Reginald Heber Quotes

Reginald Heber was an English bishop, man of letters and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich landowner and cleric, Heber gained fame at the University of Oxford as a poet. After graduation he made an extended tour of Scandinavia, Russia and Central Europe. Ordained in 1807, he took over his father's old parish, Hodnet, Shropshire. He also wrote hymns and general literature, including a study of the works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor. He was consecrated Bishop of Calcutta in October 1823. He travelled widely and worked to improve the spiritual and general living conditions of his flock. Arduous duties, a hostile climate and poor health led to his collapse and death after less than three years in India. Memorials were erected there and in St Paul's Cathedral, London. A collection of his hymns appeared soon after his death. One, "Holy, Holy, Holy", remains popular for Trinity Sunday. Wikipedia  

✵ 21. April 1783 – 3. April 1826
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Works

Palestine
Reginald Heber
Reginald Heber: 21   quotes 2   likes

Famous Reginald Heber Quotes

“Before, beside us, and above
The firefly lights his lamp of love.”

Tour Through Ceylon; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 273.
Hymns

“When Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.”

Hymn for Seventh Sunday after Trinity; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 746.

Reginald Heber Quotes about the world

“Eternity has no gray hairs! The flowers fade, the heart withers, man grows old and dies, the world lies down in the sepulchre of ages, but time writes no wrinkles on the brow of Eternity.”

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 213.

“We deny our Lord whenever, like Demas, we through love of this present world forsake the course of duty which Christ has plainly pointed out to us.”

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 189.

Reginald Heber Quotes

“The heathen in his blindness
Bows down to wood and stone.”

"Missionary Hymn", st. 2 (1819).
Hymns

“I see them on their winding way,
About their ranks the moonbeams play.”

"Lines written to a March".
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“Failed the bright promise of your early day?”

Palestine, line 113.
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“Thou art gone to the grave; but we will not deplore thee,
Though sorrows and darkness encompass the tomb.”

"At a Funeral", No. II.
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“No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Majestic silence!”

"Palestine"; this was altered in later editions to: "No workman’s steel, no ponderous axes rung, Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung".
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Variant: No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Majestic silence!

“What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile.”

Missionary Hymn ("Java" in one version); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 487.
Hymns

“By cool Siloam's shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!”

"First Sunday After Epiphany", no. 2 (1812).
Hymns

“Though every great prospect pleases,
And only man is vile.”

"Missionary Hymn", st. 2 (1819).
Hymns

“Then on! then on! where duty leads,
My course be onward still.”

Journal; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 207.
Hymns

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