I can tarry, I can tarry but a night, Do not detain me, for I am going. * * * * * There the sunbeams are ever shining, O my longing heart, my longing heart is there. * * * * * Of that country to which I'm going, My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light. There is no sorrow, nor any sighing, Nor any sin there, nor any dying, I'm a pilgrim, etc. The same devout poetess also wrote (1840) the once popular consolatory hymn,-- O sing to me of heaven When I'm about to die, --sung to the familiar tune by Rev. E.W. Dunbar; also to a melody composed 1854 by Dr. William Miller. The line was first written-- When _I am called_ to die, --in the author's copy. The hymn (occasioned by the death of a pious friend) was written Jan. 15, 1840. Mrs. Dana (Shindler) died in Texas, Feb. 8, 1883. "JOYFULLY, JOYFULLY ONWARD I MOVE." The maker of this hymn has been confounded with the maker of its tune--partly, perhaps, from the fact that the real composer of the tune also wrote hymns. The author of the words was the Rev. William Hunter, D.D., an Irish-American, and a Methodist minister. He was born near Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ire., May, 1811, and was brought to America when a child six years old. He received his education in the common schools and at Madison College, Hamilton, N.Y., (now Madison University), and was successively a pastor, editor and Hebrew professor. Besides his work in these different callings, he wrote many helpful hymns--in all one hundred and twenty-five--of which "Joyfully, Joyfully," dated 1842, is the best. It began originally with the line-- Friends fondly cherished have passed on before, --and the line,-- Home to the land of delight I will go. --was written,-- Home to the land of bright spirits I'll go. Dr. Hunter died in Ohio, 1877. _THE TUNE._ Rev. Abraham Dow Merrill, the author of the music to this triumphal death-song, was born in Salem, N.H., 1796, and died April 29, 1878. He also was a Methodist minister, and is still everywhere remembered by the denomination to which he belonged in New Hampshire and Vermont. He rode over these states mingling in revival scenes many years. His picture bears a close resemblance to that of Washington, and he was somewhat famous for this resemblance. His work was everywhere blessed, and he left an imperishable influence in New England. The tune, linked with Dr. Hunter's hymn, formed the favorite melody which has been the dying song of many who learned to sing it amid the old revival scenes: Death, with thy weapons of war lay me low; Strike, king of terrors; I fear not the blow. Jesus has broken the bars of the tomb, Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home. "TIS THE OLD SHIP OF ZION, HALLELUJAH!"