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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Palestine

Reginald Heber

Palestine

Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber: 21 quotes2 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

“Beneath our feet and o'er our head
Is equal warning given:
Beneath us lie the countless dead,
Above us is the heaven! Death rides on every passing breeze,
And lurks in every flower;
Each season has its own disease,
Its peril every hour.”

"At a Funeral", No. I.
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“Thus heavenly hope is all serene,
But earthly hope, how bright soe’er,
Still fluctuates o’er this changing scene,
As false and fleeting as ’t is fair.”

"On Heavenly Hope and Earthly Hope".
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“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.

“Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid.
Star of the east the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.”

"Epiphany", st. 1 (1811).
Hymns

“Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.”

"Holy" (1827).
Hymns

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.

“Remember that every guilty compliance with the humors of the world, every sinful indulgence of our own passions, is laying up cares and fears for the hour of darkness; and that the remembrance of ill-spent time will strew our sick-bed with thorns, and rack our sinking spirits with despair.”

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 547.

“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

“From Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's coral strand,
Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand.
From many an ancient river,
From many a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver
Their land from error's chain.”

" Missionary Hymn https://www.bartleby.com/294/37.html", st. 1 (1819). <br class="br">Hymns

“The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His blood red banner streams afar:
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.”

"The Son of God Goes Forth to War", st. 1 (1812).
Hymns

“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?”

Reginald Heber Palestine

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!”

Reginald Heber Palestine

"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

“With drooping bells of clearest blue
Thou didst attract my childish view,
Almost resembling
The azure butterflies that flew
Where on the heath thy blossoms grew
So lightly trembling.”

The Harebell reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 353.
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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