fluence was mighty. "How did I weep," says Augustine, "through thy hymns and canticles, touched to the quick by the voices of thy sweet-attuned church! The voices sank into mine ears, and the truth distilled into my heart, whence the affections of my devotions overflowed, tears ran down, and happy was I therein." Again: "When I remember the tears I shed in the psalmody of thy church, in the beginning of my recovered faith, and how at this time I am moved-not with the singing, but with the things sung, when they are sung with a clear voice and modulation most suitable, I acknowledge the great use of this institution." Ambrose himself, in reply to objectors, said: "A grand thing is that singing, and nothing can stand before it. For what can be more telling than that confession of the Trinity which a whole population utters day by day? For all are eager to proclaim their faith, and in measured strains have learned to confess Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." The number of "Ambrosian Hymns," according to Daniel, is ninety-two; but many of these were doubtless of a later date, though constructed after the model of Ambrose. Not more than twelve of the whole number have been generally conceded to be from his pen. The authorship of that wonderfully popular chant, "Te Deum laudamus, te Dominum confitemur," etc., has been very fully and ably discussed by Daniel, ii. 280– 294. Though attributed to Ambrose, it is more properly classified as merely Ambrosian. Parts of it appear to have been in use among the Greeks at an early day. Ambrose may have given it something of its present shape, and later Latin writers may have perfected it. Of this splendid outburst of praise, Mrs. Charles, in her "Christian Life in Song," thus writes: "It is at once a hymn, a creed, and a prayer-or rather it is a creed taking wing and soaring heavenward; it is faith seized with a sudden joy as she counts her treasures and laying them at the feet of Jesus in a song; it is the incense of prayer rising so near the rainbow round the throne as to catch its light and become radiant as well as fragrant—a cloud of incense illumined with a cloud of glory." Daniel in the 21st verse has "gloria munerari," instead of "in gloria numerari," as in the received versions. The former is undoubtedly the true rendering, and is, by far, more expressive. Ambrose abounded in labors, not only in the improvement of public worship, but in defence of the truth and the enlargement of the Church. His published "Works" are numerous. Having overcome all opposition and established himself firmly in the affections of his people he fell asleep April 3, A.D. 397. ANGELUS SILESIUS. 1624-1677. [See "John Scheffler."] JOSEPH ANSTICE. 1808-1836. A VOLUME of "Hymns by the Rev. Joseph Anstice, M.A.," London, 1836, was privately printed by his widow. It contains fifty-four hymns. He was the second son of William Anstice, Esq., and was born in Shropshire in 1808. In his fourteenth year he entered Westminster School, was chosen a king's scholar, and, at the close of his course, elected to Christ Church College, Oxford. In his collegiate course he gained the two English prizes. He graduated B.A. as a double first-class scholar early in 1831. Though but in his twenty-third year he was appointed Professor of Classical Literature, King's College, London, and delivered his first lecture October 17, 1831. In the summer of 1832 he married Elizabeth Spencer Ruscombe, eldest daughter of Joseph Ruscombe Poole, Esq., of Bridgewater. Three years later he was compelled by the failure of his health to resign his professorship. He then removed to Torquay, where, after a continual decline, he departed this life February 29, 1836, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. His prize poem delivered at Oxford, June 18, 1828, on "Richard Cœur de Lion," was published in 1828, and the following year his English prize essay on "The Influence of the Roman Conquest upon Literature and the Arts at Rome." His "Introductory Lecture" at King's College was published in 1831, and in 1832 his "Selections from the Choice Poetry of the Greek Dramatic Writers, translated into English Verse." His hymns "were all dictated to his wife during the last few weeks of his life, and were composed just at the period of the day (the afternoon) when he most felt the oppression of his illness-all his brighter morning hours being given to pupils up to the very day of his death." They are not unworthy of the pen of John Keble, to whom several of them have been erroneously ascribed. HARRIET AUBER. 1773-1862. IN 1829 "The Spirit of the Psalms; or, a Compressed Version of Select Portions of the Psalms of David" was published at London anonymously. Several of these Psalms were transferred to the "Church Psalmody," Boston, 1831, and other collections, where they were credited to the "Spirit of the Psalms." In 1834 Mr. Lyte's book appeared, also entitled "The Spirit of the Psalms." Led simply by the title, and not aware that the two books were entirely different, or that there were two books of the same name, subsequent compilers credited these hymns to Rev. Henry Frances Lyte. The earlier work was the production of Miss Harriet Auber. She was the daughter of James Auber, of Hackney, and was born October 4, 1773. The family was of French Protestant extraction, and, doubtless, of the same lineage with the eminent musical composer, Daniel François Esprit Auber [1784-1871]. In a quiet and secluded home-first at Broxbourne, and then at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, with her worthy sisters, and latterly with a greatly endeared friend, Miss Mary Jane McKenzie, a literary lady,-she spent the most of her days on earth. With a fine liter ary taste, she occupied much of her time in poetic composition-the most of which remains unpublished. During a long and useful life she greatly endeared herself to a large circle of relatives and friends. She went down to the "grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season," dying in great peace January 20, 1862, in the eighty-ninth year of her age, at her residence in Hoddesdon. The only marked incident of her quiet life was the publication in her fifty-sixth year of her book already noticed. It contains a few selections from well-known authors, to some of which the names are attached; the larger part of the pieces, however, are from her own pen. In one of her hymns she thus speaks of the Holy Spirit: "He came in semblance of a dove, With sheltering wings outspread, "He came sweet influence to impart― "And his that gentle voice we hear That checks each thought, that calms each fear, And speaks of heaven. "And every virtue we possess, And every conquest won, And every thought of holiness JOHN AUSTIN. 1613-1669. JOHN AUSTIN was of Norfolkshire, England. Born at Walpole in 1613, he was fitted for college at Sleeford, and, in 1631, was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge. Here he continued to reside until 1640, at which time or somewhat earlier he became a Roman Catholic. Leaving the university in consequence, he repaired to London and pursued the study of law at Lincoln's Inn. The times were turbulent, especially for Papists, making it difficult for him to practice law successfully. For a time he was employed as tutor in the house of a Mr. Fowler, of Staffordshire. Having succeeded by the death of a relative to a considerable estate, he returned in 1650 to London, and established himself as a private gentleman in Bow St., Covent Garden. Dodd, in his "Church History," says: "Mr. Austin was a gentleman of singular parts and accomplishments, and so great a master of the English tongue, that his style continues [1742] to be a pattern for politeness. His time was wholly spent in books and learned conversation; having the advantage of several ingenious persons' familiarity, who made a kind of junto in the way of learning, . . . . all men of great parts and erudition, who were assistants to one another in their writings." He wrote much under an assumed name and at times in a false guise. The first part of his "Christian Moderator; |