THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS l2^
Hymn 129. From the eastern mountains.
GODFREY THRING, D.D.
Written in 1873, and published in his Hymns and Sacred Lyrics, 1874, as a Processional for Epiphany. The original was in six verses of four lines, with the refrain
Light of Life, that shineth
Ere the worlds began, Draw Thou near and lighten
Every heart of man.
Prebendary Thring, son of Rev. J. G. D. Thring, of Alford, Somerset, and brother of Rev. Edward Thring, head master of Uppingham School, was born in 1823, educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, and in 1858 succeeded his father as rector of Alford-with-Hornblotton. In 1876 he was Prebendary of Wells Cathedral. He died on September 13, 1903, at Plonck s Hill, Shamleigh Green. He published Hymns, Congregational and Others, 1866 ; Hymns and Verses, 1866 ; Hymns and Sacred Lyrics, 1874; A Church of England Hymn-book, 1880 ; revised edition, 1882. The whole edition of Hymns and Sacred Lyrics was destroyed in a fire at the publishers . Dr. Thring only dis covered this some time after, when a stranger asked how he could get a copy, as every publisher told him it was out of print.
Hymn 130. Cradled in a manger, meanly. GEORGE STRINGER ROWE.
The Rev. G. S. Rowe was born at Margate, 1830 ; educated at Didsbury College ; entered the Wesleyan ministry, 1853 ; Governor of Headingley College, 1888-1904. His Life of John Hunt, James Calvert, and other missionary books have had great influence and wide circulation. The Psalms in Private Devotion, Alone with the Word, At His Feet, On His Day are much prized as helps to devotion.
This hymn was written for the Christmas number of At Home and Abroad, the children s periodical which followed The Juvenile Offering, which he edited for more than twelve years. It found a place in the Methodist Sunday-School Hymn-Book ; 1879.
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