pruning and alteration at the hands of various editors, in some cases, perhaps, to its advantage. The following verse, dealing with sudden death, is in several hymnals omitted, probably for the reason that it is a somewhat unhappy conclusion to an otherwise beautiful hymn—

Should swift death this night o'ertake us,

And our couch become our tomb;

May the morn in heaven awake us,

Clad in light and deathless bloom.

Prebendary Thring has rewritten this verse and cleverly overcome the rather unpleasant suggestion that our bed may also "become our tomb".

Be Thou nigh, should death o'ertake us,

Jesus, then our Refuge be;

And in Paradise awake us,

There to rest in peace with Thee.

James Edmeston, born in 1791, was by profession an architect and surveyor. He was a man of a peculiarly lovable disposition, and passionately fond of children, for whom he wrote many of his hymns. His collection, entitled Infant Breathings, contain compositions of a very tender and simple nature, admirably suited for the little pilgrims for whom he wrote. He took a great interest in all

church work, and was for many years churchwarden of St. Barnabas', Homerton. His hymns were written at odd moments, and generally in the evening when he had laid aside his professional duties. He was a constant visitor to the London Orphan Asylum, and for the children there he wrote what is perhaps his second bestknown composition-" Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us." Though Mr. Edmeston has written between 1,500 and 2,000 hymns, only the two mentioned here can be said to have come into common use.

"The day is past and over" is one of Dr. John Mason Neale's many translations from the Greek. Dr. Neale attributes the authorship of this hymn to St. Anatolius, but there appears to be some doubt on the point according to many hymnologists. In the preface to his Hymns of the Eastern Church, where "The day is past and over" was first published, Dr. Neale says:

"This little hymn, which, I believe, is not used in the public service of the Church, is a great favourite in the Greek Isles. Its peculiar style and evident antiquity may well lead to the belief that it is the work of St. Anatolius. It is, to the scattered hamlets of Chios and Mitylene, what Bishop Ken's evening hymn is to the village of

our land, and its melody is singularly plaintive and soothing."

The original manuscript of Cardinal Newman's hymn :

head kindly light, amid the encircling

Led Thon me on?

двои

The night is dark and I am for from home,

Lead Thou are on!

owing to the circumstances under which it was composed, is probably not now in existence. The facsimile shown here is from a copy made by the late Cardinal on March 9, 1875, and sent with his prayers and best wishes to a friend. There are several such MSS. to be found among the autograph collections of private individuals, for the Cardinal, in reply to the very numerous requests for his autograph, thought so little of that which seemed to please his correspondents as to forward, instead of a simple signature, a verse of his celebrated hymn.

Lead, kindly Light" was written during the X summer months of 1833, at a time of much mental distress, and the words are a very echo of the author's own loneliness. In his Apologia pro Vita

Sua Cardinal Newman tells the story of how the hymn came to be written. While travelling on the Continent he was attacked by a sudden illness which necessitated a stay at Castle Giovanni. Here he lay weak and restless for nearly three weeks, the only friend at hand being his servant, who nursed him during his illness. This occurred early in May, and on the 27th of that month he was sufficiently recovered to attempt a journey to Palermo.

"Before starting from my inn," he wrote, "I sat down on my bed and began to sob bitterly. My servant, who had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer, 'I have a work to do in England.' I was aching to get home, yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks. I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. We were becalmed for a whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio, and it was there that I wrote the lines,' Lead, kindly Light,' which have since become so well known."

A great deal of controversy has taken place from time to time regarding the author's meaning in the lines

And with the morn those Angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Whole chapters have been written on the subject by people who endeavoured to elucidate the mystery. It is not improbable that these essays on the meaning of two lines caused the Cardinal, if he saw them, a good deal of amusement. The author himself, on being asked to solve the problem in 1879, replied that he was not bound to remember his own meaning, whatever it was, at the end of almost fifty years.

x

"Lead, kindly Light" was written specially as an evening hymn. It has been translated into more foreign languages than any other of Cardinal Newman's compositions. In the Hymnal Companion Dr. Bickersteth has added the following

verse

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path,

Thyself hast trod,

Lead, Saviour, lead me home in child-like faith,

Home to my God,

To rest for ever after earthly strife

In the calm light of everlasting life.

Cardinal Newman once paid a high compliment to the musical genius of the late Dr. J. B. Dykes, whose setting of his hymn added in no small