tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[66] and his own "Watchman" and the "Two Worlds,"[67] all with violoncello obbligato. In 1889 he had been very ill, and when recovering, said to a Father: "Father Faber wrote the hymn 'Eternal Years.'[68] I have always had the greatest affection for it—quite a passionate affection for it—in connection with Father Faber, and I always used to think that when I came to die, I should like to have it sung to me; and I want you to play it for me." Would a harmonium do? "Yes, a harmonium would be just the thing; perhaps one could be spared me."

So, when evening had set in, a harmonium was put in the passage between his two rooms, a Father knelt at his side reciting each verse, while two others played and sang the "Eternal Years."

[Listen]

Beethoven.

"Some people," he then said, "have liked my 'Lead, kindly Light,' and it is the voice of one in darkness asking for help from our Lord. But this (the 'Eternal Years') is quite different; this is one with full light, rejoicing in suffering with our Lord, so that mine compares unfavourably with it. This is what those who like 'Lead, kindly Light' have got to come to—they have to learn it." Then they played and sang it over again. And he said at the end, "I thank you with all my heart. God bless you. I pray that when you go to Heaven, you may hear the angels singing with the genius that God has endowed them with. God bless you."

To quote as we began, and once again from Cardinal Capecelatro and Father Pope, and we have done. What His Eminence says of the first founder of any Oratorian Congregation may more or less apply to the great Oratorian whom we have mourned: "The sweet enticement of music is quite in harmony with the spirit of St. Philip, and imparts to piety an ineffable gladness and gentleness and grace. Take away from our Saint his delight in music, and you leave his image in our hearts mutilated, despoiled of much of its winning beauty."[69]