The familiar hymn, beginning "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,” is taken from Lady Huntingdon's collection (Revised edition of 1774), and owes its present form to the Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley. It is a reconstruction of a hymn by Allen, found in the first edition of the Kendal Hymn Book, beginning with: "While my Jesus I'm possessing, Great's the happiness I know." The original has six double stanzas, the last of which is as follows: "HYMNS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE" was published at London, 1862. The volume contains 148 hymns, by Oswald Allen, a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Oswald, the father of James Allen, noticed on a previous page. John Allen, for more than half a century, has been a successful banker at Kirkby-Lonsdale, Westmoreland, England, where his son Oswald was born in 1816. An invalid from his boyhood, and a lifelong sufferer from a diseased spine, he was educated tenderly at home, and has, from his child hood, been restricted to a sedentary life. Three years (1843-1846) were spent, with comparative health, in Glasgow, with fair business prospects. But the recurrence of his constitutional malady compelled him to return to his home at Kirkby-Lonsdale. Since 1848 he has held an honorable position in his father's bank-devoting himself in the intervals of business, as his strength has permitted, to works of benevolence and mercy among the poor, the sick, and the suffering. Secluded at home, during the severe winter of 1859-1860, he found a genial and cheering recreation in the composition of his "Hymns of the Christian Life." In the preface, dated October, 1861, he says: "Having so often felt and witnessed the soothing and elevating effect of hymns upon the human heart, the author has been encouraged to hope that the following, which cheered his own spirit, may, with the Divine blessing, be a comfort and a consolation to others." The piety, humility, and tenderness of the unassuming poet may be seen, somewhat, in the following dedication of his book: "To Thee, my God, my Saviour, and my Friend, The first faint warblings of my grateful soul,- When with my harp among the blest on high, 2 HENRY ALLINE. 1748-1785. MR. ALLINE, the son of William and Rebecca Alline, was born June 14, 1748, at Newport, R. I., whither his parents had removed from Boston, Mass., their native place. In his twelfth year (1760) the family migrated to the neighborhood of Falmouth, Nova Scotia. The rudeness of the country subjected them to many privations and hardships, so that Henry was debarred the privileges of a school education, after his removal from Rhode Island. His parents had early attached themselves to what were then known as "New Lights," and brought up their seven children in the fear of God. In his 27th year, after a season of deep conviction, he was hopefully converted, March 26, 1775, and, the following year, devoted himself to the work of the ministry. He was ordained, April 6, 1779, by a Congregational Council, at Falmouth, N. S. Owing to his limited education, he became a travelling rather than a settled preacher, and exercised his ministry with marked success, in Falmouth, Newport, Truro, Windsor, Horton, Cornwallis, Wilmot, Annapolis, Granville, Sackville, Liverpool, Halifax, Lehave, Malegast, Port Midway, and other places in Nova Scotia ; also at St. John, Fort Howe, Magerville, and elsewhere in New Brunswick. He travelled as far west as North Hampton, New Hampshire, where, February 2, 1784, at the house of the Rev. David McClure, pastor of the Congregational Church of that town, he closed his earthly career. He was fond of sacred poetry, and wrote 300 or more hymns, "full of love and zeal for Christ, and the salvation of souls." AMBROSE. 340-397. TO AMBROSE, Bishop of Milan, is conceded the high honor of being the father of sacred song in the Latin Church. Jerome complains of the introduction of theatrical songs and melodies in the music of the Church of that period. Ambrose not only reformed the prevailing psalmody, but he introduced also the hymnody and antiphonal singing of the Greek into the Latin Church. The earliest Latin hymns are traced to the fourth century. The best of these are attributed to Ambrose. They are modelled after the Latin poets; are, for the most part, of four-line stanzas; having lines of equal length in metrical form. To him we owe the six and eight syllable iambics which so commonly prevail in English hymnody. The date of his birth has not been fully determined. Some say that it was A.D. 333 and others A.D. 340 when he was born at Treves in Gaul, his father being at the time the prætorian prefect of the province. He was the youngest of three children. After his father's decease his mother returned to Rome, where, with his brother Satyrus, and his sister Marcellina, he was piously and liberally educated. Bred to the law and excelling in his profession, he was appointed by Anicius Probus prætorian prefect of Italy—a member of his council. So favorably was Probus impressed with his great abilities and moral worth, as to give him the appointment, A.D. 369, of consular prefect of Liguria, the northern portion of Italy, with Milan as his capital. "Go," said he, "and govern Liguria more like a bishop than a judge." His administration confirmed his reputation as a wise, discreet, and righteous ruler. The times were exceedingly turbulent. The old pagan practices in that part of Italy had not wholly been laid aside. Paganism was still struggling for ascendency. The apostate emperor, Julian, had passed away only seven years before. Auxentius, an Arian, was bishop of Milan. The populace were divided into three contending factions -Athanasian, Arian, and Pagan. These rival parties at the decease of Auxentius, A.D. 374, made desperate struggles to secure the position for one of their own adherents. At the time appointed for the election in the Church, so furious was the contention that the prefect Ambrose deemed his presence and remonstrances necessary to quell the tumult. So effectually did he control the swaying multitude, and such confidence had they in his piety and wisdom, that presently a cry was made all over the house, "Ambrose! Ambrose!! he is the man for us"-and, in spite of his earnest protest that he was neither a priest nor a theologian, he was elected bishop by acclamation. Yielding at length to the popular will he was baptized November 30th and ordained bishop December 7, 374. Thenceforth he devoted all his worldly resources and all his energies of body and soul to the work of purifying and extending the Church. Ambrose was thoroughly orthodox, and was justly claimed as an Athanasian. Of course, the Arian party took sides against him. The queen-mother, Justina, was an Arian, and demanded one of the churches of Milan for the use of that sect. Ambrose refused, and a long and violent struggle ensued. At length, when the bishop was celebrating divine worship, guards were set by the civil and military authorities about the church. None were suffered to leave. All night they were shut up in the sanctuary. "Then it was instituted," says Augustine, his pupil, "that, after the manner of the Eastern churches, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should wax faint through the tediousness of sorrow, and from that day to this the custom is retained,-divers (yea, almost all) thy congregations throughout other parts of the world following herein." -- The bishop triumphed, and Arianism was overcome. To keep up the custom thus inaugurated, Ambrose wrote his stirring hymns. They were taken up by the people as battle-cries, and became immensely popular. Their in |