Great God, we sing that mighty hand By which supported still we stand. The opening year Thy mercy shows; Thy mercy crown it till its close! By day, by night, at home, abroad, Still we are guarded by our God. As this last couplet stood--and ought now to stand--pious parents teaching the hymn to their children heard them repeat-- By day, by night, at home, abroad, _We are surrounded still with God_. Many are now living whose first impressive sense of the Divine Omnipresence came with that line. _PARTING._ "GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN." A lyric of benediction, born, apparently, at the divine moment for the need of the great "Society of Christian Endeavor," and now adopted into the Christian song-service of all lands. The author, Rev. Jeremiah Eames Rankin, D.D., LL.D., was born in Thornton, N.H., Jan. 2, 1828. He was graduated at Middlebury College, Vt., in 1848, and labored as a Congregational pastor more than thirty years. For thirteen years he was President of Howard University, Washington, D.C. Besides the "Parting Hymn" he wrote _The Auld Scotch Mither_, _Ingleside Rhymes_, _Hymns pro Patria_, and various practical works and religious essays. Died 1904. _THE TUNE._ As in a thousand other partnerships of hymnist and musician, Dr. Rankin was fortunate in his composer. The tune is a symphony of hearts--subdued at first, but breaking into a chorus strong with the uplift of hope. It is a farewell with a spiritual thrill in it. Its author, William Gould Tomer, was born in Finesville, Warren Co., N.J., October 5, 1832; died in Phillipsburg, N.J., Sept. 26, 1896. He was a soldier in the Civil War and a writer of good ability as well as a composer. For some time he was editor of the _High Bridge Gazette_, and music with him was an avocation rather than a profession. He wrote the melody to Dr. Rankin's hymn in 1880, Prof. J.W. Bischoff supplying the harmony, and the tune was first published in _Gospel Bells_ the same year. _FUNERALS._