Page:Our Hymns.djvu/77

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THEIE AUTHOES AND ORIGIN. 57

degree in 1661, and in 1666 he was elected to a vacant fellow ship in the College at Yfinchester, where he went to reside. There he became domestic chaplain to the bishop, and it was for the benefit of the Winchester scholars that he produced his " Manual of Prayers," the work to the third edition (1697), of which were added the " Morning," " Evening," and " Midnight Hymns," a book that was useful to Whitetield in the early period of his college life. The " Morning Hymn,"

" Awake my soul and with, the sun," No. 929,

so generally a favourite now, was very dear to its author, who used often to sing it in the early morning to the accompaniment of his lute.

In 1675 Ken travelled in Italy, and in 1679 he was chaplain to the Princess of Orange at the Hague, where he resided for a year. In 1683 he accompanied the expedition of Lord Dart mouth against Tangier, and on the voyage wrote a poem, entitled " Edmond." After being chaplain to Charles II., Ken was raised in 1684 to the see of Bath and Wells. In his new capa city he attended his royal master in his last illness, but his pious words appear to have been unheeded by the dying monarch. As we might suppose from his hymns, Ken was a pious, earnest, and laborious bishop. His "Exposition of the Church Cate chism" was intended to lessen the prevailing darkness of those times.

Ken was a political sufferer. His inflexibility in maintaining what he believed to be right, and his courage in reproving kings where it was necessary, made him many and powerful enemies. In May, 1688, he was committed to the Tower for refusing to read the " Declaration of Indulgence," a declaration intro duced by James II. to favour his Roman Catholic friends. For this refusal he suffered two months imprisonment, and in 1691, as a non-juror, he was deprived of his episcopal emolu ments. Having made his protest, he retired to Longleate, where, after years of suffering, he died. It is said that, after

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