While Baker was at work in his Herefordshire vicarage, John Ellerton (1826-93) was writing hymns and essays on hymns in his rural or semi-rural parsonages. Ellerton had a rare gift in writing for special occasions. His great funeral hymn, ‘Now the labourer’s task is o’er,’ has a sombre strength which is full of comfort and trust. ‘Behold us, Lord, a little space’ is an ideal hymn for a week-day service, and ‘In the Name which earth and heaven’ is the grandest of all hymns for the laying of the foundation-stone of a church.[180] Without being a High-Churchman, Ellerton was a thorough-going Anglican, and his poetry has the restraint, the good taste, and the dignity which beseem a great Church. S. J. Stone (1839-1900), unlike most clerical hymn-writers, was not a country parson, though his best hymns were written before he began his work in East London. But even in its dreary wastes he found the true poetry of life, and some of his obscure parishioners at Haggerston are richly shrined in his memorial verses. I feel all the more moved by the triumphant tones of ‘The Church’s one foundation,’ all the more tenderly impressed by ‘Weary of earth, and laden with my sin,’ when I remember how dear to his heart were the struggling, toiling masses of his dull East London parish. His best hymns are well known, so I quote a sonnet which expresses his love for those who live in the crowded city. _From Windermere, To the Congregation and Children of St. Paul’s, Haggerston._ Moored by a green isle of Winandermere— Listening the gentlest lapping of the wave On the rock margin, and the blackbirds’ brave Soldierly antiphons, afar and near, And the wind’s whispered evensong—I hear A sound beyond, and sweeter as more grave Than ever paradise of nature gave, Dear to my heart of old, and now more dear: _The roar of London_—the deep undersong, The myriad music of immortal souls High-couraged, much-enduring, midst the long Drear toil and gloom and weariness. It rolls Over me with all power, for in its tone The hearts I love in Christ beat with my own. Bishop Bickersteth demands mention, not only for his own beautiful hymns, but for his successful editing of the _Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer_. Edward Bickersteth’s _Christian Psalmody_ was, in its day, one of the best and most catholic hymnals. In the _Hymnal Companion_, his son provided for a later generation the more complete and worthy hymn-book which the growth of hymnody made possible. Of Bishop Bickersteth’s own hymns, a few are amongst those universally accepted. His Communion Hymn, to the regret of many, is absent from the _Methodist Hymn-book_. ’Till He come!’ O let the words Linger on the trembling chords; Let the ‘little while’ between In their golden light be seen; Let us think how heaven and home Lie beyond that ’Till He come.’