REGINALD

HEBER (1783-1826)  , English bishop and hymn-writer, was born at Malpas in Cheshire on the 21st of April 1783 . His father, who belonged to an old Yorkshire family, held a moiety of the living of Malpas . Reginald Heber early showed remarkable promise, and was entered in November 1800 at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he proved a distinguished student, carrying off prizes for a Latin poem entitled Carmen seculare, an English poem on Palestine, and a prose essay on The Sense of Honour . In November 1804 he was elected a fellow of All Souls College; and, after finishing his distinguished university career, he made a long tour in Europe . He was admitted to holy orders in 1807, and was then presented to the family living of Hodnet in Shropshire . In 1809 Heber married Amelia, daughter of Dr Shipley, dean of St Asaph . He was made prebendary of St Asaph in 1812, appointed Bampton lecturer for 1815, preacher at Lincoln's Inn in 1822, and bishop of Calcutta in January 1823 . Before sailing for India he received the degree of D.D. from the university of Oxford . In India Bishop Heber laboured indefatigably, not only for the good of his own diocese, but for the spread of Christianity throughout the East . He undertook numerous tours in India, consecrating churches, founding schools and discharging other Christian duties . His devotion to his work in a trying climate told severely on his health . At Trichinopoly he was seized with an apoplectic fit when in his bath, and died on the 3rd of April 1826 .

statue of him, by

Chantrey, was erected at Calcutta . Heber was a pious man of profound learning, literary taste and great practical energy . His fame rests mainly on his hymns, which rank among the best in the English language . The following may be instanced: " Lord of mercy and of might "; " Brightest and best of the sons of the morning "; " By cool Siloam's shady rill "; " God, that madest earth and heaven "; " The Lord of might from Sinai's brow "; " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty "; " From Greenland's icy mountains "; " The Lord will come, the earth shall quake "; " The Son of God goes forth to war." Heber's hymns and other poems are distinguished by finish of style, pathos and soaring aspiration; but they lack originality, and are rather rhetorical than poetical in the strict sense . Among Heber's works are: Palestine: a Poem, to which is added the Passage of the Red Sea (18o9); Europe: Lines on the Present War (1809) ; a volume of poems in 1812; The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter asserted and explained (being the Bampton Lectures for 1815); The Whole Works of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, with a Life of the Author, and a Critical Examination of his Writings (1822) ; Hymns written and adapted.to the Weekly Church Service of the Year, principally by Bishop Heber (1827); A Journey through India (1828) ; Sermons preached in England, and Sermons preached in India (1829) ; Sermons on the Lessons, the Gospel, or the Epistle for every Sunday in the Year (1837) . The Poetical Works of Reginald Heber were collected in 1841 . See the Life of Reginald Heber, D.D. by his widow, Amelia Heber (1830), which also contains a number of Heber's miscellaneous writings; The Last Days of Bishop Heber, by Thomas Robinson, A.M., archdeacon of Madras (1830); T . S . Smyth, The Character and Religious Doctrine of Bishop Heber (1831), and Memorials of a Quiet Life, by Augustus J . C . Hare (1874) .