend in the next seat. The next hymn selection was that which came from Toplady. This the audience knew well, and sang with affectionate enthusiasm: “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.”