At another time Mr. Sankey sang the same hymn from the steps of a snow-bound train, and a man between whose father and himself had been trouble and a separation, was touched, and returned to be reconciled after an absence of twenty years. At one evening service in Stanberry, Mo., the singing of the hymn by the leader of the choir led to the conversion of one boy who was present, and whose parents were that night praying for him in an eastern state, and inspired such earnest prayer in the hearts of two other runaway boys' parents that the same answer followed. There would not be room in a dozen pages to record all the similar saving incidents connected with the singing of "Where Is My Wandering Boy?" The rhetoric of love is strong in every note and syllable of the solo, and the tender chorus of voices swells the song to heaven like an antiphonal prayer. Strange to say, Dr. Lowry set lightly by his hymns and tunes, and deprecated much mention of them though he could not deny their success. An active Christian since seventeen years of age, through his early pulpit service, his six years' professorship, and the long pastorate in Plainfield, N.J., closed by his death, he considered preaching to be his supreme function as it certainly was his first love. Music was to him "a side-issue," an "efflorescence," and writing a hymn ranked far below making and delivering a sermon. "I felt a sort of meanness when I began to be known as a composer," he said. And yet he was the author of a hymn and tune which "has done more to bring back wandering boys than any other" ever written.[45] [Footnote 45: "Where Is My Boy Tonight" was composed for a book of temperance hymns, _The Fountain of Song_, 1877.] "ETERNITY." This is the title and refrain of both Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates' impressive poem and its tune. O the clanging bells of Time! Night and day they never cease; We are weaned with their chime, For they do not bring us peace. And we hush our hearts to hear, And we strain our eyes to see If thy shores are drawing near Eternity! Eternity! Skill was needed to vocalize this great word, but the ear of Mr. Bliss for musical prosody did not fail to make it effective. After the beautiful harmony through the seven lines, the choral reverently softens under the rallentando of the closing bars, and dwelling on the awe-inspiring syllables, solemnly dies away. TRIUMPH BY AND BY. This rally-song of the Christian arena is wonderfully stirring, especially in great meetings, for it sings best in full choral volume. The prize is set before us, To win His words implore us, The eye of God is o'er us From on high. His loving tones are falling While sin is dark, appalling, 'Tis Jesus gently calling; He is nigh! CHORUS. By and by we shall meet Him, By and by we shall greet Him, And with Jesus reign in glory, By and by!