Hymn Writers of the Church

Heber, Reginald a bishop of the Church of England, was born at Malpas April 21, 1783. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he early took the prize for both Latin and English poems; ordained in 1807, and became rector at Hodnet. He was Missionary Bishop of Calcutta from 1823 until his death, April 3, 1826. He was a man of learning and piety. He was Bampton lecturer in 1815. His hymns are among the most popular in the language. They were collected and published the year after his death under the title Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year, 1827. All of Bishop Heber's hymns were written while he was at Hodnet. He tried in 1820 to secure from Archbishop Manners Sutton and the Bishop of London official episcopal authorization for the use of his manuscript hymns in the Church, but they declined to grant it. But the whole Christian world has done what the prelates of the Church would not do. His authorship of our most popular missionary hymn and his early and pathetic death as Missionary Bishop of India have made his name "as ointment poured forth" in the annals of modern Christian missions.