THE STORY OF THE HYMN S AND THEIR WRITERS 361
and himself became vicar there in 1837. He died at Putney. He was one of the earliest and most successful modern translators of Latin hymns. His work arose out of a desire to see the prayers of the English Church accompanied by hymns of a corresponding date. Some translations of hymns from the Paris Breviary, with originals annexed, by Isaac Williams in the British Magazine, pleased him so much that he got the Paris Breviary (1736), and one or two old books of Latin hymns, and regularly applied himself to the task of selection and translation. He says, My aim in translating them has been to be as simple as possible, thinking it better to be, of the two, rather bald and prosaic than line and obscure. Thirty or forty of his translations have come into common use. They are freer in their renderings than Dr. Xeale s. The great majority of the hymns in the Paris Breviary belong to the latter part of the seventeenth century, and those that are really ancient have been modernized by presumptuous revision.
Hymn 002. Christ is the foundation. JOHN SAMUEL BEWLEY MONSELL, LL.D. (1811-75).
Written for the foundation-stone ceremony at St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, 1865, and published with an account of the day in the Church Times, in twelve stanzas. It appeared in Dr. Munsell s Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church s Year, 2nd edition, 1866.
Dr. Monsell was the son of Archdeacon Monsell, of London derry. He became Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford, and was killed by the falling of a stone whilst the church was rebuilding. A memorial stands on the spot where he was watching opera tions when the stone struck him on the head and knocked him to the ground, where he lay unconscious. He wrote nearly three hundred hymns, of which one-fourth are in general use. Some of those best known are Rest of the weary, Sinful, sighing to be blest, Worship the Lord in the beauty of holi ness, and Fight the good light with all thy might, which was often sung during the Boer War.
Hymn CG3. Great God, Thy watchful care we bless.
PHILIP DODDRIDGE (95).
The original, published in 1755, was written for the opening of a chapel at Oakham, and begins, And will the great Eternal God.
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