Born: Oc­to­ber 7, 1810, Blooms­bu­ry, Mid­dle­sex, Eng­land.

Died: Jan­u­ary 12, 1871, Can­ter­bu­ry, Kent, Eng­land. For his own ep­i­taph, he wrote: De­ver­sor­i­um vi­a­tor­is pro­fi­ci­en­tis Hier­o­sol­y­mam (“The inn of a pil­grim tra­vel­ing to Je­ru­sa­lem”).

Buried: St. Mar­tin’s, Can­ter­bu­ry, Kent, Eng­land.

Alford wrote the following in his Bi­ble at age 16:

I do this day in the pre­sence of God and my own soul re­new my cov­e­nant with God and sol­emn­ly de­ter­mine hence­forth to be­come his and to do his work as far as in me lies.

Alford at­tend­ed Il­min­ster Gram­mar School and Trin­i­ty Coll­ege, Cam­bridge, and was or­dained in 1833. He was Cur­ate at Wink­field, Wilt­shire, and Amp­ton, and Vic­ar at Wyme­swold, Lei­ces­ter­shire (where he served 18 years). In 1853, he went to Que­bec Cha­pel, Lon­don; in 1857, he be­came dean of Can­ter­bury Ca­thed­ral. He was al­so a schol­ar, pro­duc­ing vol­umes on Homer, Eng­lish po­et­ry, and the Greek New Test­a­ment. His works in­clude:

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Brightly Did the Light Di­vine
  2. Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
  3. Forward! Be Our Watchword
  4. Herald in the Wilderness
  5. Highest and the Holiest Place, The
  6. I Know Not If or Dark or Bright
  7. In Token That Thou Shalt Not Fear
  8. Let the Church of God Re­joice
  9. Not in Anything We Do
  10. O Thou at Whose Di­vine Com­mand
  11. O Thou Who Hast Thy Serv­ants Taught
  12. O Why on Death So Bent?
  13. Of All the Hon­ors Man May Wear
  14. Our Year of Grace Is Wearing to a Close
  15. Savior, Thy Fa­ther’s Prom­ise Send
  16. Since We Kept the Sav­ior’s Birth
  17. Ten Thou­sand Times Ten Thou­sand
  18. Thou That Art the Fa­ther’s Word
  19. Thou Who on That Won­drous Jour­ney
  20. Through Is­ra­el’s Coasts in Times of Old
  21. Thy Blood, O Christ, Hath Made Our Peace
  22. We Walk by Faith
  23. When in the Lord Je­ho­vah’s Name