"
When they had finished the verse, he said to them
"Shall we have another?"
"Go on, sir!" they said. "Sure thing!" "Finish it up!"
"Then," said Barry, "sing these words":
"I need Thy presence every passing hour,
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power."
Then when he had finished the verse, he dropped the violin and, moving
to the edge of the platform, said, in a voice vibrant with emotion:
"Don't sing these words, but say them as I play them for you."
He then recited the moving words with which the old hymn closes:
"Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee,
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me."
"I want every one of you to say the words to himself as I play them."
In long-drawn, tremulous notes he voiced the beautiful plea for aid in
the hour of man's supreme need, which finds expression in the first
two lines.
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