The news of the death of Mrs. Alexander, wife of
the Bishop of Derry, which took place last Saturday at the Palace, Derry, has been received with deep regret throughout the Anglo-Saxon world, for wherever the English language is spoken, her beautiful and touching hymns are known. The gift of writing lyrical verse which shall be simple and eloquent, and touch the religions emotions truly, is one of the rarest. We have had plenty of great poets who have been deeply religious men—Milton, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Tennyson, in our own day—but we have hardly any hymns which are adequate as poems. It would be too much to say that Mrs. Alexander's hymns were always successful ; but in "There is a green hill far away," she touched the hearts of thousands of men and women, as well as of children, for whom the hymn was primarily intended. The charm lies in the simplicity and directness of the appeal.
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