Morris Williams (Nicander)

Two other clergymen of the Established Church in Wales have rendered valued service to the national psalmody. One of these is the Rev. MORRIS WILLIAMS (Nicander), who, in the spirit of the High Church revival, published The Church's Year. He also undertook a new version of the 102 Psalms; but he did not succeed in supplanting the old Psalter of Edmund Prys. Like almost all the hymn-writers of this century, his best work in poetry belongs to the Eisteddvod. From his seventeenth year, when he came into notice through a poetical curiosity--a metrical ode made up entirely of Biblical proper names--from thence up to the close of his life, he made large contributions to native literature. He had come personally under the influence of the Oxford movement; and be worked manfully for the revival of his Church in his native land. His labour, and that of likeminded men, was not in vain: the results of his devotion have reached wide and far.

The Church's Year (Y Flwyddyn Eglwysig) was published in 1843, reflecting in every part the influence of Keble's Christian Year. How far he copied the original, and where he added something of his own, may be judged from a comparison of the following hymn for Quinquagesima Sunday with that of Keble--both being based on the rainbow in Noah's covenant (Gen. ix. 13).