How the meeting-house rafters used to ring to that last hymn,
sung to the tune of "Amsterdam!" Sometimes it seemed as if the
very roof was lifted off,--nay, the roof of the sky itself--as if
the music had burst an entrance for our souls into the heaven of
heavens.

I loved to learn the glad hymns, and there were scores of them.
They come flocking back through the years, like birds that are
full of the music of an immortal spring!

"Come, let us join our cheerful songs
With angels round the throne."

"Love divine, all love excelling;
Joy of heaven, to earth come down."

"Joy to the world! the Lord is come!"

"Hark! the song of jubilee,
Loud as mighty thunders' roar,
Or the fullness of the sea
When it breaks upon the shore!

"Hallelujah! for the Lord
God Omnipotent shall reign!
Hallelujah! let the word
Echo round the earth and main."

Ah, that word "Hallelujah!" It seemed to express all the joy of