Ives drastically cut his time for composing after his 1918 heart attack. He devoted much of his musical effort to reading, editing, and rewriting songs for inclusion in a planned publication of songs that grew until, in 1922, it was printed as 114 Songs. The relatively few new compositions of these years were mostly songs to be included in the collection; often these were reworked versions of earlier pieces, usually for larger forces than solo voice and piano.

There is little known about the origins of The Collection. The style is old-fashioned and sentimental enough that it could well have been a church anthem he composed years earlier, perhaps when he was the organist at a Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. But there is no evidence of that. Notes in the printed music as well as the keyboard style itself make it clear that the work was conceived for organ and soprano. The song begins with an organ prelude over a pedal A, with a strange middle voice that quickly runs all around the notes of the chromatic scale. After the prelude, however, both the accompaniment and the solo part are purely diatonic until the end. The song is strophic, in two verses, and Ives designates on an additional staff a four-part "Response by Village Choir."

The title and the text of the song do strongly suggest that Ives might have written it to be played during a collection in a church service. The text is by one Kingsley (who is not identified in the printed edition) and concerns the joy of praising God and of helping one another with each other's burdens.

© All Music Guide