spikes of their helmets and their bayonets glittering over them under a vast tawny cloud of dust, I heard with amazement a deep throated burst of song in English, and it was:

""John Brown's body is mouldering in the ground,
But his soul is marching on,

Glory, hallelujah!'

The German invaders often sang magnificently while marching. German soldiers in our army, in the war of the States, returning to the Fatherland to fight the French, taught their comrades the splendid marching song which the legions of the North sang along the historic highways of Virginia, that Father Abraham's boys were coming and the soul of John Brown was marching on."

This soul-inspiring "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was the incarnation of patriotism and martial feeling pent up in the tune of "John Brown's Body." It was struck out of the white heat of unconscious inspiration-the soul's product of a mighty moment. "All through the wild echoes of the fearful struggle" of the civil war, this song was a messenger of faith, hope, and promise. It is indeed the most resonant and elevating of all American battle hymns. It is simple, but dignified, full of vigor, and is worthy

of being the imperishable war song of a Christian Nation.

Florence Howe Hall says: "The soul of the vast army of the American people, struggling for utterance in the greatest crisis of its existence, at last found a voice to express its meaning, and its aspiration-the voice of a woman"-a voice that will ever make the music of patriots

"While God is marching on."

CHAPTER XI.

"WE ARE COMING, FATHER ABRAHAM.”

EASURED by the service it performed at a most critical period during the war between the States, the song entitled, "We are coming, Father Abraham," deserves a permanent place in the story of the songs of the Union. It was indeed famous in its day and generation, and because it has now largely fallen into disuse is no reason why its story should not be perpetuated. Any important facts bearing on the life and character of the man who wrote the song, or any stirring even that inspired it, cannot fail to be of special interest.

This country saw some dark days in 1862; and although under previous calls there were fully 500,000 volunteers in the field, a demand for more troops was made by the generals, and on the second of July of that year President Lincoln issued a

proclamation for 300,000 more. It was to aid in the filling of the stricken ranks of the Grand Army of the Republic under that call, that Mr. John S. Gibbons wrote the rallying song, which is as follows:

We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream
And from New England's shore.
We leave our plows and workshops,
Our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance,
With but a silent tear.

We dare not look behind us,

But steadfastly before-
We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more!

CHORUS.

We are coming, we are coming,
Our Union to restore;

We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more;
We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more.

If you look across the hilltops
That meet the northern sky,
Long, moving lines of rising dust
Your vision may descry,
And now the wind an instant

Tears the cloudy veil aside

And floats our spangled flag

In glory and in pride,

And bayonets in the sunlight gleam
And bands brave music pour-
We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more!

If you look all up our valleys

Where the growing harvests shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys
Fast forming into line;

And children from their mothers' knees
Are pulling at the weeds,

And learning how to reap and sow,
Against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping
At every cottage door-

We are coming, Father Abraham,
Three hundred thousand more!

You have called us and we're coming,
By Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake,
Our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage grasp

To wrench the murderous blade,
And in the face of foreign foes,
Its fragments to parade.
Six hundred thousand loyal men
And true have gone before-
We are coming, Father Abraham,

Three hundred thousand more!

Mr. Gibbons was a member of the liberal wing of the Quaker family called the Hicksites, founded