Rome honored its distinguished proselyte by making him a cardinal. It is
said, however, that Newman was never again a happy man after having
surrendered the faith of his fathers. He died at Birmingham, England,
August 11, 1890, at the age of eighty-nine years.

A disciple of Newman's, Frederick William Faber, may be mentioned in this
connection, for the lives of the two men were strangely intertwined.
Faber, who was the son of an English clergyman, was born at Yorkshire,
June 28, 1814. He was graduated from Oxford in 1836, and became a
minister of the English Church at Elton in 1843.

While at Oxford he came under the influence of the "Oxford Movement" and
formed a deep attachment for Newman. It was inevitable, therefore, that
he too should be carried into the Roman Church, which communion he joined
in 1846. For some years he labored with Newman in the Catholic church of
St. Philip Neri in London. He died in 1863 at the age of forty-nine
years.

Faber wrote a large number of hymns, many of them before his desertion to
the Church of Rome. Others, written after his defection, containing
eulogies of Mary and petitions addressed to the saints, have been changed
in order to make them suitable for Protestant hymn-books. His inordinate
use of the word "sweet", and his familiar manner of addressing Christ as
"sweet Saviour" has called down harsh criticism on his hymns as
sentimental and effeminate. However, such hymns as "There's a wideness in
God's mercy," "Hark, hark, my soul! angelic songs are swelling," "O
Saviour, bless us ere we go," "O Paradise, O Paradise," and "Faith of our
fathers, living still" have probably found a permanent place in the
hymn-books of the Church Universal, and will be loved and cherished both
for their devotional spirit and their poetic beauty.

Faber wrote "Faith of our fathers" after his defection to the Church of
Rome. In its original form the author expressed the hope that England
would be brought back to the papal fold. The opening lines, as Faber
wrote them, were:

Faith of our fathers! Mary's prayers
Shall win our country back to thee.

A Hymn Written in the Shadows

Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me!

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass awa