"God so loved the world that he gave his

Only begotten

Son, that whosoever believeth on him should

not

Perish, but have

Everlasting

Life."

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with thanksgiving.

O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, give glory.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name, show forth his salvation from day to day.

Since July 1774 Mr. Bliss has been engaged earnestly and almost constantly in evangelistic work in connection with Major Whittle. The following slip which has sometimes been distributed as an invitation to their meetings shows how they shared the work:

WEEK OF PRAYER

MAJOR WHITTLE

WILL PREACH THE GOSPEL,

AND

SEATS FREE.

P. P. BLISS

WILL SING THE GOSPEL,

this Wednesday Evening, Fan. 6th,

AT UNION PARK CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,

ASHLAND AVENUE, OPPOSITE PARK.

ALL INVITED.

FURTHER APPOINTMENT.

"He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man (Jesus Christ) whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead."-Acts. 17: 31.

Friend, are you ready to meet this appointment? There can be no postponement.

Mr. Bliss held these evangelistic meetings in company with Major Whittle, at Mobile, Atlanta, Nashville, Louisville, Chicago, Peoria, Kalamazoo, Jackson, and many other places, and always with great success.

Mr. Bliss sang as earnest ministers preach, not for artistic effects but to express and impress the Gospel. In his singing he was putting in practice what he so often exhorted upon others in his song:

"Let the lower lights be burning,
Send a gleam across the wave;
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save,"

His songs in these "Gospel meetings" were frequently prefaced with a short and earnest prayer by himself or by the reading or repeating of Scripture passages in the audience.

The following brief remarks, made by Mr. Bliss at "The Sunday-school Parliament," on Wellesley Island in the St. Lawrence River, during the summer of 1876, shows his high estimate of sacred music:

"That which ought to have the greatest emphasis just now in regard to sacred music is the

need of greater reverence. While a song is being sung, people will pass up a church aisle or a Sunday-school aisle, whisper to each other, move about the room, distribute or collect library books, put on overcoats, or do a score of other things that one would never think of doing during any other kind of prayer. When we are offering praise or prayer to God in metre, as much as if we were doing it upon our knees, a reverence of manner and spirit should accompany it. Another thing to be enforced in connection with singing is a greater thoughtfulness in regard to the meaning of what we sing. Are the words prayer? Or praise? Let appropriate thought as well as appropriate melody accompany the words."

""

Mr. Bliss is known even more widely as a composer of sacred song than as a singer, being the author of both words and music of the following popular songs: "Jesus loves even me, "Almost persuaded," "Hold the fort," "Pull for the shore," "What shall the harvest be?" "More to follow," "Hallelujah, 'tis done," "Free from the law," "Let the lower lights be burning," "Whosoever heareth," and "Only an armor-bearer."

In all these and his other hymns Mr. Bliss showed a remarkable skill in versifying evangelical doctrine in the very phrases of Scripture.

Mr. Bliss composed with the greatest ease and his music was mostly bright and cheerful. When Haydn was asked, "why his music was so gladsome," he replied, "I can't make any other. `I write as I feel. When I think of God my heart is so full of joy that the words dance and leap from my pen." The same might he said of Mr. Bliss and his music, for he was in perfect harmony with God and his work.

The titles of his books "Sunshine " and "Joy" epitomize the author as a Christian and a composer. Indeed his own name, "Bliss would fulfill George MacDonald's idea of a true name when he says:

"A name of the ordinary kind in this world has nothing essential in it. It is but a label by which a man and a scrap of history may be known from another man and his scrap of history. The true name is one which expresses the character, the nature, the being, the meaning of the person who bears it. To whom is this name given? To him that overcometh.'