Various composers have written music to this universal hymn, but none has given it a choral that it can claim as peculiarly its own. "Brest," Lowell Mason's plain-song, has a limited range, and runs low on the staff, but its solemn chords are musical and commanding. As much can be said of the tunes of Dr. Dykes and Samuel Webbe, which have more variety. Those who feel that the hymn calls for a more ornate melody will prefer Madan's "Helmsley." "LO! WHAT A GLORIOUS SIGHT APPEARS." The great Southampton bard who wrote "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood" was quick to kindle at every reminder of Fruition Day. Lo! what a glorious sight appears To our believing eyes! The earth and seas are passed away, And the old rolling skies. From the third heaven, where God resides, That holy, happy place, The New Jerusalem comes down, Adorned with shining grace. This hymn of Watts' sings one of his most exalted visions. It has been dear for two hundred years to every Christian soul throbbing with millennial thoughts and wishful of the day when-- The God of glory down to men Removes His best abode, --and when-- His own kind hand shall wipe the tears From every weeping eye, And pains and groans, and griefs and fears, And death itself shall die, --and the yearning cry of the last stanza, when the vision fades, has been the household ? [A] of myriads of burdened and sorrowing saints-- How long, dear Saviour, O how long Shall this bright hour delay? Fly swifter round ye wheels of Time, And bring the welcome day! [Footnote A: Transcriber's note--This question mark is in the original. It is possibly a compositor's query which the author missed when correcting the proofs. The missing text could be "word".] _THE TUNES._ By right of long appropriation both "Northfield" and "New Jerusalem" own a near relationship to these glorious verses. Ingalls, one of the constellation of early Puritan psalmodists, to which Billings and Swan belonged, evidently loved the hymn, and composed his "New Jerusalem" to the verse, "From the third heaven," and his "Northfield" to "How long, dear Saviour." The former is now sung only as a reminiscence of the music of the past, at church festivals, charity fairs and entertainments of similar design, but the action and hearty joy in it always evoke sympathetic applause. "Northfield" is still in occasional use, and it is a jewel of melody, however irretrievably out of fashion. Its union to that immortal stanza, if no other reason, seems likely to insure its permanent place in the lists of sacred song. John Cole's "Annapolis," still found in a few hymnals with these words, is a little too late to be called a contemporary piece, but there are some reminders of Ingalls' "New Jerusalem" in its style and vigor, and it really partakes the flavor of the old New England church music.