death before the eyes of a whole community, unless the jackals take courage from his helpless state to finish him a little sooner." Reginald Heber was Bishop of India for only three years, when he fell as a brave Christian soldier, standing by his post. His cares were many and weighty-the care of all the churches; but to him that which overwhelmed him was "his crown and his glory." And so in the service of the churches he must press on and on. Sudden death came to him whilst absent on a visitation at Trichinopoly, fanned by the "spicy breezes" which "blow soft o'er Ceylon's Isle." He had worked too hard in a land of oppressive heat, and the carrying of burdens had impaired his vital powers. Soon after he had finished a service of confirmation he was called to his reward. As his widow puts it, "He had scarcely ceased from glorifying God in his mortal frame, when he was summoned to join in that angelic chorus of praise and thanksgiving, whose voices fill heaven in honor of their Maker and Redeemer." Of course his death was like great shock to earnest Churchmen in England as well as in India. Mural tablets were erected in his honor both at home and abroad. The one in a church in one of the cities of "Ceylon's Isle" is fairly descriptive of the spirit of all of them, and tells the truth concisely: "This tablet is erected by the British in Ceylon to the memory of Reginald Heber, D.D., Lord Bishop of Calcutta, who turning cheerfully from the enjoyments of home and the prospects of honor in England, undertook in faith and hope the Episcopal charge of his brethren in the Indian Empire, and lived and died their watchful, indefatigable, devoted friend and pastor. In the short space of three years he animated by his presence almost every part of his vast Diocese, and while he everywhere encouraged in this island, and on the peninsula, with special and parental care the Church already formed and united in thankful joy the converts of his flock, he looked earnestly to the day when to the heathen also he might preach the Gospel of Christ, and might then not only be the Prelate of British India but the chief missionary of England to the East." And now as to the hymns of this gifted and saintly man. His biographer tells us: "It had long been regarded by Heber as an evil calling loudly for a speedy remedy, that no collection of hymns for public worship, sanctioned by ecclesiastical authority, had been introduced into the British churches. He had observed the fondness of that class, forming by far the greater part of the community, for these compositions, and had, by repeated conversations with them, learned that they could not understand, and of course could not appreciate, many of the prophetic allusions of the Psalms of David. To supply this defect, he had, for several years, employed the intervals of more serious study, in forming a collection of hymns for the different Sundays, festivals, and holidays in the year; connected, for the most part, with the history or doctrines comprised in the Gospel for each day, which should contain a more distinct reference to the character and work of Christ, as well as to the great facts of the Gospel, than can be found in the Psalms. "To make the selection as perfect, as popular, and as original as possible, Heber had engaged the assistance of Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Southey; and he now wrote to the Rev. H. H. Milman, requesting the aid of his muse in the same good work; informing him that, though he had in addition to the hymns of his own composing, which were numerous, selected many from the collections extant, yet that there were several Sundays and holidays for which, at present, none were prepared. Mr. Milman kindly aided Heber by several valuable contributions; but owing to other more pressing engagements, the publication was delayed, and did not appear till after his decease." man: Under date of December 28, 1821, Heber wrote to Mil "You have indeed sent me a most powerful reinforcement to my projected hymn-book. A few more such and I shall neither need nor wait for the aid of Scott and Southey. Most sincerely, I have not seen any hymns of the kind which more completely correspond to my ideas of what such compositions ought to be, or to the plan, the outline of which it has been my wish to fill up." Milman was then thirty years old. Large fame afterwards came to him. It was well deserved. His thirteen hymns were first published in Heber's volume of 1827. Three of them hold an honored place in our hymnal. Their first lines are: 91 Ride on, ride on in majesty. 337 Oh, help us, Lord; each hour of need. 348 When our heads are bowed with woe. In addition to "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," the numbers and first lines of Heber's hymns which find a place in our hymnal are: 66 Brightest and best of the sons of the morning. 146 O Thou, who gav'st Thy servant grace. 225 Bread of the world, in mercy broken. 316 Hosanna to the living Lord. 383 Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty. 507 The Son of God goes forth to war. 565 By cool Siloam's shady rill. That marvelously stirring hymn, "The Son of God Goes Forth to War," was written for St. Stephen's day, and it seems to have caught the spirit—the martial spirit-of the time when men took their lives in their hands and glorified God by their deaths. As we read the words, or sing them, we seem to be breathing the spirit of the hour when the proto-martyr gave up his life in sacrifice, when men "cried out against him with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city and stoned him; but he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Possibly by this very vision, certainly by the story of apostolic zeal and valor and thoroughgoing consecration, Heber was inspired to sing: |