THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 279
seemed moved with sympathy. Byron wrote a lament in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
Unhappy White ! while life was in its spring,
And thy young muse just waved her joyous wing,
The spoiler came ; and all thy promise fair
Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there.
Oh ! what a noble heart was here undone,
When Science self destroy d her favourite son 1
Yes, she too much indulged thy fond pursuit ;
She sow d the seeds, but Death has reap d the fruit.
Twas thine own genius gave the final blow,
And help d to plant the wound that laid thee low.
So the struck eagle, stretch d upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View d his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing d the shaft that quiver d in his heart.
The first verse of this hymn is by Kirke White. It is given in Collyer s Hymns, 1812 : The Christian soldier encouraged, i Tim. vi. 12. H. K. White
Much in sorrow, oft in woe, Onward, Christians, onward go, Fight the fight, and worn with strife, Steep with tears the bread of life.
Onward, Christians, onward go, Join the war, and face the foe : Faint not much doth yet remain, Dreary is the long campaign.
Shrink not, Christians will ye yield ? Will ye quit the painful field ? Fight till all the conflict s o er, Nor your foemen rally more.
But when loud the trumpet blown Speaks their forces overthrown, Christ, your Captain, shall bestow Crowns to grace the conqueror s brow.
Dr. Collyer says that the hymn was written on the back of one of Kirke White s mathematical papers, and was so mutilated that he had to add the last six lines. In his Christian Psalmody, 1833, the Rev. E. Bickersteth altered White s first verse to the form given in The Methodist Hymn-Book. The other three verses were written by Miss Fuller-Maitland (1809-79), when a
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