426 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Hymn 834. Safely, safely gathered in. HENRIETTA OCTAVIA DE LISLE DOBREE, nee BAINES.
Written for Mrs. Carey Brock s Children s Hymn-book, 1881, headed Death and Burial.
Mrs. Dobree (1831-94) belonged to the Church of England, but afterwards became a Roman Catholic. Four other hymns with her initials, E. O. D., appeared in the same collection.
Hymn 835. Safe home, safe home in port!
ST. JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER ; translated by DR. NEALE
(27).
In Hymns of the Eastern Church, 1863, as The Return Home. A Cento from the Canon of St. John Climacos.
St. Joseph was a native of Sicily, who entered a monastery in Thessalonica. He went to Constantinople, and left for Rome in time of persecution. He was captured by pirates, and was for some years a slave in Crete. Then he returned to Constanti nople, where he established a monastery and filled it with inmates by his eloquence. He was banished from the city for his defence of the icons, but was recalled by the Empress Theodora and made keeper of the sacred vessels in the chief church of the city. He died in 883 at an advanced age.
St. Joseph is the most voluminous of the Greek hymn- writers, and composed from 800 to 1,000 canons. They are wordy compositions in honour of saints and martyrs of whom little is known. This hymn contains so little of the Greek that it can scarcely be called a translation.
Hymn 836. Now the labourer s task is o er. JOHN ELLERTON (603).
Written 1871. This is the loveliest and most loved of all Mr. Ellerton s hymns, and has taken its place in the service for the dead. The writer says, The whole hymn, especially the third, fifth, and sixth verses, owes many thoughts and some expressions to a beautiful poem of the Rev. Gerard Moultrie s, beginning, " Brother, now thy toils are o er," which will be
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