Man's weakness waiting upon God For men on earth no work can do Ride on, ride on, triumphantly, He always wins who sides with God, God's will is sweetest to him when Ill that He blesses is our good, And unblest good is ill; And all is right that seems most wrong, If it be His sweet Will! FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER. VIII. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, We are next to consider three of the most gifted of recent English hymn-writers, men who have done much to enrich the hymnody of our Mother Church, of our own Church in America, and of the Church universal: Christopher Wordsworth, Frederick William Faber and William Walsham How. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, who wrote fifteen of the hymns contained in our hymnal, was born October 30, 1807, and died March 21, 1885. His father was a man of distinction. His uncle was the famous poet, William Wordsworth. His intellectual training was received at Winchester, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was prominent in athletics as well as in scholarship. His career was one of pre-eminent success. So many prizes, in fact, had come to him that in 1829 his college tutors dissuaded him from again entering the lists, as hard upon other competitors. In 1827 the Duke of Wellington is reported to have said that Christopher Wordsworth, the elder, ought to be the happiest man in the kingdom, inasmuch as each of his three sons had carried off that year a University prize. He was soon chosen to a fellowship. In 1833 he was ordained to the sacred ministry. He was for eight years head master of Harrow. In 1844 he was appointed a Canon of Westminster. In 1850 he became a country clergyman. His parish had a unique name, "Stanford in the Vale, Cum Goosey. There he labored faithfully for nineteen years, going up, however, to London for four months each year for services in Westminster Abbey. |