Hail, ye saints, th' exalted Saviour,
Let His courts with praise resound.


_THE TUNE._

"Haydn," bearing the name of its great composer, is in several important
hymnals the chosen music for William Goode's devout words. Its strain
and spirit are lofty and melodious and in entire accord with the pious
poet's praise.

Joseph Haydn, son of a poor wheelwright, was born 1732, in Rohron, a
village on the borders of Hungary and Austria. His precocity of musical
talent was such that he began composing at the age of ten years. Prince
Esterhazy discovered his genius when he was poor and friendless, and his
fortune was made. While Music Master for the Prince's Private Chapel
(twenty years) he wrote many of his beautiful symphonies which placed
him among the foremost in that class of music. Invited to England, he
received the Doctor's degree at Oxford, and composed his great oratorio
of "The Creation," besides his "Twelve Grand Symphonies," and a long
list of minor musical works secular and sacred. His invention was
inexhaustible.

Haydn seems to have been a sincerely pious man. When writing his great
oratorio of "The Creation" at sixty-seven years of age, "I knelt down
every day," he says, "and prayed God to strengthen me for my work." This
daily spiritual preparation was similar to Handel's when he was creating
his "Messiah." Change one word and it may be said of sacred music as
truly as of astronomy, "The undevout composer is mad."