Henry Alford

Born: October 7, 1810, Bloomsbury, Middlesex, England.

Died:  January 12, 1871, Canterbury, Kent, England.

Buried:  St. Martin’s, Canterbury, Kent, England.
For his own epitaph, he wrote: “The inn of a pilgrim traveling to Jerusalem.”

    Alford wrote the following in his Bible at age 16:

I do this day in the presence of God and my own soul renew my covenant with God and solemnly determine henceforth to become his and to do his work as far as in me lies.

    Alford attended Ilminster Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1833. He was Curate at Winkfield, Wiltshire, and Ampton, and Vicar at Wymeswold, Leicestershire (where he served 18 years). In 1853, he went to Quebec Chapel, London; in 1857, he became dean of Canterbury Cathedral. He was also a scholar, producing volumes on Homer, English poetry, and the Greek New Testament. His works include:

• Poems and Poetical Fragments (Cambridge, England: J. J. Deighton, 1833)
• Psalms and Hymns, 1844
• Poetical Works, 1845
• The Year of Praise, 1867

Hymns

1. Brightly Did the Light Divine
2. Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
3. Forward! Be Our Watchword
4. Herald in the Wilderness
5. Highest and the Holiest Place, The
6. In Token that Thou Shalt not Fear
7. Let the Church of God Rejoice
8. Not in Anything We Do
9. O Thou at Whose Divine Command
10. O Why on Death So Bent?
11. Of All the Honors Man May Wear
12. Our Year of Grace Is Wearing to a Close
13. Savior, Thy Father’s Promise Send
14. Since We Kept the Savior’s Birth
15. Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand
16. Thou That Art the Father’s Word
17. Thou Who on That Wondrous Journey
18. Through Israel’s Coasts in Times of Old
19. Thy Blood, O Christ, Hath Made Our Peace
20. We Walk by Faith
21. When in the Lord Jehovah’s Name