“COME HITHER ALL YE WEARY SOULS,”
Sung to “Federal St.,” is one of the older soul-winning calls from the great hymn-treasury of Dr. Watts; and another note of the same sacred bard,—
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
—is always coupled with the venerable tune of “Wells.”* Aged Christians are still remembered who were wont to repeat or sing with quavering voices the second stanza,—
The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their memory and their sense are gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.
And likewise from the fourth stanza,—
There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave to which we haste.
* One of Israel Holroyd's tunes. He was born in England, about 1690, and was both a composer and publisher of psalmody. His chief collection is dated 1746.