William Walsham How, born on this date in 1823, was a priest in the Church of England and eventually Bishop of Wakefield (though he resisted being named a bishop for some years). He had originally planned to enter the legal profession, but changed his mind while in college at Oxford and went on to divinity school at Durham University.
He was ordained in 1846, and served as rector of Whittington for twenty-eight years (1851-1879). His first book of poetry was published anonymously, and was updated and enlarged in 1886. His collected hymns, 54 in number, were also published separately.
He was chair of the committee that produced Church Hymns (1871) for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and that volume became the second-most widely-used hymnal in the UK (after our old friend Hymns Ancient & Modern). He was also one of the editors for The Children's Hymn Book (1881).
Since Bishop How's birthday falls on the third Sunday in Advent this year I tried to find a text with some connection to the season, so here we have the second stanza about the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), which is usually read during Advent though it also has a separate feast day on March 25 - nine months before Christmas.
Jesus! Name of wondrous love!
Name all other names above!
Unto which must every knee
Bow in deep humility.
Jesus! Name decreed of old,
To the maiden mother told,
Kneeling in her lowly cell,
By the angel Gabriel.
Jesus! Name of mercy mild,
Given to the holy Child
When the cup of human woe
First he tasted here below.
Jesus! Name of priceless worth
To your people here on earth!
Jesus! Name of wondrous love!
Human Name of God above!
William Walsham How, 1854; alt.
Tune: ST. BEES (7.7.7.7.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1862
In 1898 How's son Frederick Douglas How published a memoir of the bishop. Perhaps not surprisingly, he writes thusly of his father's hymns: "Among the good hymn-writers Bishop Walsham How takes his place without challenge." Though How wrote fewer hymns than several of his Victorian contemporaries, a good proportion of them are still being sung, so this assessment is not without merit.
Seven Years Ago: William Walsham How
Five Years Ago: Edwin O. Excell
One Year Ago: William Walsham How
Hymnwriter Claudia Frances Hernaman was born on this day in 1838, in the English village of Addlestone, the daughter of the Reverend W. H. Ibotson, an Anglican priest. She wrote for a number of church publications at a fairly young ago, turning her attention to religious poetry and hymn texts, primarily for children. She also translated several hymns from Latin. and published several collections of her work.
Her most familiar text (perhaps the only one still regularly in use), sung across many denominations, is the Lenten hymn Lord, who throughout these forty days. Today's hymn for children was written to mark any saints' day in the church calendar. While we have seen many hymns written for particular saints, there are others such as this that can be sung for any saint's day. October 19, for example, does not mark any well-known saints, but there are still people on the calendar.
All thy saints adore thee, Lord,
Sing thy praise with one accord;
Magnify thy holy Name,
And thy boundless love proclaim.
Saints in paradise at rest,
Saints, by earthly trials pressed,
One in thee, with one glad voice,
Evermore in thee rejoice.
Now, O God, thy praise we tell,
In this saint who served thee well,
Who was strong in Jesus' might,
Conquering evil in the fight.
Grant us, God, with equal faith,
Thee to follow until death,
And, through all eternity,
With the saints to worship thee.
Claudia Frances Hernaman, 19th cent.; alt.
Tune: ST. BEES (7.7.7.7.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1862
This simple tune by the prolific Victorian composer John Bacchus Dykes, was apparently named for the village of St. Bees in northern England.
