[Footnote 8: Born in Edinburgh 1813.] _THE TUNE._ "Malvern," and "Uxbridge" a pure Gregorian, both by Lowell Mason, are common expressions of the hymn--the latter, perhaps, generally preferred, being less plaintive and speaking with a surer and more restful emphasis. ROBERT SEAGRAVE. "Rise, My Soul, and Stretch Thy Wings." This hymn was written early in the 18th century, by the Rev. Robert Seagrave, born at Twyford, Leicestershire, Eng., Nov. 22, 1693. Educated at Cambridge, he took holy orders in the Established Church, but espoused the cause of the great evangelistic movement, and became a hearty co-worker with the Wesleys. Judging by the lyric fire he could evidently put into his verses, one involuntarily asks if he would not have written more, and been in fact the song-leader of the spiritual reformation if there had been no Charles Wesley. There is not a hymn of Wesley's in use on the same subject equal to the one immortal hymn of Seagrave, and the only other near its time that approaches it in vigor and appealing power is Doddridge's "Awake my soul, stretch every nerve." But Providence gave Wesley the harp and appointed to the elder poet a branch of possibly equal usefulness, where he was kept too busy to enter the singers' ranks. For eleven years he was the Sunday-evening lecturer at Lorimer's Hall, London, and often preached in Whitefield's Tabernacle. His hymn is one of the most soul-stirring in the English language: [Illustration: S. Huntingdon] Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings; Thy better portion trace; Rise from transitory things Toward Heaven, thy native place; Sun and moon and stars decay, Time shall soon this earth remove; Rise, my soul and haste away To seats prepared above. Rivers to the ocean run, Nor stay in all their course; Fire ascending seeks the sun; Both speed them to their source: So a soul that's born of God Pants to view His glorious face, Upward tends to His abode To rest in His embrace. * * * * * Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn, Press onward to the prize; Soon your Saviour will return Triumphant in the skies. Yet a season, and you know Happy entrance will be given; All our sorrows left below, And earth exchanged for heaven. This hymn must have found its predestinated organ when it found-- _THE TUNE._ "Amsterdam," the work of James Nares, had its birth and baptism soon after the work of Seagrave; and they have been breath and bugle to the church of God ever since they became one song. In _The Great Musicians_, edited by Francis Huffer, is found this account of James Nares: