“Praise the Lord because he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.  Let them which have been redeemed of the Lord show how he delivereth them from the hand of the oppressor, And gathered them out of the lands:  from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south, when they wandered in deserts and wildernesses out of the way and found no city to dwell in.  Both hungry and thirsty, their soul failed in them.  Then they cried unto the Lord in their troubles, and he delivered them in their distresses.  And led them forth by the right way, that they might go unto a city of habitation.  They that go down to the sea and occupy by the great waters:  they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.  For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, and it lifteth up the waves thereof.  They mount up to heaven, and descend to the deep:  so that their soul melteth for trouble.  They are tossed to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their cunning is gone.  Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.  He turneth the storm to a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.  When they are quieted they are glad, and he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be.”

As yet, the treasures of sacred song which are the liturgy of modern Christians had not arisen in the church.  There was no Watts, and no Wesley, in the days of the Pilgrims; they brought with them in each family, as the most precious of household possessions, a thick volume containing, first, the Book of Common Prayer, with the Psalter appointed to be read in churches; second, the whole Bible in the Geneva translation, which was the basis on which our present English translation was made; and, third, the Psalms of David, in meter, by Sternhold and Hopkins, with the music notes of the tunes, adapted to singing.  Therefore it was that our little band were able to lift up their voices together in song and that the noble tones of Old Hundred for the first time floated over the silent bay and mingled with the sound of winds and waters, consecrating our American shores.

“All people that on earth do dwell,
  Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice: 
Him serve with fear, His praise forthtell;
  Come ye before Him and rejoice.

“The Lord, ye know, is God indeed;
  Without our aid He did us make;
We are His flock, He doth us feed,
  And for his sheep He doth us take.

“O enter then His gates with praise,
  Approach with joy His courts unto: 
Praise, laud, and bless His name always,
  For it is seemly so to do.

“For why?  The Lord our God is good,
  His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
  And shall from age to age endure.”

This grand hymn rose and swelled and vibrated in the still November air; while in between the pauses came the warble of birds, the scream of the jay, the hoarse call of hawk and eagle, going on with their forest ways all unmindful of the new era which had been ushered in with those solemn sounds.