_TUNE--OLD HUNDRED._

Martin Madan's four-page anthem, "Denmark," has some grand strains in
it, but it is a tune of florid and difficult vocalization, and is now
heard only in Old Folks' Concerts.

* * * * *

The Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D., was born at Southampton, Eng., in 1674. His
father was a deacon of the Independent Church there, and though not an
uncultured man himself, he is said to have had little patience with the
incurable penchant of his boy for making rhymes and verses. We hear
nothing of the lad's mother, but we can fancy her hand and spirit in the
indulgence of his poetic tastes as well as in his religious training.
The tradition handed down from Dr. Price, a colleague of Watts, relates
that at the age of eighteen Isaac became so irritated at the crabbed and
untuneful hymns sung at the Nonconformist meetings that he complained
bitterly of them to his father. The deacon may have felt something as
Dr. Wayland did when a rather "fresh" student criticised the Proverbs,
and hinted that making such things could not be "much of a job," and the
Doctor remarked, "Suppose _you_ make a few." Possibly there was the same
gentle sarcasm in the reply of Deacon Watts to his son, "Make some
yourself, then."

Isaac was in just the mood to take his father at his word, and he
retired and wrote the hymn--

Behold the glories of the Lamb.