This song, written early in the last century, by John J. Hicks, recalls the name of the eccentric traveling evangelist, Lorenzo Dow, born in Coventry, Ct., October 16, 1777; died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2, 1834. It was the favorite hymn of his wife, the beloved Peggy Dow, and has furnished the key-word of more than one devotional rhyme that has uplifted the toiling souls of rural evangelists and their greenwood congregations: How sweet to reflect on the joys that await me In yon blissful region, the haven of rest, Where glorified spirits with welcome shall greet me, And lead me to mansions prepared for the blest. There, dwelling in light, and with glory enshrouded, My happiness perfect, my mind's sky unclouded, I'll bathe in the ocean of pleasure unbounded, And range with delight through the Eden of love. The words and tune were printed in _Leavitt's Christian Lyre_, 1830. The same strain in the same metre is continued in the hymn of Rev. Wm. Hunter, D.D., (1842) printed in his _Minstrel of Zion_ (1845). J.W. Dadmun's _Melodian_ (1860) copied it, retaining, apparently, the original music, with an added refrain of invitation, "Will you go? will you go?" We are bound for the land of the pure and the holy, The home of the happy, the kingdom of love; Ye wand'rers from God on the broad road of folly, O say, will you go to the Eden above? The old hymn-tune has a brisk out-door delivery, and is full of revival fervor and the ozone of the pines. "O CANA-AN, BRIGHT CANA-AN" Was one of the stimulating melodies of the old-time awakenings, which were simply airs, and were sung unisonously. "O Cana-an" (pronounced in three syllables) was the chorus, the hymn-lines being either improvised or picked up miscellaneously from memory, the interline, "I am bound for the land of Cana-an," occurring between every two. John Wesley's "How happy is the pilgrim's lot" was one of the snatched stanzas swept into the current of the song. An example of the tune-leader's improvisations to keep the hymn going was-- If you get there before I do,-- _I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_ Look out for me, I'm coming too-- _I am bound for the land of Cana-an!_ And then hymn and tune took possession of the assembly and rolled on in a circle with-- O Cana-an, bright Cana-an! I am bound for the land of Cana-an; O Cana-an it is my hap-py home, I am bound for the land of Cana-an --till the voices came back to another starting-line and began again. There was always a movement to the front when that tune was sung, and--with all due abatement for superficial results in the sensation of the moment--it is undeniable that many souls were truly born into the kingdom of God under the sound of that rude woodland song. Both its words and music are credited to Rev. John Maffit, who probably wrote the piece about 1829. "A CHARGE TO KEEP I HAVE."