XVI. HENRY ALFORD, SIR HENRY WILLIAMS BAKER, SABINE BARING-GOULD, WILLIAM DALRYMPLE MACLAGAN, HENRY TWELLS. The above-named twelve men form a group of clergymen of the Church of England to whom, in the matter of hymnody, we are much indebted. They were all born in the nineteenth century, and all are now dead, excepting only the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Maclagan, and the latter has passed his eightieth milestone. Having served their own generation by the will of God, they have fallen asleep, with the good hope to cheer them that they will serve other generations also with their deathless songs. HENRY ALFORD, the eldest of this group of gifted men, was born in London, October 7, 1810. His father was a clergyman, and his early training good. He won distinction at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was graduated in 1832. Among the friends of his youth he was privileged to number Arthur Hallam and Alfred Tennyson. He was ordained in 1833, and continued in ministerial service until 1871, when he died in the high position of Dean of Canterbury. He was a superior preacher, but his best work was done in the making of books, which carried his name and fame around the world. In the "Story of My Life," by Augustus J. C. Hare, an entertaining but not altogether admirable book, we may read, if we will, the following reference to a visit made to Dean Alford in his cottage in the Kentish hills: "He was more charming than ever, and more eccentric, never wearing stockings, and shoes only when he went out. It was my last sight * * * * * * of this dear friend, with whom I have been more really intimate than with perhaps anyone else, in spite of the great difference in age and position. His grave, in St. Martin's churchyard at Canterbury, is always a very sacred spot to me.” Mention of this sacred spot suggests the following from Dean Alford's biography: "He had himself expressed a wish to be buried in St. Martin's churchyard. The spot chosen for his grave is beneath a yew-tree on the brow of the hill on the south side of the path which leads up from the lich-gate to the western door of the ancient church. At the distance of about half a mile to the west the towers of the Cathedral look down upon his tomb. "Among his papers was found the following memorandum, which, of course, was carefully obeyed: 'When I am gone, and a tomb is to be put up, let there be, besides any indication of who is lying below, these words, and these only, Deversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis, i. e., the inn of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem." " There is room for one other quotation, one of the most notable in all sacred literature, the most exalted utterance of his exalted life, namely, the words with which he concluded his great work on the New Testament Scriptures, referring first of all to the Book of the Revelation. "I have now only to commend to my gracious God and Father this feeble attempt to explain the most mysterious and glorious portion of His revealed Scripture; and with it, this my labor of now four-and-twenty years, herewith completed. I do it with humble thankfulness, but with a sense of utter weakness before the power of His word, and inability to sound the depths even of its simplest sentence. May He spare the hand which has been put forward to touch His Ark; may He, for Christ's sake, forgive all rashness, all perverseness, all uncharitableness, which may be found in this book, and sanctify it to the use of His Church, its truth, if any, for teaching; its manifold defect, for warning. My prayer is and shall be, that in the stir and labor of men over His word, to which these volumes have been one humble contribution, others may arise and teach, whose labors shall be so far better than mine, that this book, and its writer, may ere long be utterly forgotten." When Henry Alford was twenty years old, he sent some hymns to the "Church Observer" and "Christian Guardian," which were duly published. When he was twenty-six years old, he issued a volume of "Hymns for the Sundays and Festivals throughout the Year, with some Occasional Hymns." Having begun well, he continued his interest in hymn writing until he died. The first lines of our hymns received from him are as follows: 77 Thou, who on that wondrous journey. 557 When in the Lord Jehovah's name. In the life of the Rev. J. G. Wood, the eminent naturalist, the story of the birth of one of these hymns is told in an interesting way. From this it appears that the musical festivals then held at Canterbury from year to year were not models of beauty and precision. There was pressing need of change. Mr. Wood's biographer writes: "In 1868 my father attended the festival, and was much shocked to see the slovenly, and even irreverent, behavior of those who, of all men, should have known better. Walking up the center of the choir of the cathedral itself might be seen clergy, arrayed in full canonicals, carrying an ordinary tall hat in one hand, and with a gaily dressed lady on either arm." Think of it, what an amazing spectacle! "The alms at the festival service itself, instead of being presented at the altar, were deliberately and openly placed in a hat, and so carried off to the Chapter House. And all else was conducted on similar principles. "In the first festival which he conducted-that of 1869he managed to secure a great accession of reverence from all concerned; and in that year, for the first time, the alms were duly and properly offered upon the altar by the present Bishop of Dover, who officiated. "His next step was to arrange for a processional hymnan undertaking in which he met with great opposition. Hitherto the surpliced portion of the choir, after robing in the Chapter House, had straggled hurriedly into the choir, mutely and untidily, and a great and impressive effect had been allowed to slip. Now my father wished for a systematic procession. singing some good and solid processional hymn. "His chief difficulty in arranging for this lay in the attitude of the Dean (Dr. Alford), who, for a long time, could not be brought to see that ordinary decorum required an orderly procession, while such a procession was hardly possible unless it were permitted to sing upon the march. Neither could he agree for a while that the impressiveness of the effect was at all a thing to be desired. By dint of much perseverance, however, my father carried his point; and then incontinently followed up his victory by suggesting that the Dean himself should write a processional hymn for the occasion, and compose the music also. The Dean, at first, was a little overcome by the audacity of the proposal, but finally consented; and shortly afterwards my father received a very admirable hymn, with the Dean's compliments. This, however, good as it was, was by no means the kind of hymn which he wanted; and so he wrote off again to the Dean, pointing out that the hymn, while excellent in its way, was not at all adapted to be sung upon the |