<\/p>\n
The bare details of Bp. Ken\u2019s life, when summarized, produce three results:\u2014Born at Berkhampstead, July, 1637; Scholar of Winchester, 1651; Fellow of New College, Oxford, 1657; B. A., 1661; Rector of Little Easton, 1663; Fellow of Winchester, 1666; Rector of Brighstone, 1667; Rectore of Woodhay and Prebendary of Winchester, 1669; Chaplain to the Princess Mary at the Hague, 1679; returns to Winchester, 1680; Bp. Of Bath and Wells, 1685; imprisoned in the Tower, 1688; deprived, 1691; died at Longleat, March 19, 1711.<\/p>\n
The parents of Ken both died during his childhood, and he grew up under the guardianship of Izaak Walton, who had married Ken\u2019s elder sister, Ann. The dominant Presbyterianism of Winchester and Oxford did not shake the firm attachment to the English Church, which such a home had instilled. His life until the renewal of his connection with Winchester, through his fellowship, his chaplaincy to Morley (Walton\u2019s staunch friend, then bishop of Winchester), and his prebend in the Cathedral, calls for no special remark here. But this second association with Winchester, there seems little doubt, originated his three well-known hymns.<\/p>\n
In 1674 he published A Manual of Prayers for Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, and reference is made in this book to three hymns, for \u201cMorning,\u201d \u201cMidnight,\u201d and \u201cEvening,\u201d the scholars being recommended to use them. It can scarcely be questioned that the Morning, Evening and Midnight hymns, pub. In the 1695 edition of The Manual, are the ones referred to. He used to sing these hymns to the viol or spinet, but the tunes he used are unknown.<\/p>\n
He left Winchester for a short time to be chaplain to the Princess Mary at the Hague, but was dismissed for his faithful remonstrance against a case of immorality at the Court, and returned to Winchester. A similar act of faithfulness at Winchester singularly enough won him his bishopric. He stoutly refused Nell Gwynne the use of his house, when Charles II came to Winchester, and the easy king, either from humor or respect for his honesty, gave him not long afterwards the bishopric of Bath and Wells.<\/p>\n
Among the many acts of piety and munificence that characterized his tenure of the see, his ministration to the prisoners and sufferers after the battle of Sedgmoor and the Bloody Assize are conspicuous. He interceded for them with the king, and retrenched his own state to assist them. He attended Monmouth on the scaffold. James II pronounced him the most eloquent preacher among the Protestants of his time; the judgment of Charles II appears from his pithy saying that he would go and hear Ken \u201ctell him of his faults.\u201d Among the faithful words of the bishops at Charle\u2019s death-bed, none were so noble in their faithfulness as his.<\/p>\n
He was one of the Seven Bishops who refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence, and were imprisoned in the Tower by James for their refusal, but triumphantly acquitted on their trial. At the accession of William III he refused, after some doubt on the subject, to take the oaths, and was at length (1691) deprived of his see. His charities had left him at this time only seven hundred pounds, and his library, as a means of subsistence; but he received hospitality for his remaining years with his friend Lord Weymouth, at Longleat. The see of Bath and Wells was again offered him, but in vain, at the death of his successor, Bp. Kidder. He survived all the deprived prelates.<\/p>\n
His attitude as a nonjuror was remarkable for its conciliatory spirit. The saintliness of Ken\u2019s character, its combination of boldness, gentleness, modesty and love, has been universally recognized. The verdict of Macaulay is that it approached \u201cas near as human infirmity permits to the ideal perfection of Christian virtue.\u201d The principal work of Ken\u2019s that remains is that on the Catechism, entitled The Practice of Divine Love. His poetical works were published after his death, in 4 vols. Among the contents are, the Hymns for the Festivals, which are said to have suggested to Keble the idea of The Christian Year; the Anodynes against the acute physical sufferings of his closing years; and the Preparatives for Death. Although many passages in them are full of tender devotion, they cannot rank either in style or strength with the three great hymns written at Winchester.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomas Ken had been educated at Winchester College under the Puritan regime, and returned to it in some capacity in 1665. In 1674 he published A Manual of Prayers for the use of the scholars of Winchester College, which contained the injunction: “Be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly.” Though Ken’s Morning and Evening hymns, now so well known, were not included in the Manual till after 1694, we may conclude that they were thus in use within a few years of the Restoration. In these we can hardly fail to recognize an independent beginning of modern hymn writing and singing; not developed out of Puritan precedents, but suggested by the models of the Breviary. The Latin hymns had been sung in the daily services of Winchester College up to the Reformation, and not improbably until Ken’s own school days.” But in any case a Breviary, Missal and several works on the Liturgy were among Ken’s cherished books.” He was evidently attracted by the old church ritual, and his hymns have caught the tone of the Breviary Hymns.<\/p>\n
Bishop Ken’s hymns have had a marked influence upon English Hymnody in the direction of simplicity, but it must not be assumed that they had immediate influence upon the situation of their time. The Manual was a popular little book, often reprinted, but it is to be remembered that the hymns were not in it till the close of the XVIIth century. They were apparently sung in the school from Ms. or printed sheets, and only in 1692 were published in a pamphlet without Ken’s knowledge or approval.\u201d Until then at least they could not have been widely known.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This bard-bishop was born at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire. His eldest sister was the wife of the celebrated Izaak Walton. After receiving a pious education at home, he went to Winchester to study, and afterwards to Oxford. He took his bachelor\u2019s degree in 1661, and in 1666 he was elected to a vacant fellow ship in the College at Winchester, where he went to reside. There he became domestic chaplain to the bishop, and it was for the benefit of the Winchester scholars that he produced his ” Manual of of which were added the \u201cMorning,\u201d \u201cEvening\u201d and \u201cMidnight Hymns,\u201d a book that was useful to Whitefield in the early period of his college life. The \u201cMorning Hymn,\u201d \u201cAwake my soul and with the sun,\u201d\u2014No. 929, so generally a favourite now, was very dear to its author, who used often to sing it in the early morning to the accompaniment of his lute.<\/p>\n
In 1675 Ken travelled in Italy, and in 1679 he was chaplain to the Princess of Orange at the Hague, where he resided for a year. In 1683 he accompanied the expedition of Lord Dart mouth against Tangier, and on the voyage wrote a poem, entitled \u201cEdmond.\u201d After being chaplain to Charles II, Ken was raised in 1684 to the see of Bath and Wells. In his new capacity he attended his royal master in his last illness, but his pious words appear to have been unheeded by the dying monarch. As we might suppose from his hymns, Ken was a pious, earnest, and laborious bishop. His\u201d;Exposition of the Church Catechism\u201d was intended to lessen the prevailing darkness of those times.<\/p>\n
Ken was a political sufferer. His inflexibility in maintaining what he believed to be right, and his courage in reproving kings where it was necessary, made him many and powerful enemies. In May, 1688, he was committed to the Tower for refusing to read the \u201cDeclaration of Indulgence,\u201d\u2014a declaration introduced by James II to favour his Roman Catholic friends. For this refusal he suffered two months imprisonment, and in 1691, as a non-juror, he was deprived of his episcopal emoluments. Having made his protest, he retired to Longleate, where, after years of suffering, he died. It is said that, after burying him, his attendants saluted the opening day with the strains of his \u201cmorning hymn.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The grand doxology, beginning, “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,” is suited to all religious occasions, to all Christian denominations, to all times, places, and conditions of men, and has been translated into all civilized tongues, and adopted by the church universal. Written more than two hundred years ago, it has become the grandest tone in the anthem of earth’s voices continually rising to heaven. As England’s drum-call follows the sun, so the tongues that take up this grateful ascription of praise are never silent, but incessantly encircle the earth with their melody.<\/p>\n
Thomas Ken, (Kenn,) the writer of the hymns that first contained this magnificent stanza, in the form that it is now used, was born at Berkhamstead, England, in 1637, and was educated at Oxford. He early in life consecrated himself to God, and became a prelate. He was a lover of holy music. The organists and choristers being silenced by the rigid rule of Cromwell, musical societies were formed, in one of which Ken played the lute with admirable skill. This society was accustomed to meet in the college chambers.<\/p>\n
The Morning and the Evening Hymn, which end with this doxology, were originally written for the use of the students in Winchester College, and were appended to a devotional work which he himself prepared, entitled “The Manual of Prayers.” In this latter work he thus counsels the young men of the college: “Be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymns in your chamber, devoutly remembering that the Psalmist upon happy experience assures you that it is a good thing to tell of the loving kindness of the Lord early in the morning and of his truth in the night season.” These hymns were probably at first printed on broad sheets of paper and sent to each student’s room. They were added to the Manual for Prayer in 1697. The work was now entitled, “A Manual of Prayers for the Use of Scholars in Winchester College and all other devout Christians; to which are added Three Hymns, Morning, Evening, and Midnight, not in former editions, by the same author.”<\/p>\n
In 1679, Ken was appointed chaplain to Mary, Princess of Orange, and in 1680 chaplain to Charles II. In the latter capacity he fearlessly did his duty, as one accountable to God alone, and not to any man. He reproved the “merry monarch” for his vices, in the plainest and most direct manner. “I must go and hear Ken tell me my faults,” the king used to say good-humoredly. In 1684, Charles raised him to the see of Bath and Wells.<\/p>\n
“Before he became a bishop,” says Macaulay, “he had maintained the honor of his gown by refusing, when the court was at Winchester, to let Nell Gwynn, the king’s mistress, lodge at the house which he occupied as prebendary. The king had sense enough to respect so manly a spirit. Of all the prelates he liked Ken best.” Charles once spoke of him as the “good little man that refused his lodgings to poor little Nell.”<\/p>\n
He was the faithful spiritual adviser of Charles II. on his death-bed, and attended the Duke of Monmouth at his execution. He resisted the reestablishment of popery under James, and was one of the famous “seven bishops” who were tried for treason and acquitted. Having sworn allegiance to James, he was too conscientious to break his oath on the ascension of William III., Prince of Orange, and was deprived of his bishopric as a non-juror at the coronation.<\/p>\n
He was now reduced to poverty, a condition not unacceptable to him, for he was not allured by the false glitter of the courts of kings. Like Fenelon, in retiring from places of splendor and power, he loved to be alone with his God, and let the world play its drama without being an actor. He was invited by Lord Viscount Weymouth to spend the remainder of his days in his mansion at Longleat, near Frome, in Somersetshire. There, enjoying the hospitality of a small suite of rooms, he lived in happy retirement for twenty years, universally respected and beloved. Queen Anne offered to restore him to the see of Bath and Wells, but he declined the position, “with grateful thanks for her majesty’s gracious remembrance of him, having long since determined to remain in privacy.”<\/p>\n
He died in March, 1710, and was buried in the church- yard of Frome. He had requested that six of the poorest men of the parish might carry him to his grave, and that he might be interred without pomp or ceremony. This accordingly was the manner of his burial.<\/p>\n
“The moral character of Ken,” says Lord Macaulay, “when impartially reviewed, sustains a comparison with any in ecclesiastical history, and seems to approach, as near as any human infirmity permits, to the ideal of Christian perfection.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Awake, my soul, and with the sun,
\nThy daily stage of duty run,
\nShake off dull sloth, and early rise,
\nTo pay thy morning sacrifice.<\/p>\nRedeem thy misspent time that’s past,
\nAnd live this day as if thy last,
\nImprove thy talent with due care,
\n\u2018Gainst the great day thyself prepare.<\/p>\nLet all thy converse be sincere,
\nThy conscience as the noonday clear,
\nThink how all-seeing God thy ways,
\nAnd all thy secret thoughts surveys.<\/p>\nInfluenced of the Light divine,
\nLet thine own light in good works shine,
\nReflect all heaven’s propitious rays,
\nIn ardent love and cheerful praise.<\/p>\nWake and lift up thyself, my heart,
\nAnd with the angels bear thy part,
\nWho all night long unwearied sing,
\nGlory to the Eternal King.<\/p>\nI wake, I wake, ye heavenly choir,
\nMay your devotion me inspire,
\nThat I like you my age may spend,
\nLike you may on my God attend.<\/p>\nMay I like you in GOD delight,
\nHave all day long my God in sight,
\nPerform like you my Maker’s will,
\nOh may I never more do ill.<\/p>\nHad I your wings to heaven I ‘d fly,
\nBut God shall that defect supply,
\nAnd my soul, winged with warm desire,
\nShall all day long to heaven aspire.<\/p>\nGlory to Thee who safe hast kept,
\nAnd hast refreshed me while I slept,
\nGrant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
\nI may of endless light partake.<\/p>\nI would not wake, nor rise again,
\nE’en heaven itself I would disdain,
\nWert not Thou there to be enjoyed,
\nAnd I in hymns to be employed.<\/p>\nHeaven is, dear Lord, where’er thou art,
\nOh never then from me depart,
\nFor to my soul ’tis hell to be,
\nBut for a moment without thee.<\/p>\nLord, I my vows to thee renew,
\nScatter my sins as morning dew,
\nGuard my first springs of thought and will,
\nAnd with thyself my spirit fill.<\/p>\nDirect, control, suggest this day,
\nAll I design, or do, or say,
\nThat all my powers, with all their might,
\nIn Thy sole glory may unite.<\/p>\nPraise God, from whom all blessings flow,
\nPraise Him, all creatures here below,
\nPraise Him above, ye angelic host,
\nPraise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
KEN’S EVENING HYMN ORIGINAL TEXT OF 1697.<\/h5>\n
Glory to Thee, my God, this night,
\nFor all the blessings of the light,
\nKeep me, oh keep me, King of kings,
\nUnder Thine own Almighty wings.<\/p>\nForgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son,
\nThe ills that I this day have done,
\nThat with the world, myself, and Thee,
\nI, ere I sleep, at peace may be.<\/p>\nTeach me to live, that I may dread,
\nThe grave as little as my bed,
\nTeach me to die, that so I may,
\nTriumphing rise at the last day.<\/p>\nOh may my soul on Thee repose,
\nAnd may sweet sleep mine eyelids close,
\nSleep that shall me more vigorous make,
\nTo serve my God when I awake.<\/p>\nWhen in the night I sleepless lie,
\nMy soul with heavenly thoughts supply,
\nLet no ill dreams disturb my rest,
\nNo powers of darkness me molest.<\/p>\nDull sleep, of sense me to deprive,
\nI am but half my days alive,
\nThy faithful lovers, Lord, are grieved,
\nTo lie so long of Thee bereaved.<\/p>\nBut though sleep o’er my frailty reigns,
\nLet it not hold me long in chains,
\nAnd now and then let loose my heart,
\nTill it a hallelujah dart.<\/p>\nThe faster sleep the sense does bind,
\nThe more unfettered is the mind,
\nOh may my soul, from matter free,
\nThy unveiled goodness waking see.<\/p>\nOh when shall I, in endless day,
\nFor ever chase dark sleep away,
\nAnd endless praise with the heavenly choir,
\nIncessant sing, and never tire?<\/p>\nYou, my blest Guardian, whilst I sleep,
\nClose to my bed your vigils keep,
\nDivine love into me instil,
\nStop all the avenues of ill.<\/p>\nThought to thought with my soul converse,
\nCelestial joys to me rehearse,
\nAnd in my stead all the night long,
\nSing to my God a grateful song.<\/p>\nPraise God from whom all blessings flow,
\nPraise Him all creatures here below,
\nPraise Him above, ye angelic host,
\nPraise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
5. Edwin Long, \u201cIllustrated History Of Hymns And Their Authors\u201d<\/h4>\n
\u201cPraise God from whom all blessings flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
This doxology appeared as the last verse of the \u201cMorning and Evening Hymns\u201d added to the \u201cManual of Prayers,\u201d by Bishop Ken in 1697. The morning hymn commences, \u201cAwake my soul, and with the sun.\u201d The evening hymn, \u201cGlory to thee, my God, this night.\u201d The \u201cMorning Hymn\u201d was very dear to its author, who used often to sing it in the early morning to the accompaniment of his lute.<\/p>\n
Bishop Ken was born at Berkhampsted, England, in 1637. He was appointed chaplain to the Princes of Orange, 1669. In 1684, to King Charles II. In 1685, to James II.<\/p>\n
When the king ordered him to read the well-known Declaration of Indulgence, he conscientiously refused to comply, for which he was imprisoned in the Tower.<\/p>\n
Montgomery says of the doxology, “It is a master-piece at once of amplification and compression: amplification, on the burden, ‘Praise God,’ repeated in each line; compression, by exhibiting God as the object of praise in every view in which we can imagine praise due to Him; praise for all His blessings, yea, for all blessings,\u2019 none coming from any other source,\u2014praise, by every creature, specifically invoked, \u2018here below,\u2019 and in heaven \u2018above;\u2019 praise to Him in each of the characters wherein He has revealed Himself in His word, \u2018Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYet this comprehensive verse is sufficiently simple that, by it, ‘out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,’ God may ‘perfect praise;’ and it appears so easy that one is tempted to think hundreds of the sort might be made without trouble. The reader has only to try, and he will be quickly undeceived: the longer he tries, the more difficult he will find the task to be.”<\/p>\n
This doxology daily echoes around the globe and probably has been more used than any other composition in the world with the exception of the Lord’s Prayer, and it will, no doubt, continue to be till time shall be no more. “It has been said that Bishop Ken was accustomed to remark that it would enhance his joy in heaven to listen to his morning and evening hymns as sung by the faithful on earth.” Whitfield says, that the hymns of Ken were of great benefit to his soul when ten years old.<\/p>\n
An impressive scene occurred in 1858, at Andover, where they were having a great gathering at the collegiate dinner table. Unexpectedly it was announced that the telegraphic cable across the ocean was successful, when, it is said that \u201ca thousand gentlemen spontaneously arose, and, in the majestic sounds of \u201cOld Hundred\u2019 sang\u201d the soul inspiring stain:\u2014\u201cPraise God from whom all blessings flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ken died as he was on a journey to Bath, in March 1711, in the 74th year of his age. He had been in the habit of travelling for many years with his shroud in his port-manteau, which he always put on when attacked by sickness. Of this he gave notice the day before his death, in order to prevent his body from being stripped. He was never married.<\/p>\n
In accordance with his own request, he was buried at sunrise. His morning hymn was sung as his body sank in the grave. His death was calm and peaceful, exemplifying his words:\u2014”Teach me to live, that I may dread, The grave as little as my bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Grave Of Ken<\/em><\/p>\n
Bishop Ken\u2019s physician, Dr. Merewether, made the following entry in his diary for the year 1711:\u2014
\n\u201cMarch 16th,\u2014I went to Longleate, to visit Bishop Ken.
\n\u201cMarch 18th,\u2014I waited on his again.
\n\u201cMarch 19th,\u2014All glory to God. Between 5 and 6 in ye morning. Thomas, late Bishop of Bath and Wells, died at Longleate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBishop Ken was buried aside of the eastern window in the parish church of Frome. The iron pales that fence the mound indicate in the picture opposite the resting-place of the dust of him who penned the immortal doxology.<\/p>\n
Ken was fond of children, and they of him. A pleasing fact is recorded, and adverted to in the preceding verses, that after his lips could no longer sing his morning hymn, the children took up the strain, and, at early morn, encircling his tomb, would re-echo it over his silent grave.<\/p>\n
Rev. W. L. Bowles says, in his biography of Ken: \u201cIt is interesting to think, that when, to this day, (1831) the same words of Ken are sung to the same tune, every Sunday, by the parish church of Frome, they are sung over the grave of him, who composed the words, and who had sung them himself, to the same air, over one hundred and sixty years before, though he now lies in the church-yard without an inscription.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
6. Carl Price\u2014\u201cA Year Of Hymn Stories\u201d<\/h4>\n
The doxology of praise to the Holy Trinity was written by the Rev. Thomas Ken, whom King Charles II once made a chaplain to his sister, Mary, Princess of Orange. Ken was so courageous in his preaching at court that the king often said on the way to chapel: \u201cI must go and hear Ken tell me my faults.\u201d The king afterward made him Bishop of Bath and Wells.<\/p>\n
Bishop McCabe said that while the prisoners of the Union Army during the Civil War were incarcerated in Libby Prison, day after day they saw comrades passing away and their numbers increased by living recruits. One night, about ten o clock, through the darkness they heard the tramp of feet that soon stopped before the prison door, until ar rangements could be made inside. In the company was a young Baptist minister, whose heart almost fainted when he looked in those cold walls and thought of the suffering inside. Tired and weary, he sat down, put his face in his hands, and wept. Just then a lone voice sang out from an upper window, \u201cPraise God, from whom all blessings flow;\u201d a dozen joined in the second line, more than a score in the third line, and the words \u201cPraise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;\u201d were sung by nearly all the prisoners. As the song died away on the still night, the young man arose and sang: \u201cPrisons would palaces prove, If Jesus would dwell with me there.\u201d<\/p>\n