THE CHRISTIAN YEAR




INTRODUCTION.



John Keble, two years older than his friend Dr. Arnold of Rugby,
three years older than Thomas Carlyle, and nine years older than
John Henry Newman, was born in 1792, at Fairford in Gloucestershire.
He was born in his father's parsonage, and educated at home by his
father till he went to college. His father then entered him at his
own college at Oxford, Corpus Christi. Thoroughly trained, Keble
obtained high reputation at his University for character and
scholarship, and became a Fellow of Oriel. After some years he gave
up work in the University, though he could not divest himself of a
large influence there for good, returned home to his old father, who
required help in his ministry, and undertook for his the duty of two
little curacies. The father lived on to the age of ninety. John
Keble's love for God and his devotion to the Church had often been
expressed in verse. On days which the Church specially celebrated,
he had from time to time written short poems to utter from the heart
his own devout sense of their spiritual use and meaning. As the
number of these poems increased, the desire rose to follow in like
manner the while course of the Christian Year as it was marked for
the people by the sequence of church services, which had been
arranged to bring in due order before the minds of Christian
worshippers all the foundations of their faith, and all the elements