Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-03
CONTINUED from Third Page.)

| Oh, come, come. come. come,
Come to the church In the wildwood
, Come to the church in the dale.
No spot Is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church In the vale.
Most persons singing hymns sing
notes, not nouns, sing pitch and not
ideas. vocalize, but do not in any way
sense the text. The important part
of every hymn is its poetry-the
| Textile elimination Of devotion
through the stanzas," declares Prof.
Smith.
! He says Come to the Church in
the Wildwood" is essentially col
ilege song about my love-
! She could dance, she could sing
/ Size could turn handspring
! She could climb up sycamore tree,
{ Such a tune is all right for people
! dressed in Knockers at a picnic, but
very bad literature and music"
/ 'Brightenthe Corner Where You
| Are" he says, sis like all popular
! songs-its power lies in its first line.
! after you have said Brighten the
! Corner Where You Are you have
said all. 1t was Irving Berlin who
made q mint out of two words of
popular song. He took the discarded,
out thickness lyric My Wife's
Gone to the Country and added two
lwords-'Hooray, Hooray!'-and sold
| it to the people of the United States
for dollars!"
! Have you forgotten Brighten the
Corner Where You Arec"
| 10 not wait-unti some deed of greatness
! you may do,
| Do not wait to shed your light afar-
| To the many duties ever near you now be true,
! Brighten the corner where you are.
| CHORUS.
Brighten the corner where you are,
| Brighten the corner where you are
Some one far from harbor you may guide
| across the bar
Brighten the corner where you are.
IuOMER RoDEHEAvER, former
- Billy Sunday song leader, tells
something of the history of this
hymn. Mr.. Rodeheaver says that it's
author was virtually 4 'shut-in" for
lyears. Her father was an invalid and
required constant care. The woman,
lit seems, had always wanted to be a
foreign missionary, and when she
came to realize her ambition had to
'be discarded she felt greatly disap-
|pointed.
zone day." says Mr.. Eodeheaver,
i"the author Of this song had call
from a neighbour woman in very
istraitened circumstances, and with
far less worldly soods--but thor
Tough optimist. The poorer woman
told the other, who was nursing her
sick father, that the hours spent in
1.-The quiet Of her comfortable home
really were the bright spots in her
life. .. ~.
after ALL unused the woman, 4
should try to be happier, to brighten
1.-THE corner whore the Lord has placed
,me.' Then and there the idea for this
jinspirational hymn was born"
An American missionary once wrote
that in the interior Of Siam he heard
q native Siamese girl sing Brighten
I the Corner Where You Are" in perfect
English at a Sunday school reception.
| Do you recall IT'S Not This the Land
OF Beu1ahT' the first line of which is,
IT am dwelling on the mountain?
This song received a black eye from
the Boston University professor.
my goodness alive, why will
church people insist on singing about
dwelling on mountain peaks? why do
they ALWAYS sing about far-off lands
of beauty and selfish comfort? Il say
that the same singers should shout
about cleaning up the movies. cleans
ing their cities of the moral filth that
Is in them, try to make heaven here
on earth. Then dwelling houses
would be homes Of love and joy.
Sinsing about dwelling on noun
tain top doesn't get any Christian
kanywhere."