1. Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice
2. Thy precious time mis-spent
redeem;
Each present day thy last esteem;
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great day thyself prepare.
3. Let all thy converse be sincere,
Thy conscience as the noontide
clear;
Think how all seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys
4. By influence of the light Divine
Let thy own light to others shine;
Reflect all Heav'n's propitious rays
In ardent love and cheerful
praise.
5. Wake and lift up thyself, my heart,
And with the angles bear thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing
High praise to the eternal King.
6. I wake, I wake, ye heav'nly choir
May your devotion me inspire,
That I, like you, my age may spend
Like you may on my God attend.
Amen.
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1. Ji Okan mi, ba orun ji,
Mura si ise ojo Re.
Mase ilora, ji kutu.
K’o san ‘gbese ebo oro
2. Ro gbogb’ojo t’o fi sofo
Bere si rere ‘se loni
Kiyesi ‘rin re l’aye yi,
Ko si mura d’ojo nla ni.
3. K’oro re gbogbo j’otito,
K’okan re mo b’osan gangan
Mo p’Olorun nso ona re
O mo ero ikoko re.
4. Nipa ‘mole ti nt’roun wa
Tan ‘mole na f’elomiran
Jeki ogo Olorun ‘han
Ninu ife at’orun yin
5. Ji, gbonranu ‘wo okan mi,
Yan ipo re l’arin angeli’,
Awon ti won nkorin iyin
Ni gbogbo igba s’Oba wa.
6. Mo ji, mo ji, ogun orun,
Ki isin yin s’okan mi ji,
Ki nle lo ojo aye mi,
Fun Olorun mi bi ti yin.
AMIN
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- Ken, Thomas, D.D. The bare details of Bishop Ken's life, when summarised, produce these results:—-Born 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; Rector of Woodhay and Prebendary of Winchester, 1669; Chaplain to the Princess Mary at the Hague, 1679; returns to Winchester, 1680; Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1685; imprisoned in the Tower, 1688; deprived, 1691; died at Longleat, March 19, 1711.
- The parents of Ken both died during his childhood, and he grew up under the guardianship of Izaak Walton, who had married Ken's 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's 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. In 1674 he published A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, and reference is made in this book to three hymns, for "Morning," "Midnight," and "Evening," the scholars being recommended to use them. It can scarcely be questioned that the Morning, Evening, and Midnight hymns, published 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. 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 humour or respect for his honesty, gave him not long afterwards the bishopric of Bath and Wells. Among the many acts of piety and munificence that characterised 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 "tell him of his faults." Among the faithful words of the bishops at Charles's death-bed, none were so noble in their faithfulness as his.
- 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, Bishop Kidder. He survived all the deprived prelates. His attitude as a nonjuror was remarkable for its conciliatory spirit. The saintliness of Ken's character, its combination of boldness, gentleness, modesty and love, has been universally recognised. The verdict of Macaulay is that it approached "as near as human infirmity permits to the ideal perfection of Christian virtue." The principal work of Ken's that remains is that on the Catechism, entitled The Practice of Divine Love. His poetical works were published after his death, in four volumes. 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. The best biographies of Ken are he Life of Ken by a Layman, and, specially, his Life, by the Very Rev. E. H. Plumptre, Dean of Wells, 1888. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.]
- Bishop Ken is known to hymnody as the author of the Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns, the first and second of which at least have found a place in almost every English collection for the last 150 years.
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