ast kept,
And hast refreshed me while I slept:
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless life partake.

It is said that after Bishop Ken had written this hymn, he sang it to his
own accompaniment on the lute every morning as a part of his private
devotion. Although he wrote many other hymns, only this one and his
evening hymn have survived. The two hymns were published in a devotional
book prepared for the students of Winchester College. In this work Bishop
Ken urged the students to sing the hymns devoutly in their rooms every
morning and evening.

The historian Macaulay paid Ken a beautiful tribute when he said that he
came as near to the ideal of Christian perfection "as human weakness
permits."

It was during the life-time of Bishop Ken that Joseph Addison, the famous
essayist, was publishing the "Spectator." Addison was not only the
leading literary light of his time, but a devout Christian as well. From
time to time he appended a poem to the charming essays which appeared in
the "Spectator," and it is from this source that we have received five
hymns of rare beauty. They are the so-called "Creation" hymn, "The
spacious firmament on high," which Haydn included in his celebrated
oratorio; the Traveler's hymn, beginning with the line, "How are Thy
servants blest, O Lord"; and three other hymns, almost equally
well-known: "The Lord my pasture shall prepare," "When rising from the
bed of death," and "When all Thy mercies, O my God." The latter contains
one of the most striking expressions in all the realm of hymnody:

Through all eternity to Thee
A joyful song I'll raise:
But oh, eternity's too short
To utter all Thy praise!

In the essay introducing this hymn, Addison writes: "If gratitude is due
from man to man, how much more from man to his Maker. The Supreme Being
does not only confer upon us those bounties which proceed immediately
from His hand, but even those benefits which are conveyed to us by
others. Any blessing which we enjoy, by what means soever derived, is the
gift of Him who is the great Author of Good and the Father of Mercies."

The Traveler's hymn, "How are Thy servants blessed, O Lord," was written
after Addison's return from a perilous voyage on the Mediterranean.

In addition to his literary pursuits, Addison also occupied several
important positions of state with the English government. He died on June
17, 1719, at the age of forty-seven.