THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 853
a Christian minister, Lyte was up to this time worldly in his manner of life, and a stranger to vital religion ; but in the year 1818 he was sent for by a neighbouring clergyman, who felt that he was dying, and who felt also, to his great distress, that he was unpardoned and unprepared. Together they pored over the Scriptures, and especially the writings of Paul, and together they came to the knowledge of Christian doctrine, and to the possession of Christian peace. " He died," says Lyte, " happy under the belief, that though he had deeply erred, there was One whose death and sufferings would atone for his delinquencies, and be accepted for all that he had incurred." And he adds, " I was greatly affected by the whole matter, and brought to look at life and its issue with a different eye than before ; and I began to study my Bible, and preach in another manner than I had pre viously done." Having taken charge of the family of his departed friend, his increased anxieties proved too much for his feeble con stitution, and he found it necessary to commence those travels in search of health, which had afterwards often to be repeated.
In 1819 he removed to Lymington, Hants. During his stay there he composed many " Tales on the Lord s Prayer," but these were not published till the year 182G. In the year 1823 he entered upon the perpetual curacy of Lower Brixham, Devon, which he held till his death, labouring faithfully, for nearly a quarter of a century, amongst its rough seafaring population. He was zealous in his parochial duties, and took special pains to train a band of seventy or eighty voluntary teachers, who taught several hundred children in the Sunday-school. Nor were his labours in vain, the rough material was wrought upon, and many of the hardy children of the deep became his sons in the faith.
In 1833 he published his "Poems chiefly Religious," and in 1834 a metrical version of the Psalms, entitled " The Spirit of the Psalms;" and in 1846 he published the " Poems of Henry Yaughan, with a Memoir." Increasing weakness of constitution having rendered rest and change necessary, he travelled for some time on the Continent ; recreating himself by the production of
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