Dr. John Mason Neale, the translator, was obliged to condense Bernard's exuberant verse, and he has done so with unsurpassable grace and melody. He made his translation while "inhibited" from his priestly functions in the Church of England for his high ritualistic views and practice, and so poor that he wrote stories for children to earn his living. His poverty added to the wealth of Christendom. _THE TUNE._ The music of "Jerusalem the Golden" used in most churches is the composition of Alexander Ewing, a paymaster in the English army. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Jan. 3d, 1830, and educated there at Marischal College. The tune bears his name, and this honor, and its general favor with the public, are so much testimony to its merit. It is a stately harmony in D major with sonorous and impressive chords. Ewing died in 1895. "WHY SHOULD WE START AND FEAR TO DIE?" Probably it is an embarrassment of riches and despair of space that have crowded this hymn--perhaps the sweetest that Watts ever wrote--out of some of our church singing-books. It is pleasant to find it in the new _Methodist Hymnal_, though with an indifferent tune. Christians of today should surely sing the last two stanzas with the same exalted joy and hope that made them sacred to pious generations past and gone-- O if my Lord would come and meet, My soul would stretch her wings in haste. Fly fearless through death's iron gate, Nor feel the terrors as she passed. Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are, While on His breast I lean my head And breathe my life out sweetly there. _THE TUNE._ The plain-music of William Boyd's "Pentecost," (with modulations in the tenor), creates a new accent for the familiar lines. Preferable in every sense are Bradbury's tender "Zephyr" or "Rest." No coming generation will ever feel the pious gladness of Amariah Hall's "All Saints New" in E flat major as it stirred the Christian choirs of seventy five years ago. Fitted to this heart-felt lyric of Watts, it opened with the words-- O if my Lord would come and meet, in full harmony and four-four time, continuing to the end of the stanza. The melody, with its slurred syllables and beautiful modulations was almost blithe in its brightness, while the strong musical bass and the striking chords of the "counter," chastened it and held the anthem to its due solemnity of tone and expression. Then the fugue took up-- Jesus can make a dying bed, --bass, treble and tenor adding voice after voice in the manner of the old "canon" song, and the full harmony again carried the words, with loving repetitions, to the final bar. The music closed with a minor concord that was strangely effective and sweet.