338 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Nicholas, Brighton, and for the children of this parish he wrote his first hymns. In 1860 he was appointed Vicar of Crewe Green and chaplain to Lord Crewe. Here he laid the foundation of his fame as a writer of hymns. The fertility of Mr. Ellerton s muse in 1870 and 1871, when he wrote some twenty-six hymns and translations, is specially notable. In 1876 he was appointed Rector of Barnes, Surrey, where he became engrossed in hymnological work, besides writing many hymns. His health broke down in 1884, and he was compelled to resign his rectory and spend some months in Switzerland and Italy. On his return in 1885, he was presented to the rectory of White Roding, Essex, through the good offices of Bishop Walsham How, who told the patron that the best living hymn-writer was without a benefice. He took an active part in preparing the 1889 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The chairman of the Com mittee said it would scarcely be possible to exaggerate the value of the assistance which he rendered. He was nominated Prebendary of St. Albans, but he had been already stricken by paralysis, and on June 15, 1893, he died at Torquay. He was buried in the cemetery there, amid the music of his own glorious hymns. A spirit of devout reverence runs through all his work, and he is careful not to use expressions which a con gregation could not make their own. He absolutely refused to protect his hymns by copyright, for he regarded himself as the channel through which God had given them to the Church.
Hymn 604. Their earthly task who fail to do.
CHARLES WESLEY (i).
Short Hymns on Select Passages of Scripture, 1762 ; Works, xiii. 17. Not slothful in business, &c. Rom. xii. II.
Hymn 605. O Master, let me walk with Thee. WASHINGTON GLADDEN.
Mr. Gladden was born at Pittsgrove, Pennsylvania/ 1836, and entered the Congregational ministry. He was for some time editor of the New York Independent and of Sunday Afternoon, in which this hymn appeared in March, 1879, entitled Walking with God. It was written for The Still Hour, a corner filled with devotional reading. Mr. Gladden had no thought of
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