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Christina Georgina Rossetti

1830 - 1894 Person Name: Christina Rossetti Hymnal Number: 70 Author of "A city that hath foundations" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Rossetti, Christina Georgina, daughter of Gabriel, and sister of Dante Gabriel and William Michael Rossetti, was born in London, Dec. 5, 1830, and received her education at home. Her published works include:— (1) Goblin Market, and Other Poems, 1862; (2) The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, 1866 ; (3) Poems, mainly a reprint of Nos. 1 and 2, 1875; (4) A Pageant, and Other Poems, 1881, &c. In addition, Miss Rossetti has published several prose works, as:— Annus Domini (a book of prayers for every day in the year), 1874; Letter and Spirit of the Decalogue, 1883, and others. She has written very few hymns avowedly for church worship, but several centos have been compiled from her poems, and have passed into several hymn-books. These include:— 1. Dead is thy daughter, trouble not the Master. The raising of Jairus's daughter. From her Goblin Market, &c, 1862, into Lyra Mystica, 1865. 2. God the Father, give us grace. Invocation of the Holy Trinity. From Lyra Mystica into the Savoy Hymnary, for use in the Chapel Koyai, Savoy (see No. 8 below). 3. I bore with thee long weary days and nights. The Love of Christ. From her Goblin Market, &c, 1862, into Lyra Messianica, 1864. 4. I would have gone, God bade me stay. Resignation. From her Poems, Hymns, 1884, &c. 1875, into Horder's Congregational Hymns. 5. Once I thought to sit so high. A Body hast Thou prepared Me, or Passiontide. Contributed to Lyra Eucharistica, 1863. 6. The Advent moon shines cold and clear. Advent. From her Goblin Market, &c, 1862. 7 The flowers that bloom in sun and shade. The Eternity of God. In Mrs. C. Brock's Children's Hymn Book, 1881. 8. What are these that glow from afar? Martyrs. Part of the poem "We meet in joy though we part in sorrow," which appeared in Lyra Mystica, 1865, and then in Miss Rossetti's Prince's Progress, &c, 1866. It is the most widely used of her hymns. No. 2 above is also from the same poem. Miss Rossetti's verses are profoundly suggestive and lyrical, and deserve a larger place than they occupy in the hymnody of the church. Her sonnets are amongst the finest in the English language. [Rev.W. Garrett Horder] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============== Rossetti, Christina G., p. 978, i. The following hymns by Miss Rossetti have recently come into common use:— 1. A burdened heart that bleeds and bears. [Lent.] In her Time Flies: A Reading Diary, ed. 1897, p. 59, for March 26; and her Verses, &c., ed. 1898, p. 113. Included in Church Hymns, 1903. 2. Give me the lowest place, not that I dare. [Humility.] From her Prince's Progress, 1866, p. 216. 3. In the bleak midwinter. [Christmas.] In her Poetical Works, 1904, p. 246, as "Before 1872"; repeated in The English Hymnal, 1906. 4. None other Lamb, none other Name. [Jesus, All, and in All] From her The Face of the Deep, &c, 1892 (3rd ed. 1895, p. 176); and her Verses, &c, 1898, p. 36. It is the second of two poetical meditations on Rev. v. 6. In Church Hymns, 1903. 5. The shepherds had an angel. [Christmas.] In her Poetical Works, 1904, p. 187, this is entitled "A Christmas Carol. For my Godchildren," and dated 6 October, 1856. Repeated in the Sunday School Hymnary, 1905. 6. We know not a voice of that River. [The River of the Eternal City.] In The Face of the Deep, &c, 1892 (3rd ed. 1895, p. 523), as a poetical meditation on Rev, xxii. Also in her Verses, &c., 1898, p. 81. Additional works by Miss Rossetti to those named on p. 978, i., include Time Flies A Reading Diary, 1885; Called to be Saints, 1881; Seek and Find, 1879; The Face of the Deep, A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse, 1892; and Verses ... reprinted fromCalled to be Saints, Time Flies, The Face of the Deep, 1893. It must be noted that (1) the hymn attributed to her, "Dead is thy daughter; trouble not the Master," is not by her, but by Mrs. C. F. Alexander, with whose name it appeared in Lyra Mystica, 1865; and (2) her “I would be gone; God bade me stay," is from her Prince's Progress, 1866, p. 204. Miss Rossetti d. Dec. 29, 1891. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Anonymous

Person Name: Anon. Hymnal Number: 281a Author of "Thou God of Love! beneath thy sheltering wings" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.

James Edmeston

1791 - 1867 Hymnal Number: 312 Author of "When the worn spirit wants repose" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Edmeston, James, born Sept. 10, 1791. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Samuel Brewer, who for 50 years was the pastor of an Independent congregation at Stepney. Educated as an architect and surveyor, in 1816 he entered upon his profession on his own account, and continued to practice it until his death on Jan. 7, 1867. The late Sir G. Gilbert Scott was his pupil. Although an Independent by descent he joined the Established Church at a comparatively early age, and subsequently held various offices, including that of churchwarden, in the Church of St. Barnabas, Homerton. His hymns number nearly 2000. The best known are “Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us” and "Saviour, breathe an evening blessing." Many of his hymns were written for children, and from their simplicity are admirably adapted to the purpose. For many years he contributed hymns of various degrees of merit to the Evangelical Magazine, His published works are:— (1) The Search, and other Poems, 1817. (2) Sacred Lyrics, 1820, a volume of 31 hymns and one poem. This was followed by a second Series, 1821, with 35; and a third Series, 1822, with 27 pieces respectively. (3) The Cottage Minstrel; or, Hymns for the Assistance of Cottagers in their Domestic Worship, 1821. This was published at the suggestion of a member of the Home Missionary Society, and contains fifty hymns. (4) One Hundred Hymns for Sunday Schools, and for Particular Occasions, 1821. (5) Missionary Hymns, 1822. (6) Patmos, a Fragment, and Other Poems, 1824. (7) The Woman of Shunam, and Other Poems, 1829. (8) Fifty Original Hymns, 1833. (9) Hymns for the Chamber of Sickness, 1844. (10) Closet Hymns and Poems, 1844. (11) Infant Breathings, being Hymns for the Young, 1846. (12) Sacred Poetry, 1847. In addition to those of his hymns which have attained to an extensive circulation, as those named above, and are annotated in this work under their respective first lines, there are also the following in common use in Great Britain and America:— 1. Along my earthly way. Anxiety. In his Sacred Lyrics, third set, 1822, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. It is given in several collections, but usually in an abbreviated form, and generally somewhat altered. 2. Dark river of death that is [art] flowing. Death Anticipated. Given in his Sacred Lyrics, 3rd set, 1822, p. 39, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines. It is usually given in an abbreviated form, and sometimes as, "Dark river of death that art flowing." 3. Come, sacred peace, delightful guest. Peace. Appeared in his Closet Hymns, &c, 1844, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. 4. Eternal God, before thy throne, Three nations. National Fast. 5. For Thee we pray and wait. Second Advent. 6. God intrusts to all. Parable of the Talents. This is No. 13 of his Infant Breathings, 1846, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. It is a simple application of the parable to the life of a child. It is widely used. 7. God is here; how sweet the sound. Omnipresence. Given as No. 9 in his Sacred Lyrics, 1st set, 1820, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. In the Baptist Hymnal, 1879, No. 45. St. i.-iii. are from this text, and iv. and v. are from another source. 8. How sweet the light of Sabbath eve. Sunday Evening. No. 10 in theCottage Minstrel, 1821, slightly altered. 9. Is there a time when moments flow. Sunday Evening. No. 5 of his Sacred Lyrics, 1st set, 1820, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. 10. Little travellers Zionward. Burial of Children. No. 25 of his Infant Breathings, &c, 1846, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. In the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, it begins with stanza ii., "Who are they whose little feet?" 11. May we, Lord, rejoicing say. National Thanksgiving. Dated 1849 by the author in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymnbook, No. 1008. 12. Music, bring thy sweetest treasures. Holy Trinity. Dated 1837 by the author in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymnbook, No. 167. It is in his Sacred Poetry, 1847. 13. Roll on, thou mighty ocean. Departure of Missionaries. In his Missionary Hymns, 1822, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. It is in common use in America. 14. Sweet is the light of Sabbath eve. Sunday Evening. In 5 stanzas of 41., from the Cottage Minstrel, 1821, where it is given as No. 10, and entitled "The Cottager's Reflections upon the Sabbath Evening." 15. The light of Sabbath eve. Sunday Evening. In 5 stanzas of 4 lines, as No. 11 in the Cottage Minstrel, 1821, p. 14, and headed, "Solemn Questions for the Sabbath Evening." 16. Wake, harp of Zion, wake again. Missions to the Jews. Dated 1846 by the author in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymnbook. It is in his Sacred Poetry, 1847. 17. When shall the voice of singing? In his Missionary Hymns, 1822. It is in a few American collections. 18. When the worn spirit wants repose. Sunday. No. 18, of his Sacred Lyrics, 1st set, 1820, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. It is somewhat popular, and is given in several collections in Great Britain and America, as the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858-80; the Church Praise Book, N. Y., 1881, &c. 19. Why should I, in vain repining? Consolation. No. 14 in the 1st set of his Sacred Lyrics, 1820, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ========================= Edmeston, James, p. 321, ii. Other hymns are:— 1. O Thou Whose mercy guides my way. Resignation. In his Sacred Lyrics, 1st set, 1820, p. 24, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines, and again in his Hymns for the Chamber of Sickness, 1844. 2. Parting soul, the flood awaits thee. Death anticipated. In his Sacred Lyrics, 1st set, 1820, p. 18, in 3 stanza of 8 lines, and based upon the passage in the Pilgrim's Progress:—"Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river, but there was no bridge to go over, and the river was very deep." 3. 'Tis sweet upon our pilgrimage. Praise. In hi3 Closet Hymns and Poems, 1846, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "An Ebenezer Raided." 4. Welcome, brethren, enter in. Reception of Church Officers. Miller says, in his Singers and Songs, 1869, p. 420:—"This is No. 1 of five hymns supplied by Mr. Edmeston, at the request of a friend, for insertion in a provincial hymn-book, on the subject of admitting members," but he does not give the name of the book, neither have we identified It. The hymn, as given in the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859, No. 840, is in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, of which Millet says stanza iii. is by another hand. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Augustus Toplady

1740 - 1778 Person Name: A. M. Toplady Hymnal Number: 258 Author of "Your harps, ye trembling saints" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Toplady, Augustus Montague, the author of "Rock of Ages," was born at Farnham, Surrey, November 4, 1740. His father was an officer in the British army. His mother was a woman of remarkable piety. He prepared for the university at Westminster School, and subsequently was graduated at Trinity College, Dublin. While on a visit in Ireland in his sixteenth year he was awakened and converted at a service held in a barn in Codymain. The text was Ephesians ii. 13: "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." The preacher was an illiterate but warm-hearted layman named Morris. Concerning this experience Toplady wrote: "Strange that I, who had so long sat under the means of grace in England, should be brought nigh unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, amidst a handful of God's people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name. Surely this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous." In 1758, through the influence of sermons preached by Dr. Manton on the seventeenth chapter of John, he became an extreme Calvinist in his theology, which brought him later into conflict with Mr. Wesley and the Methodists. He was ordained to the ministry in the Church of England in 1762, and in 1768 he became vicar of Broadhembury, a small living in Devonshire, which he held until his death. The last two or three years of his life he passed in London, where he preached in a chapel on Orange Street. His last sickness was of such a character that he was able to make a repeated and emphatic dying testimony. A short time before his death he asked his physician what he thought. The reply was that his pulse showed that his heart was beating weaker every day. Toplady replied with a smile: "Why, that is a good sign that my death is fast approaching; and, blessed be God, I can add that my heart beats stronger and stronger every day for glory." To another friend he said: "O, my dear sir, I cannot tell you the comforts I feel in my soul; they are past expression. . . . My prayers are all converted into praise." He died of consumption August 11, 1778. His volume of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship was published in 1776. Of the four hundred and nineteen hymns which it contained, several were his own productions. If on a quiet sea 446 Rock of ages, cleft for me 279 Hymn Writers of the Church, 1915 by Charles S. Nutter =============================================== Toplady, Augustus Montague, M.A. The life of Toplady has been repeatedly and fully written, the last, a somewhat discursive and slackly put together book, yet matterful, by W. Winters (1872). Summarily, these data may be here given: he was born at Farnham, in Surrey, on November 4, 1740. His father, Richard Toplady, was a Major in the British array, and was killed at the siege of Carthagena (1741) soon after the birth of his son. His widowed mother placed him at the renowned Westminster school, London. By-and-by circumstances led her to Ireland, and young Augustus was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, where he completed his academical training, ultimately graduating M.A. He also received his "new birth" in Ireland under remarkable conditions, as he himself tells us with oddly mixed humility and lofty self-estimate, as "a favourite of heaven," common to his school:— "Strange that I who had so long sat under the means of grace in England should be brought right unto God in an obscure part of Ireland, midst a handful of people met together in a barn, and by the ministry of one who could hardly spell his own name. Surely it was the Lord's doing and is marvellous. The excellency of such power must be of God and cannot be of man. The regenerating spirit breathes not only on whom but likewise, when and where and as He listeth." Toplady received orders in the Church of England on June 6, 1762, and after some time was appointed to Broadhembury. His Psalms and Hymns of 1776 bears that he was then “B.A." and Vicar of Broadhembury. Shortly thereafter be is found in London as minister of the Chapel of the French Calvinists in Leicester Fields. He was a strong and partizan Calvinist, and not well-informed theologically outside of Calvinism. We willingly and with sense of relief leave unstirred the small thick dust of oblivion that has gathered on his controversial writings, especially his scurrilous language to John Wesley because of his Arminianism, as we do John Wesley's deplorable misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Calvinism. Throughout Toplady lacked the breadth of the divine Master's watchword "Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us" (St. Luke ix. 50). He was impulsive, rash-spoken, reckless in misjudgment; but a flame of genuine devoutness burned in the fragile lamp of his overtasked and wasted body. He died on August 11, 1778. The last edition of his works is in 6 vols., 8 vo., 1825. An accurate reproduction of most of his genuine hymns was one of the reprints of Daniel Sedgwick, 1860. His name occurs and recurs in contemporary memoirs and ecclesiastical histories, e.g., in Tyerman's Life of John Wesley. The reader will find in their places annotations on the several hymns of Toplady, and specially on his "Rock of Ages,” a song of grace that has given him a deeper and more inward place in millions of human hearts from generation to generation than almost any other hymnologist of our country, not excepting Charles Wesley. Besides the "Rock of Ages" must be named, for power, intensity, and higher afflatus and nicer workmanship, "Object of my first desire,” and "Deathless principle arise." It is to be regretted that the latter has not been more widely accepted. It is strong, firm, stirring, and masterful. Regarded critically, it must be stated that the affectionateness with which Toplady is named, and the glow and passion of his faith and life, and yearning after holiness, have led to an over-exaltation of him as a hymnwriter. Many of his hymns have been widely used, and especially in America, and in the Evangelical hymnbooks of the Church of England. Year by year, however, the number in use is becoming less. The reason is soon found. He is no poet or inspired singer. He climbs no heights. He sounds no depths. He has mere vanishing gleams of imaginative light. His greatness is the greatness of goodness. He is a fervent preacher, not a bard. [Rev. A. B. Grosart, D.D., LL.D.] Toplady's hymns and poetical pieces were published in his:— (1) Poems on Sacred Subjects wherein The Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity, with many other interesting Points, are occasionally introduced. . . Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, in Crane-lane, MDCCLIX.; (2) his Psalms & Hymns for Public and Private Worship, 1776; (3) in The Gospel Magazine, 1771-1776; and (4) in Hymns and Sacred Poems on a variety of Divine Subjects, &c. D. Sedgwick's reprint, 1860. His Works, with a Memoir by W. Row, were published in 6 volumes, in 1794. Walter How was also the editor of the 2nd and some later editions of the Psalms & Hymns. He was a most careless editor, and attributed several hymns by C. Wesley and others to Toplady. The following additional hymns in common use together with centos indicated in the sub-lines, are from:— i. His Poems on Sacred Subjects, 1759. 1. Can my heaven-born soul submit? All for Christ. 2. Come from on high, my King and God. Holiness desired. (1.) 0 might this worthless heart of mine. 3. Earnest of future bliss. The Witness of the Spirit. 4. From Thy supreme tribunal, Lord. Christ's Righteousness a Refuge. (1.) The spotless Saviour lived for me. 5. Great God, Whom heaven, and earth, and sea. For Peace. 6. I saw, and lo! a countless throng. Saints' Days. Revised form in the Gospel Magazine, 1774, p. 449. 7. Immovable our hope remains. Divine Faithfulness. 8. Jesus, God of love, attend. Divine Worship. Pt. ii. is "Prayer can mercy's door unlock." 9. Jesus, Thy power I fain would feel. Lent. 10. Lord, I feel a carnal mind. Mind of Christ desired. 11. My yielding heart dissolves as wax. On behalf of Arians, &c. (1.) 0 Jesus, manifest Thy grace. 12. Not to myself I owe. Praise for Conversion, (1.) Not to ourselves we owe. (2.) The Father's grace and love. 13. 0 that my heart was right with Thee. Dedication to God desired. 14. 0 Thou that hearest the prayer of faith. Christ the Propitiation. 15. 0 Thou Who didst Thy glory leave. Thanksgiving for Redemption. 16. 0 when wilt Thou my Saviour be. Trust in Jesus. (1.) Jesus, the sinner's Rest Thou art. 17. Redeemer, whither should I flee? Safety in the Cross. 18. Remember, Lord, that Jesus bled. Pardon. 19. Surely Christ thy griefs hath borne. Redemption. Revised text in Gospel Magazine, 1774, p. 548. (1.) Weary sinner, keep thine eyes. (2.) Weeping soul, no longer mourn. ii. From the Gospel Magazine. 20. Compared with Christ, in all besides. Christ All in All. Feb. 1772. 21. Eternal Hallelujahs Be to the Father given. Holy Trinity, Dec. 1774. 22. From whence this fear and unbelief. Reviving Faith, Feb. 1772. 23. How vast the benefits divine. Redemption. Dec. 1774. From this "Not for the works which we have done" is taken. 24. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? Christ All and in All, Feb. 1772. From this "If my Lord Himself reveal" is taken. 25. Jesus, immutably the same. Jesus, the True Vine. June, 1771. All these hymns, together with "O precious blood, 0 glorious death" (Death of Christ), are in D. Sedgwick's reprint of Toplady's Hymns, &c, 1860. We have met with several other hymns to which Toplady's name is appended, but for this we can find no authority whatever. -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Thomas T. Lynch

1818 - 1871 Person Name: T. T. Lynch Hymnal Number: 100 Author of "Gracious Spirit, dwell with me" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Lynch, Thomas Toke, was born at Dunmow, Essex, July 5, 1818, and educated at a school at Islington, in which he was afterwards an usher. For a few months he was a student at the Highbury Independent College; but withdrew, partly on account of failing health, and partly because his spirit was too free to submit to the routine of College life. From 1847 to 1849 he was Minister of a small charge at Highgate, and from 1849 to 1852 of a congregation in Mortimer Street, which subsequently migrated to Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square. From 1856 to 1859 he was laid aside by illness. In 1860 he resumed his ministry with his old congregation, in a room in Gower Street, where he remained until the opening of his new place of worship, in 1862, (Mornington Church), in Hampstead Road, London. He ministered there till his death, on the 9th of May, 1871. The influence of Lynch's ministry was great, and reached far beyond his own congregation (which was never large), since it included many students from the Theological Colleges of London, and thoughtful men from other churches, who were attracted to him by the freshness and spirituality of his preaching. His prose works were numerous, beginning with Thoughts on a Day, 1844, and concluding with The Mornington Lecture, 1870. Several of his works were published after his death. His Memoir, by W. White, was published in 1874. Lynch's hymns were published in:— The Rivulet: a Contribution to Sacred Song, London., Longman, 1855, 2nd ed., 1856. This was enlarged by an addition of 67 hymns in 1868. From the first edition of The Rivulet, 1855, the following hymns have come into common use:— 1. All faded is the glowing light. Second Advent. 2. Be Thy word with power fraught. Before Sermon. 3. Christ in His word draws near. Holy Scripture. 4. Dismiss me not Thy service, Lord. Work for Christ. 5. Gracious Spirit, dwell with me. Holy Spirit's presence desired. 6. How calmly the evening once more is descending. Evening. Sometimes "How calmly once more the night is descending." 7. I give myself to prayer. Prayer in Trouble. 8. Lord, on Thy returning day. Public Worship. 9. Lord, when in silent hours I muse. Resignation. 10. Love me, O Lord, forgivingly. Resignation. 11. Mountains by the darkness hidden. Resignation. 12. Now have we met that we may ask. Public Worship. 13. O, break my heart; but break it as a field. Penitence desired. 14. O Lord, Thou art not fickle. Sympathy. 15. O where is He that trod the sea. Christ Walking on the Sea. 16. Oft when of God we ask. Trust in Trial. 17. Rise, He calleth thee, arise. Blind Bartimaeus. 18. Say not, my soul, from whence. Resignation. 19. Where is thy God, my soul? Resignation and Hope. There are also from the 1856 and 1868 eds. the following:— 20. A thousand years have come and gone. Christmas. 21. Lift up your heads, rejoice; (1856.) Advent. 22. Praying by the river side. Holy Baptism. 23. The Lord is rich and merciful. Have Faith in God. 24. There is purpose in this waste. Easter. Lynch's hymns are marked by intense individuality, gracefulness and felicity of diction, picturesqueness, spiritual freshness, and the sadness of a powerful soul struggling with a weak and emaciated body. Although The Rivulet was published for use by his own congregation as a supplement to Watts, more than one half of the hymns were designed for private use only, but were not so distinguished in the work. Its publication caused one of the most bitter hymnological controversies known in the annals of modern Congregationalism. Time, however, and a criticism, broader and more just, have declared emphatically in favour of his hymns as valuable contributions to cultured sacred song. [Rev. W. Garrett Horder] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Lynch, T. T., p. 705, ii. Other hymns by him in recent books are:— 1. My faith it is an oaken staff. Faith in Christ. In the Rivulet, 1855, p. 78. 2. Together for our country now we pray. National, In the Rivulet, 1868, p. 170. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Thomas Moore

1779 - 1852 Person Name: T. Moore Hymnal Number: 240 Author of "As, down in the sunless retreats of the ocean" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Thomas Moore United Kingdom 1779-1852. Born at Dublin, Ireland, the son of a grocer, he showed an early interest in music and acting. He was educated at a private school and Trinity College, Dublin. He read at the Middle Temple for the Bar. Moore did not profess religious piety. His translations of ‘Anacreon’ (celebrating wine, women, and song) were published in 1800, with a dedication to the Prince of Wales. He also wrote a comic opera, “the gypsy prince”, staged that year. In 1801 he published a collection of his own verse, “Poetical works of the late Thomas Little Esq”. A Catholic patriot, he defended the Church of Ireland, especially in later politics. In 1803 he held a post under the Government in Bermuda as registrar of the Admiralty Prize Court. He was bored of it within six months and appointed a deputy to take his place while he left for a tour of North America. He secured high society introductions and even met with President, Thomas Jefferson. Returning to England in 1804, he published “Epistles, Odes, & other poems” in 1806. Moore criticized American slavery and was accused of licentious writings, veiled as refinement. Francis Jeffrey denounced Moore’s writings in the ‘Edinburgh Review’, and Moore challenged him to a duel, but it never happened, and they became friends. Between 1808-1810 he was found acting in various plays, favoring comic roles. He met the sister of one of the actresses and, in 1811, they married. Elizabeth ‘Bessy’ Dyke, was an actress. She had no dowry, and Moore kept their marriage secret from his parents for some time, as his wife was Protestant. Bessie shrank from fashionable society, but those who met her held her in high regard. They had five children, but none survived to adulthood. Three girls died young, and both sons lost their lives as young men. One son, Tom, died in some disgrace in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria. Despite these losses, their marriage was said to be a happy one. He also had political trouble. The man he appointed as his replacement in Bermuda was found to have embezzled 6000 pounds sterling, a large sum, for which Moore was liable. He left for France in 1819 to escape debtor’s prison. He also met Lord Byron in Venice and was entrusted with a manuscript of his memoirs, which he promised to have published after Byron’s death. Moore’s wife and children joined him in Paris, where he learned that some of the debt was repaid with help from Lord Lansdowne, whom Moore had given a draft of money from payment by his publisher. The family returned to England a year later. To support his family Moore entered the field of ‘squib writing’ on behalf of his Whig friends. This resulted in years of political debate about Catholics and Protestants in government. Nearly persuaded to forego his Catholic allegiance in favor of Protestantism, he finally concluded that Protestants did not make a sound case for their faith, as they denounced Catholics so vociferously for erroneous teaching. From 1835 -1846 Moore published a four volume “History of Ireland”, which was basically an indictment of English rule over Ireland. He was primarily a writer, poet, entertainer, and composer, considered politically as a writer for the aristocratic Whigs. His “Sacred songs” (32) were published in 1816, and again, in his “collected works” in 1866. His “Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence” were published by Lord John Russell in 1855. Moore is essentially remembered for his highly-praised lyrics written for Irish melodies, as requested by his publishers, and his memoirs of Lord Byron, his friend. He died at Bromham, Wilshire, England. John Perry ================== Moore, Thomas, son of John Moore, a small tradesman at Dublin, was born in that city, May 28, 1779, educated at a private school and Trinity College, Dublin; read at the Middle Temple for the Bar; held a post under the Government in Bermuda for a short time, and died Feb. 26, 1852. His Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence were published by Lord John Russell in 1855. In that work every detail concerning himself and his numerous publications, most of them of high poetical merit, will be found. His connection with hymnody is confined to his Sacred Songs, which were published in 1816, and again in his Collected Works, 1866. These Songs were 32 in all, and were written to popular airs of various nations. Of these Songs the following have passed into a few hymnbooks, mainly in America:— 1. As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean. Private Prayer. 2. But who shall see the glorious day. The Final Bliss of Man. 3. Come, ye disconsolate, where'er you languish. Belief in Prayer. In American hymnbooks the text is sometimes as in T. Hastings and Lowell Mason's Spiritual Songs, 1831. This may be distinguished from the original by the third stanza, which reads, "Here see the Bread of life; see waters flowing," &c. 4. Fallen is thy throne, O Israel. Israel in Exile. 5. Like morning when her early breeze. Power of Divine Grace. 6. O Thou Who driest the mourner's tear. Lent. 7. Since first Thy word [grace] awaked my heart. God All and in All. 8. Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea. Deliverance of Israel. 9. The bird [dove] let loose in eastern skies. Prayer for Constancy. 10. The turf shall be my fragrant shrine. The Temple of Nature. From this "There's nothing bright above, below" is taken. 11. Thou art, O God, the Life and Light. God, the Light and Life of Men. 12. Were not the sinful Mary's tears? Lent. Of these hymns No. 11 has attained the greatest popularity. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Philip Doddridge

1702 - 1751 Hymnal Number: 257 Author of "Awake, ye saints, and raise your eyes" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Northampton." He died in Lisbon soon after his arrival. Doddridge wrote some four hundred hymn texts, generally to accompany his sermons. These hymns were published posthumously in Hymns, Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755); relatively few are still sung today. Bert Polman ======================== Doddridge, Philip, D.D., was born in London, June 26, 1702. His grandfather was one of the ministers under the Commonwealth, who were ejected in 1662. His father was a London oilman. He was offered by the Duchess of Bedford an University training for ordination in the Church of England, but declined it. He entered Mr. Jennings's non-conformist seminary at Kibworth instead; preached his first sermon at Hinckley, to which Mr. Jennings had removed his academy. In 1723 he was chosen pastor at Kibworth. In 1725 he changed his residence to Market Harborough, still ministering at Kibworth. The settled work of his life as a preceptor and divine began in 1729, with his appointment to the Castle Hill Meeting at Northampton, and continued till in the last stage of consumption. He sailed to Lisbon, in 1751, where he died October 26, the same year. Two hundred pupils in all, gathered from England, Scotland and Holland, were prepared in his seminary, chiefly for the dissenting ministry, but partly for professions. The wide range of subjects, including daily readings in Hebrew and Greek, Algebra, Trigonometry, Watts' Logic, outline of Philosophy, and copious Divinity, is itself a proof of Doddridge's learning. He was presented with his D.D. degree by the University of Aberdeen. His fame as a divine, combined with his wide sympathies and gentle, unaffected goodness, won for him the friendship of Watts, Col. Gardiner and Hervey, and the esteem of Seeker and Warburton. He welcomed the work of Wesley and Whitefield, and entertained the latter on his visit to Northampton. His Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul and The Family Expositor both did good work in their day. For criticism of his hymns see English Hymnody, Early, § XIV. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] After Dr. Doddridge's death his hymns were published by his friend Job Orton, in 1755, as:— "Hymns founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures. By the late Reverend Philip Doddridge, D.D. Published from the Author's Manuscript by Job Orton . . . Salop. Printed by J. Eddowes and J. Cotton, &c. MDCCLV." Concerning the text of the hymns, Orton says in his Preface:— "There may perhaps be some improprieties, owing to my not being able to read the author's manuscript in particular places, and being obliged, without a poetical genius, to supply those deficiencies, whereby the beauty of the stanza may be greatly defaced, though the sense is preserved." The 1st edition contained 370 hymns; the 2nd, 1759, 374; and the 3rd, 1766, and later editions, 375. In 1839 Doddridge's great-grandson re-edited the hymns from the original manuscript and published the same as:— Scriptural Hymns by the Rev. Philip Doddridge, D.D. New and corrected edition containing many hymns never before printed. Edited from the Original Documents by the Author's great-grandson, John Doddridge Humphreys, Esq. Lond. Darton & Clark, 1839. This work contains 22 additional hymns. The text differs in many instances from Orton's, but these changes have not come into common use. In addition to the manuscript used by Orton and J. D. Humphreys, another containing 100 hymns (five of which are not in any edition of the Hymns), all in the author's handwriting, and most of them dated, is referred to in this Dictionary as the "D. Manuscripts." It is the property of Mr. W. S. Booker and family. A manuscript, not in Doddridge's handwriting, of 77 "Hymns by P. Doddridge, Mar. 16, 1739/1740," is in the possession of Mr. W. T. Brooke. The existence of these manuscripts is accounted for from the fact that Doddridge's hymns were freely circulated in manuscript during his lifetime. It is from his correspondence with R. Blair (q.v.) that the few compositions traceable to him in the Scottish Trans. & Paraphrases were derived. The hymns by Doddridge which have attained to the greatest popularity are:— “Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve"; " Do not I love Thee, O my Lord? " "Grace 'tis a charming sound”; " Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes"; "My God, and is Thy table spread?" "O happy day, that fixed my choice"; "O God of Jacob [Bethel], by Whose hand”; " See Israel's gentle Shepherd stand"; "Ye servants of the Lord." These hymns, with many besides, are annotated under their respective first lines. Of the rest, taken from the Hymns, &c, 1755, the following are also in common use:— 1. Behold the gloomy vale. Death anticipated. 2. Behold the Great Physician stands. Christ the Physician. 3. Captives of Israel, hear. Spiritual Deliverance. 4. Eternal God, our wondering souls. Enoch's Piety and Translation. 5. Eternal Source of life and thought. Subjection to the Father. G. Exalted Prince of Life, we own. Christ the Prince and Saviour. 7. Father Divine, the Saviour cried. Christ's Submission to the Father. 8. Father Divine, Thy piercing eye. Secret Prayer. 9. Father of mercies, send Thy grace. Sympathy. The Good Samaritan. 10. Go, saith the Lord, proclaim my grace. Forgiveness. 11. God of Eternity, from Thee. Redeeming the Time. 12. God of my life, through all its [my] days. Praising God continually. 13. God. of salvation, we adore. Praise to God for Redemption. 14. Great Father of mankind. Gentiles brought into the Church. 15. Great God, we sing that mighty hand. The New Tear. 16. Great Leader of Thine Israel's host. During Persecution. 17. Great Lord of angels, we adore. Ordination. 18. Great Spirit of immortal love. Purity of Heart desired. 19. Great Teacher of Thy Church, we own. The Divine Precepts. 20. Hail, everlasting Prince of Peace. Sympathy. 21. Hail to the Prince of life and peace. Praise to Christ. 22. Hear, gracious [Saviour] Sovereign, from Thy throne. The Blessings of the Holy Spirit desired. 23. How gentle God's commands. God's Care of His Own. 24. How rich Thy favours, God of grace. God and His Living Temple. 25. How swift the torrent flows [rolls]. Our Fathers, where are they? 26. Jesus the Lord, our souls adore. Christ the Forerunner. 27. Jesus, we own Thy Sovereign hand. Christ to be fully known hereafter. 28. Loud let the tuneful trumpet sound. Gospel Jubilee. 29. My gracious Lord, I own Thy right. Life in Jesus. 30. My [Dear] Saviour, I am [we are] Thine. Joined to Christ through the Spirit. 31. My soul, with all thy waking powers. The Choice of Moses. 32. Now let our voices join. Singing in the ways of God. 33. 0 injured Majesty of heaven. Lent. 34. 0 Zion, tune thy voice. Glory of the Church of Christ. 35. Peace, 'tis the Lord Jehovah's hand. Resignation. 36. Praise the Lord of boundless might. The Father of Lights. 37. Praise to Thy Name, Eternal God. Growth in Grace desired. 38. Remark, my soul, the narrow bounds. The New Year. 39. Repent, the Voice celestial cries. Lent. 40. Return, my roving heart, return. Heart communing. 41. Salvation, O melodious sound. God our Salvation. 42. Saviour of men, and Lord of love. Ministry and Death of Christ. 43. Searcher of hearts, before Thy face. Peter to Simon Magus. 44. Shepherd of Israel, Thou dost keep. Induction or Settlement of a Minister. 45. Shine forth, eternal Source of light. Knowledge of God desired. 46. Shine on our souls, eternal God. Sunday. 47. Sing, ye redeemed of the Lord. Joy on the Homeward Way. 48. Sovereign of life, before Thine eye. Life and Death in God's hands. 49. The darkened sky, how thick it lours. Sorrow followed by Joy. 50. The day approacheth, O my soul. Judgment anticipated. 51. The King of heaven His table spreads. The Gospel Feast. 52. The promises I sing. The unchanging promises of God. 53. The swift-declining day. Walk in the Light. 54. These mortal joys, how soon they fade. Treasures, Perishable and Eternal. 55. Thy judgments cry aloud. Retributive Providence. 56. Thy presence, Everlasting God. Omnipresence of the Father. 57. 'Tis mine, the covenant of His grace. Death anticipated. 58. To Thee, my God; my days are known. Life under the eye of God. 59. Tomorrow, Lord, is Thine. Uncertainty of Life. 60. Triumphant Lord, Thy goodness reigns. The Divine Goodness. 61. Triumphant Zion, lift thy head. The Church Purified and Guarded. 62. Unite my roving thoughts, unite. Peace. 63. What mysteries, Lord, in Thee combine. Christ, the First and Last. 64. While on the verge of life I stand. Death anticipated with Joy. 65. With ecstacy of Joy. Christ the Living Stone. 66. Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell. Heaven opening. 67. Ye hearts with youthful vigour warm. The Young encouraged. 68. Ye humble souls, that seek the Lord. Easter. 69. Ye sons of men, with joy record. Praise of the Works of God. 70. Yes, the Redeemer rose. Easter In Dr. Hatfield's Church HymnBook, N. Y., 1872, Nos. 9, 12, 14, 15, 21, 23, 25, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 39, 40, 44, 47, 51, 61, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, as above, are dated 1740. What authority there may be for this date we cannot say, these hymns not being in any “D. MSS." with which we are acquainted, and no dates are given in the Hymns, &c, 1755. Some later American editors have copied this date from Dr. Hatfield. Doddridge's hymns are largely used by Unitarians both in Great Britain and America. As might be expected, the Congregationalists also draw freely from his stores. The Baptists come next. In the hymnals of the Church of England the choicest, only are in use. Taken together, over one-third of his hymns are in common usage at the present time. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Doddridge, Philip, D.D. At p. 305 an account is given of a manuscript volume of Doddridge's Hymns, which is the property of the Rooker family. Since that article was written another manuscript vol. has been found. It was the property of Lady Frances Gardiner, née Erskine, an intimate friend of Doddridge, and wife of Col. Gardiner. It is a copy of the Rooker manuscipt, with the revised text, as in the margin of that ms., and is in Doddridge's hand¬writing. It was from this manuscript that the Doddridge hymns were taken for the Scottish Translationsand Paraphrases, 1745. Additional hymns by Dr. Doddridge still in common use include:— 1. My God, how cheerful is the sound. All in Christ. 2. My Saviour, let me hear Thy voice. Pardon desired. 3. My soul, triumphant in the Lord. Divine Guidance assured. 4. No «iore, ye wise, your wisdom boast. Glorying in God alone. From Hymns, No. 128. 5. Now be that Sacrifice survey'd. Christ our Sacrifice. 6. 0 Israel, blest beyond compare. Happiness of God's Israel. 7. Our fathers, where are they? Considering the Past. From Hymns, No. 164. 8. Praise to the Lord on high. Missions. 9. Praise to the radiant Source of bliss. Praise for Divine Guidance. 10. Return, my soul, and seek thy rest. Rest in Jesus. 11. Salvation doth to God belong. National Thanksgiving. 12. Sovereign of Life, I own Thy hand. On Recovery from Sickness. 13. The sepulchres, how thick they stand. Burial. 14. There is a Shepherd kind and strong. The Good Shepherd. From Hymns, No. 216. 15. Wait on the Lord, ye heirs of hope. Waiting on God. 16. We bless the eternal Source of light. Christ's care of the Church. 17. With transport, Lord, our souls proclaim. Immutability of Christ. 18. Ye mourning saints, whose streaming tears. Death and Burial. These all appeared in Dr. Doddridge's Hymns, 1755. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Isaac Watts

1674 - 1748 Person Name: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748 Hymnal Number: 146 Author of "Before Jehovah's awful throne" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary labours. He did not retire from ministerial duties, but preached as often as his delicate health would permit. The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His "Horae Lyricae" was published in December, 1705. His "Hymns" appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is "Behold the glories of the Lamb," written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is everywhere known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. Montgomery calls Watts "the greatest name among hymn-writers," and the honour can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred. Watts died November 25, 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. A monumental statue was erected in Southampton, his native place, and there is also a monument to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey. "Happy," says the great contemporary champion of Anglican orthodoxy, "will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God." ("Memorials of Westminster Abbey," p. 325.) --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872. ================================= Watts, Isaac, D.D. The father of Dr. Watts was a respected Nonconformist, and at the birth of the child, and during its infancy, twice suffered imprisonment for his religious convictions. In his later years he kept a flourishing boarding school at Southampton. Isaac, the eldest of his nine children, was born in that town July 17, 1674. His taste for verse showed itself in early childhood. He was taught Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by Mr. Pinhorn, rector of All Saints, and headmaster of the Grammar School, in Southampton. The splendid promise of the boy induced a physician of the town and other friends to offer him an education at one of the Universities for eventual ordination in the Church of England: but this he refused; and entered a Nonconformist Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690, under the care of Mr. Thomas Rowe, the pastor of the Independent congregation at Girdlers' Hall. Of this congregation he became a member in 1693. Leaving the Academy at the age of twenty, he spent two years at home; and it was then that the bulk of the Hymns and Spiritual Songs (published 1707-9) were written, and sung from manuscripts in the Southampton Chapel. The hymn "Behold the glories of the Lamb" is said to have been the first he composed, and written as an attempt to raise the standard of praise. In answer to requests, others succeeded. The hymn "There is a land of pure delight" is said to have been suggested by the view across Southampton Water. The next six years of Watts's life were again spent at Stoke Newington, in the post of tutor to the son of an eminent Puritan, Sir John Hartopp; and to the intense study of these years must be traced the accumulation of the theological and philosophical materials which he published subsequently, and also the life-long enfeeblement of his constitution. Watts preached his first sermon when he was twenty-four years old. In the next three years he preached frequently; and in 1702 was ordained pastor of the eminent Independent congregation in Mark Lane, over which Caryl and Dr. John Owen had presided, and which numbered Mrs. Bendish, Cromwell's granddaughter, Charles Fleetwood, Charles Desborough, Sir John Hartopp, Lady Haversham, and other distinguished Independents among its members. In this year he removed to the house of Mr. Hollis in the Minories. His health began to fail in the following year, and Mr. Samuel Price was appointed as his assistant in the ministry. In 1712 a fever shattered his constitution, and Mr. Price was then appointed co-pastor of the congregation which had in the meantime removed to a new chapel in Bury Street. It was at this period that he became the guest of Sir Thomas Abney, under whose roof, and after his death (1722) that of his widow, he remained for the rest of his suffering life; residing for the longer portion of these thirty-six years principally at the beautiful country seat of Theobalds in Herts, and for the last thirteen years at Stoke Newington. His degree of D.D. was bestowed on him in 1728, unsolicited, by the University of Edinburgh. His infirmities increased on him up to the peaceful close of his sufferings, Nov. 25, 1748. He was buried in the Puritan restingplace at Bunhill Fields, but a monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey. His learning and piety, gentleness and largeness of heart have earned him the title of the Melanchthon of his day. Among his friends, churchmen like Bishop Gibson are ranked with Nonconformists such as Doddridge. His theological as well as philosophical fame was considerable. His Speculations on the Human Nature of the Logos, as a contribution to the great controversy on the Holy Trinity, brought on him a charge of Arian opinions. His work on The Improvement of the Mind, published in 1741, is eulogised by Johnson. His Logic was still a valued textbook at Oxford within living memory. The World to Come, published in 1745, was once a favourite devotional work, parts of it being translated into several languages. His Catechisms, Scripture History (1732), as well as The Divine and Moral Songs (1715), were the most popular text-books for religious education fifty years ago. The Hymns and Spiritual Songs were published in 1707-9, though written earlier. The Horae Lyricae, which contains hymns interspersed among the poems, appeared in 1706-9. Some hymns were also appended at the close of the several Sermons preached in London, published in 1721-24. The Psalms were published in 1719. The earliest life of Watts is that by his friend Dr. Gibbons. Johnson has included him in his Lives of the Poets; and Southey has echoed Johnson's warm eulogy. The most interesting modern life is Isaac Watts: his Life and Writings, by E. Paxton Hood. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] A large mass of Dr. Watts's hymns and paraphrases of the Psalms have no personal history beyond the date of their publication. These we have grouped together here and shall preface the list with the books from which they are taken. (l) Horae Lyricae. Poems chiefly of the Lyric kind. In Three Books Sacred: i.To Devotion and Piety; ii. To Virtue, Honour, and Friendship; iii. To the Memory of the Dead. By I. Watts, 1706. Second edition, 1709. (2) Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In Three Books: i. Collected from the Scriptures; ii. Composed on Divine Subjects; iii. Prepared for the Lord's Supper. By I. Watts, 1707. This contained in Bk i. 78 hymns; Bk. ii. 110; Bk. iii. 22, and 12 doxologies. In the 2nd edition published in 1709, Bk. i. was increased to 150; Bk. ii. to 170; Bk. iii. to 25 and 15 doxologies. (3) Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children. By I. Watts, London, 1715. (4) The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, And apply'd to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts. London: Printed by J. Clark, at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry, &c, 1719. (5) Sermons with hymns appended thereto, vol. i., 1721; ii., 1723; iii. 1727. In the 5th ed. of the Sermons the three volumes, in duodecimo, were reduced to two, in octavo. (6) Reliquiae Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse, on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written chiefly in Younger Years. By I. Watts, D.D., London, 1734. (7) Remnants of Time. London, 1736. 454 Hymns and Versions of the Psalms, in addition to the centos are all in common use at the present time. --Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================================== Watts, I. , p. 1241, ii. Nearly 100 hymns, additional to those already annotated, are given in some minor hymn-books. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ================= Watts, I. , p. 1236, i. At the time of the publication of this Dictionary in 1892, every copy of the 1707 edition of Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs was supposed to have perished, and all notes thereon were based upon references which were found in magazines and old collections of hymns and versions of the Psalms. Recently three copies have been recovered, and by a careful examination of one of these we have been able to give some of the results in the revision of pp. 1-1597, and the rest we now subjoin. i. Hymns in the 1709 ed. of Hymns and Spiritual Songs which previously appeared in the 1707 edition of the same book, but are not so noted in the 1st ed. of this Dictionary:— On pp. 1237, L-1239, ii., Nos. 18, 33, 42, 43, 47, 48, 60, 56, 58, 59, 63, 75, 82, 83, 84, 85, 93, 96, 99, 102, 104, 105, 113, 115, 116, 123, 124, 134, 137, 139, 146, 147, 148, 149, 162, 166, 174, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 200, 202. ii. Versions of the Psalms in his Psalms of David, 1719, which previously appeared in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707:— On pp. 1239, U.-1241, i., Nos. 241, 288, 304, 313, 314, 317, 410, 441. iii. Additional not noted in the revision:— 1. My soul, how lovely is the place; p. 1240, ii. 332. This version of Ps. lxiv. first appeared in the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, as "Ye saints, how lovely is the place." 2. Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine; p. 1055, ii. In the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, Bk. i., No. 35, and again in his Psalms of David, 1719. 3. Sing to the Lord with [cheerful] joyful voice, p. 1059, ii. This version of Ps. c. is No. 43 in the Hymns & Spiritual Songs, 1707, Bk. i., from which it passed into the Ps. of David, 1719. A careful collation of the earliest editions of Watts's Horae Lyricae shows that Nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, p. 1237, i., are in the 1706 ed., and that the rest were added in 1709. Of the remaining hymns, Nos. 91 appeared in his Sermons, vol. ii., 1723, and No. 196 in Sermons, vol. i., 1721. No. 199 was added after Watts's death. It must be noted also that the original title of what is usually known as Divine and Moral Songs was Divine Songs only. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907) =========== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

Horatius Bonar

1808 - 1889 Person Name: H. Bonar Hymnal Number: 105 Author of "Begin the day with God!" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872 ================================ Bonar, Horatius, D.D. Dr. Bonar's family has had representatives among the clergy of the Church of Scotland during two centuries and more. His father, James Bonar, second Solicitor of Excise in Edinburgh, was a man of intellectual power, varied learning, and deop piety. Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh, Dec. 19th, 1808; and educated at the High School and the University of Edinburgh. After completing his studies, he was "licensed" to preach, and became assistant to the Rev. John Lewis, minister of St. James's, Leith. He was ordained minister of the North Parish, Kelso, on the 30th November, 1837, but left the Established Church at the "Disruption," in May, 1848, remaining in Kelso as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The University of Aberdeen conferred on him the doctorate of divinity in 1853. In 1866 he was translated to the Chalmers Memorial Church, the Grange, Edinburgh; and in 1883 he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly of of the Free Church of Scotland. Dr. Bonar's hymns and poems were, he tells us, composed amid a great variety of circumstances; in many cases he cannot himself recall these circumstances; they also appeared in several publications, but nearly all have boen published or republished in the following:— (i) Songs for the Wilderness, 1843-4. (2) The Bible Hymn Book, 1845. (3) Hymns, Original and Selected, 1846. (4) Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series, 1857; Second Series, 1861; Third Series, 1866. (5) The Song of the New Creation, 1872. (6) My Old Letters, a long poem, 1877. (7) Hymns of the Nativity, 1879. (8) Communion Hymns, 1881. In addition to numerous prose works, he has also edited The New Jerusalem; a Hymn of the Olden Time, 1852, &c. Dr. Bonar's poems—-including many beautiful lyrics, several psalm versions, and translations from the Greek and Latin, a large number of hymns, and a long meditative poem—-are very numerous, too numerous, perhaps, for their permanent fame as a whole. Dr. Bonar's scholarship is thorough and extensive; and his poems display the grace of style and wealth of allusion which are the fruit of ripe culture. Affected very slightly by current literary moods, still less by the influence of other religious poetry, they reveal extreme susceptibility to the emotional power which the phases of natural and of spiritual life exercise; the phases of natural life being recognised chiefly as conveying and fashioning spiritual life, used chiefly for depicting spiritual life, and handled for this purpose with greater delicacy of touch than in the Olney Hymns, and with less conscious purpose than in the Christian Year. As a result of this susceptibility, and from habitual contemplation of the Second Advent as the era of this world's true bliss, his hymns and poems are distinguished by a tone of pensive reflection, which some might call pessimism. But they are more than the record of emotion; another element is supplied by his intellectual and personal grasp of Divine truth, these truths particularly:—The gift of a Substitute, our Blessed Saviour; Divine grace, righteous, yet free and universal in offer; the duty of immediate reliance upon the privilege of immediate assurance through that grace; communion with God, especially in the Lord's Supper, respecting which he insists on the privilege of cherishing the highest conceptions which Scripture warrants; and finally, the Second Advent of our Lord: by his vigorous celebration of these and other truths as the source and strength of spiritual life, his hymns are protected from the blight of unhealthy, sentimental introspection. To sum up: Dr. Bonar's hymns satisfy the fastidious by their instinctive good taste; they mirror the life of Christ in the soul, partially, perhaps, but with vivid accuracy; they win the heart by their tone of tender sympathy; they sing the truth of God in ringing notes; and although, when taken as a whole, they are not perfect ; although, in reading them, we meet with feeble stanzas, halting rhythm, defective rhyme, meaningless Iteration; yet a singularly large number have been stamped with approval, both in literary circles and by the Church. In Great Britain and America nearly 100 of Dr. Bonar's hymns are in common use. They are found in almost all modern hymnals from four in Hymns Ancient & Modern to more than twenty in the American Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865-72. The most widely known are, "A few more years shall roll;" "Come, Lord, and tarry not;" "Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;" "I heard the Voice of Jesus say;" "The Church has waited long;" and "Thy way, not mine, O Lord." In addition to these and others which are annotated under their respective first lines, the following are also in common use:— From Songs for the Wilderness, No. 1, 1843. 1. For Thee we long and pray. Sunday Morning. 2. Holy Father, hear my cry. A Child's Prayer. 3. I thought upon my sins and I was sad. Christ our Peace. 4. Peace to the world, our Lord is come. A Millennial Song. 5. Spirit of everlasting grace. The Vision of Dry Bones. ii. From Songs for the Wilderness, No. 2,1844. 6. Ho, ye thirsty, parched and fainting. Invitation. 7. 0 'tis not what we fancied it. The world renounced. 8. Sing them, my children, sing them still. Children exhorted to Praise. 9. Time's sun is fast setting. Advent. 10. Weep, pilgrim, weep, yet 'tis not for the sorrow. Faith. 11. Yes, for me, for me He careth. Christ the Elder Brother . iii. From The Bible Hymn Book, 1845. 12. Jesus, my sorrow lies too deep. Jesus, the Great High Priest. 13. There is a Morning Star, my soul. The Morning Star. 14. This is not my place of resting. Pressing towards heaven. iv. From Hymns, Original and Selected, 1845. 15. Let there be light, Jehovah said. Creation. v. From Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1st series, 1857. 16. Be brave, my brother. The Fight of Faith. 17. Blessed be God, our God. Good Friday. 18. Everlasting praises. Doxology. 19. Go up, go up, my heart. Heavenly aspirations desired. 20. I close my heavy eye. Evening. Sometimes given as "We close our heavy eyes." 21. I see the crowd in Pilate's hall. Good Friday. 22. Jesus, while this rongh desert soil. Strength by the Way. 23. Jesus, Whom angel-hosts adore. The Word made Flesh. From "The Son of God, in mighty love." 24. Make haste, 0 man, to live. Exhortation to lay hold of Life. 25. No seas again shall sever. Heaven. 26. Oppressed with noonday's scorching heat. Shadow of the Cross. 27. Rest for the toiling hand. Burial. From "Lie down, frail body, here." 28. Shall this life of mine be wasted? Exhortation to Duty. 29. These are the crowns that we shall wear. Heaven. 30. Thy works, not mine, O Christ [Lord]. The Sin-bearer. 31. Where the faded flower shall freshen. Heaven. vi. From Hymns of Faith and Hope. 2nd series, 1861. 32. Be still, my soul, Jehovah loveth Thee. Rest in the Love of God. 33. Christ has done the mighty work. Good Friday. 34. Come, mighty Spirit, penetrate. Whitsuntide. 35. Deep down beneath the unresting surge. Burial at Sea. 36. Fear not the foe, thou flock of God [thou little flock]. Battle-Song of the Church. 37. For lack of love I languish. Lent. 38. From this bleak hill of storms. Eternal Rest desired. 39. He liveth long who liveth well. The True Life. 40. Here shall death's triumph end: the rock-barred door. Easter. From "The tomb is empty: wouldst thou have it full." 41. Jesus, Sun and Shield art Thou. Jesus the First and Last. 42. Jesus, the Christ of God. Praise to Christ. 43. Light of the world, for ever, ever shining. Christ the Light of the World. From "Why walk in darkness? Has the dear light vanished?" 44. Make use of me, my God. Duty desired. 45. Not what I am, 0 Lord, but what Thou art. The Love of God. 46. 0 Light of Light, shine in. Cry of the Weary. 47. 0 love of God, how strong and true. Love of God. 48. 0 love that casts out fear. Love of God. 49. 0 strong to save and bless. Lent. 50. 0 this soul, how dark and blind. Lent. 51. Safe across the waters. Thanksgiving at end of a journey. 52. Silent, like men in solemn haste. Pressing onwards. 53. Speak, lips of mine. Exhortation to Praise. 54. The Bridegroom comes. Advent. vii. From Hymns of Faith and Hope. 3rd series, 1866. 55. Bear Thou my burden, Thou Who bar'st my sin. Lent or Passiontide. 56. Done is the work that saves. Easter. 57. Father, our children keep. Prayer on behalf of Children. 58. Fill Thou my life, 0 Lord my God. Life's Praise. 59. Finish Thy work, the time is short. Earnest labour to the end. 60. From the Cross the blood is falling. Good Friday. 61. He called them, and they left. Obedience. 62. Help me, my [0] God to speak. Truth desired. 63. Holy Father, Mighty God. Holy Trinity. 64. How are my troubles multiplied. Ps. iii. 65. How sweetly doth He show His face Flower Service. 66. Light hath arisen, we walk in its brightness. Sustaining power of Faith. 67. Lo, God, our God has come. Christmas. 68. Lord, give me light to do Thy work. Divine guidance desired. 69. No, not despairingly. Lent. 70. Not to ourselves again. Life in Christ, or, Living unto God. 71. Now in parting, Father, bless us. Post Communion. 72. Sounds the trumpet from afar. Battle-Song of the Church. 73. Thee in the loving bloom of morn. God in all. 74. Through good report and evil, Lord. Faithfulness. 75. To Jehovah, God of might. Praise to the Father. 76. To the name of God on high. Doxology. 77. Upward, where the stars are burning. Heavenward Aspirations. 78. We take the peace which He hath won. The Gift of Peace. 79. When the weary, seeking rest. Intercession for all Conditions of Men. viii. From The Song of the New Creation,1872. 80. For the Bread and for the Wine. Holy Communion. 81. Light of life so softly shining. Light of Life. 82. Yet there is room. The Lamb's bright hall of song. Home Missions. ix. From Hymns of the Nativity, 1879. 83. Great Ruler of the land and sea. Sailors' Liturgy. From Communion Hymns, 1881. 84. Beloved, let us love. Brotherly Love. In several instances these hymns are given in an abbreviated form, and sometimes alterations are also introduced. In this latter respect however Dr. Bonar has suffered less than most modern hymn-writers. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==================== Bonar, Horatius, p. 161, i. He died at Edinburgh, July 31, 1889. In 1890 his son published a posthumous volume of his poetical pieces as Until the Day Break and other Hymns and Poems left behind. The following additional hymns are in common use:— 1. Almighty Comforter and Friend. (1866.) Whitsuntide. 2. Father, make use of me. An altered form of No. 44, p. 162, ii. 3. I ask a perfect creed. (1861.) Creed not Opinions. From this is also taken "O True One, give me truth." 4. Long, long deferred, now come at last. Marriage of the Lamb. Part of "Ascend, Beloved, to the joy." (1861.) 5. Nay 'tis not what we fancied it. (1857.) Vanity of the World. 6. No blood, no altar now. (1861.) The Finished Sacrifice. 7. No shadows yonder. (1857.) Heaven Anticipated. 8. Not with the light and vain. (1857.) Godly Companionship. 9. O Love invisible, yet infinite. (1866.) Divine Love. 10. On the great love of God I lean. (1866.) Love of God our Resting-place. 11. On Thee, O Jesus, strongly leaning. (1866.) Fellowship with Christ. 12. Peace upon peace, like wave on wave. (1866.) Divine Peace. 13. Sower divine, sow the good seed in me. (1857.) Heavenly Sowing. 14. Speaketh the sinner's sin within my heart. (1866.) Ps. xxxvi. 15. Still one in life and one in death. (1857.) Communion of Saints. Part of "'Tis thus they press the hand and part." 16. Surely, yon heaven, where angels see God's face. (1857.) Heaven Anticipated. 17. That city with the jewelled crest. (1857.) Heaven. Part of "These are the crowns that we shall wear." Another cento from the same is "Yon city, with the jewelled crest." 18. That clime is not like this dull clime of ours. (1843.) Heaven. 19. The Free One makes you free: He breaks the rod. (1857.) Freedom in Christ. From "Of old they sang the song of liberty." 20. There is a Morning-star, my soul. (1357.) Christ the Morning Star. 21. This is the day of toil. (1866.) Pressing Onwards. 22. Thy thoughts are here, my God. (1866.) Holy Scripture. 23. Till the day dawn. (1857.) Life's Journey. 24. To Him Who spread the skies. (1866.) Creation's Song. 25. Trustingly, trustingly. (1866.) Trust. 26. Unto th' eternal hills. (1866.) Ps. cxxi. The above dates are: 1843, Songs in the Wilderness; 1857, Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1st Series; 1861, same, 2nd Ser. (not 1864); 1866, same, 3rd Ser. (not 1867), The dates 1857, 1864,1867, were given by Dr. Bonar, but the British Museum copies are 1857, 1861, 1866 respectively. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ============== Bonar, H., pp. 161, i.; 1554, i. The Rev. H. N. Bonar, Dr. Bonar's son, published in 1904, Hymns by Horatius Bonar, Selected and Arranged by his Son H. N. Bonar, With a brief History of some of the Hymns, &c. (London: H. Frowde). From this work we must correct the date of his Song of the New Creation to 1872. We have also enriched our pages by additional and expanded notes on several of Dr. Bonar's most widely used hymns. In his biographical notes, Mr. Bonar refers to Dr. Bonar's work as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, begun in 1848, to which he contributed a hymn for each number. We find that the number of hymns contributed thereto is 101. With Dr. Bonar's poetical productions great difficulty has been encountered by the historian and annotator because of his absolute indifference to dates and details. It was enough for him that he had written, and that the Church of Christ approved and gladly used what, out of the fulness of his heart, he had given her. --Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

John Keble

1792 - 1866 Hymnal Number: 110 Author of "O timely happy, timely wise" in Hymns of the Ages (3rd series) Keble, John, M.A., was born at Fairford, in Gloucestershire, on St. Mark's Day, 1792. His father was Vicar of Coln St. Aldwin's, about three miles distant, but lived at Fairford in a house of his own, where he educated entirely his two sons, John and Thomas, up to the time of their entrance at Oxford. In 1806 John Keble won a Scholarship at Corpus Christi College, and in 1810 a Double First Class, a distinction which up to that time had been gained by no one except Sir Robert Peel. In 1811 he was elected a Fellow of Oriel, a very great honour, especially for a boy under 19 years of age; and in 1811 he won the University Prizes both for the English and Latin Essays. It is somewhat remarkable that amid this brilliantly successful career, one competition in which the future poet was unsuccessful was that for English verse, in which he was defeated by Mr. Rolleston. After his election at Oriel, he resided in College, and engaged in private tuition. At the close of 1813 he was appointed Examining Master in the Schools, and was an exceedingly popular and efficient examiner. On Trinity Sunday, 1815, he was ordained Deacon, and in 1816 Priest, by the Bishop of Oxford, and became Curate of East Leach and Burthorpe, though he still continued to reside at Oxford. In 1818 he was appointed College Tutor at Oriel, which office he retained until 1823. On the death of his mother in the same year, he left Oxford, and returned to live with his father and two surviving sisters at Fairford. In addition to East Leach and Burthorpe, he also accepted the Curacy of Southrop, and the two brothers, John and Thomas, undertook the duties between them, at the same time helping their father at Coln. It should be added, as an apology for Keble thus becoming a sort of pluralist among "the inferior clergy," that the population of all his little cures did not exceed 1000, nor the income £100 a year. In 1824 came the only offer of a dignity in the Church, and that a very humble one, which he ever received. The newly-appointed Bishop of Barbadoes (Coleridge) wished Keble to go out with him as Archdeacon, and but for his father's delicate state of health, he would probably have accepted the offer. In 1825 he became Curate of Hursley, on the recommendation of his old pupil, Sir William Heathcote; but in 1826, on the death of his sister, Mary Ann, he returned to Fairford, feeling that he ought not to separate himself from his father and only surviving sister. He supplied his father's place at Coln entirely. 1827 was memorable for the publication of The Christian Year, and 1828 for the election to the Provostship of Oriel, which his friends, rather than himself, seem to have been anxious to secure for him. In 1829 the living of Hursley was offered to him by Sir William Heathcote, but declined on the ground that he could not leave his father. In 1830 he published his admirable edition of Hooker's Works. In 1831 the Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Philpotts) offered him the valuable living of Paignton, but it was declined for the same reason that Hursley had been declined. In the same year he was also elected to the Poetry Professorship at Oxford. His Praelectiones in that capacity were much admired. In 1833 he preached his famous Assize Sermon at Oxford, which is said by Dr. Newman to have given the first start to the Oxford Movement. Very soon after the publication of this sermon the Tracts for the Times began to be issued. Of these Tracts Keble wrote Nos. 4, 13, 40, and 89. In 1835 his father died, and Keble and his sister retired from Fairford to Coln. In the same year he married Miss Clarke and the Vicarage of Hursley, again becoming vacant, was again offered to him by Sir W. Heathcote, and as the reason for his previous refusal of it no longer existed, he accepted the offer, and in 1836 settled at Hursley for the remainder of his life. That life was simply the life of a devoted and indefatigable parish priest, varied by intellectual pursuits. In 1864 his health began to give way, and on March 29, 1866, he passed away, his dearly loved wife only surviving him six weeks. Both are buried, side by side, in Hursley churchyard. In his country vicarage he was not idle with his pen. In 1839 he published his Metrical Version of the Psalms. The year before, he began to edit, in conjunction with Drs. Pusey and Newman, the Library of the Fathers. In 1846 he published the Lyra Innocentium, and in 1847 a volume of Academical and Occasional Sermons. His pen then seems to have rested for nearly ten years, when the agitation about the Divorce Bill called forth from him in 1851 an essay entitled, An Argument for not proceeding immediately to repeal the Laws which treat the Nuptial Bond as Indissoluble; and in the same year the decision of Archbishop Sumner in the Denison case elicited another essay, the full title of which is The Worship of Our Lord and Saviour in the Sacrament of the Holy Communion, but which is shortly entitled, Eucharistical Adoration. In 1863 he published his last work, The Life of Bishop Wilson (of Sodor and Man). This cost him more pains than anything he wrote, but it was essentially a labour of love. In the popular sense of the word "hymn," Keble can scarcely be called a hymnwriter at all. Very many of his verses have found their way into popular collections of Hymns for Public Worship, but these are mostly centos. Often they are violently detached from their context in a way which seriously damages their significance. Two glaring instances of this occur in the Morning and Evening hymns. In the former the verse "Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love, Fit us for perfect rest above," loses half its meaning when the preceding verse, ending "The secret this of rest below," is excised, as it generally is in collections for public worship, and the same may be said of that most familiar of all Keble's lines, "Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear," which has of course especial reference to the preceding verse, "'Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze," &c. The Lyra Innocentium has furnished but few verses which have been adopted into hymn collections; the Psalter has been more fortunate, but the translations from the Latin are almost unknown. Taking, however, the word "hymn" in the wider sense in which Dr. Johnson defines it, as "a song of adoration to some superior being," Keble stands in the very first rank of hymnwriters. His uneventful life was the very ideal life for such a poet as Keble was, but not the sort of life which would be best adapted to train a popular hymnwriter. The Christian Year and the Lyra Innocentium reflect in a remarkable degree the surroundings of the writer. They are essentially the works of a refined and cultured mind, and require a refined and cultured mind to enter into their spirit. Keble, all his life long, and never more than in the earlier portion of it, before he wrote, and when he was writing The Christian Year, breathed an atmosphere of culture and refinement. He had imbibed neither the good nor the evil which the training of a public or even of a private, school brings. It was not even the ordinary home education which he had received. He had been trained, up to the very time of his going to college, by his father, who was clearly a man of culture and refinement, and had been himself successively Scholar and Fellow of Corpus. When he went to Oxford, he can scarcely be said to have entered into the whirl of university life. The Corpus of those days has been admirably described by Keble's own biographer, Sir John Coleridge, and by Dean Stanley in his Life of Dr. Arnold; and the impression which the two vivid pictures leave upon the mind is that of a home circle, on rather a large scale, composed of about twenty youths, all more or less scholarly and refined, and some of them clearly destined to become men of mark. When he removed across the road to Oriel, he found himself in the midst of a still more distinguished band. Whether at home or at college he had never come into contact with anything rude or coarse. And his poetry is just what one would expect from such a career. Exquisitely delicate and refined thoughts, expressed in the most delicate and refined language, are characteristic of it all. Even the occasional roughnesses of versification may not be altogether unconnected with the absence of a public school education, when public schools laid excessive stress upon the form of composition, especially in verse. The Christian Year again bears traces of the life which the writer led, in a clerical atmosphere, just at the eve of a great Church Revival, "cujus pars magna fuit." “You know," he writes to a friend, “the C. Y. (as far as I remember it) everywhere supposes the Church to be in a state of decay." Still more obviously is this the case in regard to the Lyra Innocentium. It was being composed during the time when the writer was stricken by what he always seems to have regarded as the great sorrow of his life. Not the death of his nearest relations—-and he had several trials of this kind—-not the greatest of his own personal troubles dealt to him so severe a blow as the secession of J. H. Newman to the Church of Rome. The whole circumstances of the fierce controversy connected with the Tract movement troubled and unsettled him; and one can well understand with what a sense of relief he turned to write, not for, but about, little children, a most important distinction, which has too often been unnoticed. If the Lyra had been written for children it would have been an almost ludicrous failure, for the obscurity which has been frequently complained of in The Christian Year, is still more conspicuous in the latter work. The title is somewhat misleading, and has caused it to be regarded as a suitable gift-book for the young, who are quite incapable of appreciating it. For the Lyra is written in a deeper tone, and expresses the more matured convictions of the author; and though it is a far less successful achievement as a whole, it rises in places to a higher strain of poetry than The Christian Year does. Another marked feature of Keble's poetry is to a great extent traceable to his early life, viz. the wonderful accuracy and vividness of his descriptions of natural scenery. The ordinary schoolboy or undergraduate cares little for natural scenery. The country is to him a mere playing field. But Keble's training led him to love the country for its own sake. Hence, as Dean Stanley remarks, “Oxford, Bagley Wood, and the neighbourhood of Hursley might be traced through hundreds of lines, both in The Christian Year and the Lyra Innocentium.” The same writer testifies, with an authority which no other Englishman could claim, to "the exactness of the descriptions of Palestine, which he [Keble] had never visited.” And may not this remarkable fact be also traced to some extent to his early training? Brought up under the immediate supervision of a pious father, whom he venerated and loved dearly, he had been encouraged to study intelligently his Bible in a way in which a boy differently educated was not likely to do. Hence, as Sir John Coleridge remarks, "The Christian Year is so wonderfully scriptural. Keble's mind was, by long, patient and affectionate study of Scripture, so imbued with it that its language, its train of thought, its mode of reasoning, seems to flow out into his poetry, almost, one should think, unconsciously to himself." To this may we not add that the same intimate knowledge of the Bible had rendered the memory of the Holy Land so familiar to him that he was able to describe it as accurately as if he had seen it? One other early influence of Keble's life upon his poetry must be noticed. Circumstances brought him into contact with the "Lake poets." The near relation of one of the greatest of them had been his college friend, and John Coleridge introduced him to the writings not only of his uncle, S. T. Coleridge, but also of Wordsworth, to whom he dedicated his Praelectiones, and whose poetry and personal character he admired enthusiastically. To the same college friend he was indebted for an introduction to Southey, whom he found to be "a noble and delightful character," and there is no doubt that the writings of these three great men, but especially Wordsworth, had very much to do with the formation of Keble's own mind as a poet. It has been remarked that in Keble's later life his poetical genius seemed to have, to a great extent, forsaken him; and that the Miscellaneous Poems do not show many traces of the spirit which animated The Christian Year and the Lyra Innocentium. Perhaps one reason for this change may be found in the increased interest "which Keble took in public questions which were not conducive to the calm, introspective state of mind so necessary to the production of good poetry. The poet should live in a world of his own, not in a world perpetually wrangling about University Reform, about Courts of Final Appeal, about Marriage with Deceased Wife's Sister, and other like matters into which Keble, in his later years, threw himself—heart and soul. It is not needful to say much about Keble's other poetical works, The Psalter was not a success, and Keble did not expect it to be. It was undertaken," he tells us, "in the first instance with a serious apprehension, which has since grown into a full conviction, that the thing attempted is, strictly speaking, impossible." At the same time, if Keble did not achieve what he owned to be impossible, he produced a version which has the rare merit of never offending against good taste; one which in every line reflects the mind of the cultured and elegant scholar, who had been used to the work of translating from other languages into English. Hymnal compilers have hitherto strangely neglected this volume; but it is a volume worth the attention of the hymn compiler of the future. There is scarcely a verse in it which would do discredit to any hymnbook; while there are parts which would be an acquisition to any collection. His translations from the Latin have not commended themselves to hymnal compilers. Some of his detached hymns have been more popular. But it is after all as writer of The Christian Year that Keble has established his claim to be reckoned among the immortals. It would be hardly too much to say that what the Prayer Book is in prose, The Christian Year is in poetry. They never pall upon one; they realise Keble's own exquisite simile:— "As for some dear familiar strain Untired we ask, and ask again; Ever in its melodious store Finding a spell unheard before." And it would hardly be too bold to prophesy that The Christian Year will live as long as the Prayer Book, whose spirit Keble had so thoroughly imbibed, and whose "soothing influence" it was his especial object to illustrate and commend. [Rev. John H. 0verton, D.D.] Keble's hymns, poetical pieces, and translations appeared in the following works :— (1.) The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holy days Throughout the Year. Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1827. Preface dated "May 30th, 1827." The last poem, that on the “Commination," is dated March 9, 1827. The poems on the "Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea," "Gunpowder Treason," "King Charles the Martyr," "The Restoration of the Royal Family," "The Accession," and "Ordination," were added to the 4th edition, 1828. The Messrs. Parker have pub. a large number of editions to date, including a facsimile reprint of the first edition, and an edition with the addition of the dates of composition of each poem. A facsimile of Keble's manuscript as it existed in 1822 was also lithographed in 1882, by Eliot Stock, but its publication was suppressed by a legal injunction, and only a few copies came into the hands of the public. Since the expiration of the first copyright other publishers have issued the work in various forms. (2.) Contributions to the British Magazine, which were included in Lyra Apostolica, 1836, with the signature of "γ." (3.) The Psalter or Psalms of David; In English Verse; By a Member of the University of Oxford. Adapted for the most part, to Tunes in Common Use; and dedicated by permission to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. . . . Oxford, John Henry Parker: J. G. & F. Rivington, London, MDCCCXXXIX. Preface dated “Oxford, May 29, 1839." (4.) The Child's Christian Year: Hymns for every Sunday and Holy-Day. Compiled for the use of Parochial Schools. Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841. This was compiled by Mrs. Yonge. Keble wrote the Preface, dated “Hursley, Nov. 6, 1841," and signed it “J. K." To it he contributed the four poems noted below. (5.) Lyra Innocentium: Thoughts in Verse on Christian Children, their Ways and their Privileges . . . Oxford: John Henry Parker : F. & J. Rivington, London, 1846. The Metrical Address (in place of Preface) “To all Friendly Readers," is dated "Feb. 8, 1846." (6.) Lays of the Sanctuary, and otter Poems. Compiled and Edited by G. Stevenson de M. Rutherford... London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1859. This was a volume of poems published on behalf of Mrs. Elizabeth Good. To it Keble contributed the three pieces noted below. (7.) The Salisbury Hymn-Book 1857. Edited by Earl Nelson. To this be contributed a few hymns, some translations from the Latin, and some rewritten forms of well-known hymns, as "Guide me, 0 Thou great Jehovah," &c. (8.) Miscellaneous Poems by the. Rev. J. Keble, M.A., Vicar of Hursley. Oxford and London: Parker & Co., 1869. The excellent Preface to this posthumous work is dated "Chester, Feb. 22, 1869," and is signed "G.M," i.e. by George Moberly, late Bishop of Salisbury. This volume contains Keble's Ode written for the Installation of the Duke of Wellington as Chancellor of the University of Oxford, in 1834, his poems from the Lyra Apostolica, his hymns named above, his translations from the Latin, and other pieces not published in his works. The most important centos from The Christian Year, which are in common use as hymns, and also the hymns contributed to the Salisbury Hymn Book, 1857, are annotated in full under the first lines of the original poems. The translations from the Latin and Greek are given under the first lines of the originals. There are also several of his more important pieces noted in the body of this work. Those that …have no special history, are the following (the dates given being those of the composition of each piece):— i. From The Christian Year, 1827 and 1828. 1. Creator, Saviour, strengthening Guide. Trinity Sunday. (March 3, 1826.) 2. Father, what treasures of sweet thought. Churching of Women. (March 13, 1827.) 3. God is not in the earthquake: but behold. 9th Sunday after Trinity. The still mall voice. (Aug. 13,1822.) 4. In troublous days of anguish and rebuke. 9th S. after Trinity. The still small voice. (Aug. 13, 1822.) 5. Lessons sweet of spring returning. 1st Sunday after Epiphany. Spring. (May 17,1824.) 6. My Saviour, can it ever be? 4th Sunday after Easter. The promised Comforter. 7. 0 Father of long suffering grace. 18th Sunday after Trinity. God's longsuffering. (Oct. 6, 1823.) 8. 0 God of mercy, God of might, How should, &c. Holy Communion. (Jan. 31, 1827.) 9. 0 Lord my God, do Thou Thy holy will. Wednesday before Easter. Resignation. (Aug. 13, 1821.) 10. 0 say not, dream [think] not, heavenly notes. Catechism. (Feb. 16, 1827.) 11. 0 shame upon thee, listless heart. SS. Philip & James. (Aug. 3, 1825.) 12. 0 who shall dare in this frail scene? St. Mark's Day. (1820.) 13. Red o'er the forest peers the setting sun. 23rd Sunday after Trinity. The Resurrection of the body. (Nov. 12, 1825.) 14. Spirit of Christ, Thine earnest give. Ordination. (March 28, 1828.) 15. Spirit of light and truth, to Thee. Ordination. (March 28, 1828.) 16. Spirit of might and sweetness too. Confirmation. (Feb. 21, 1827.) 17. Sweet nurslings of the vernal skies. 15th S. after Trinity. Consider the lilies. Live for today. (Feb. 3, 1826) 18. The days of hope and prayer are past. 4th Sunday after Easter. The promised Comforter. 19. The live-long night we've toiled in vain. 5th Sunday after Trinity. Miracle of the Fishes. (1821.) 20. The midday sun with fiercest glare. Conversion of St. Paul. (Mar. 2,1822.) 21. The shadow of the Almighty's cloud. Confirmation. (Feb. 22, 1827.) 22. The silent joy that sinks so deep. 2nd Sunday after Epiphany. Turning Water into Wine. 23. Then, fainting soul, arise and sing. 4th Sunday after Easter. The promised Comforter. 24. When brothers part for manhood's race. St. Andrew's Day. (Jan. 27, 1822.) 25. Who is God’s chosen priest ? St. Matthias's Day. 26. Why doth my Saviour weep? 10th Sunday after Trinity. Christ weeping over Jerusalem. (1819.) 27. Why should we faint and fear to live alone? 24th Sunday after Trinity. God's goodness in veiling the future. (June 7, 1825.) 28. Wish not, dear friends, my pain away. 16th Sunday after Trinity. Resignation. (1824.) ii. From The Psalter, 1839. 29. From deeps so wild and drear. Ps. cxxx. 30. God our Hope and Strength abiding. Ps. xlvi. 31. How pleasant, Lord of hosts, how dear. Ps. lxxxiv. 32. Lord, be my Judge, for I have trod. Ps. xxvi. 33. Lord, Thy heart in love hath yearned. Ps. lxxxv. 34. Lord, Thou hast search'd me out and known. Ps. cxxxix 35. My God, my God, why hast Thou me? Ps. xxii. 36. My Shepherd is the living God. Ps. xxiii. 37. My Shepherd is the Lord; J know. Ps. xxiii. 38. Praise the Lord, for He is love. Ps. cxxxvi. 39. Praise ye the Lord from heaven. Ps.cxlviii. 40. Sing the song unheard before. Ps. xcvi. 41. Sound high Jehovah's Name. Ps. cxxxv. 42. The earth is all the Lord's, with all. Ps. xxiv. 43. The mercies of the Lord my God. Ps. lxxxix. 44. The seed of Jacob, one and all. Ps. xxii. iii. From The Child's Christian Year, 1841, and later editions. 45. Bethlehem, above all cities blest. Innocents’ Day. 46. Lo, from the Eastern hills the Lord. l0th Sunday after Trinity. The Gospel. (Late editions.) 47. Our God in glory sits on high. 1st Sunday after Easter. The Epistle. 48. When Christ to village comes or town. 16th Sunday after Trinity. The Gospel. (Late editions.) iv. From Lyra Innocentium, 1846. 49. Christ before thy door is waiting. Presence of Christ in His poor; or, Offertory. 50. How [When] the new-born saints, assembling. Offertory. 51. Once in His Name Who made thee. Holy Baptism. 52. Who for the like of me will care? Naamans' Servant-maid v. From Lays of the Sanctuary, 1859. 53. Lord, lift my heart to Thee at morn. Emigrant's Midnight Hymn. 54. O Love unseen, we know Thee nigh. Cento from No. 53. 55. Slowly the gleaming stars retire. Morning Hymn for Emigrants at Sea. 56. The twilight hour is sweet at home. Evening hymn for Emigrants at Sea. The editor of Keble's Miscellaneous Poems says concerning Nos. 53, 55, and 56:— "The three hymns for Emigrants, for use at Midnight, Morning, and Evening, were written at the request of his friend Sir Frederic Rogers, at that time Emigration Commissioner. They were printed in the first edition of the ‘Prayers for Emigrants, which he had compiled, but were subsequently omitted, perhaps as being thought not sufficiently simple for the class of people for whose use the Book of Prayers was chiefly intended." Preface, p. vi. It is found that nearly 100 hymns (counting centos as such) by Keble are in common use at the present time, and of these some rank with the finest and most popular in the English language. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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