The Christian Year

John Keble, two years older than his friend Dr. Arnold of Rugby, three years older than Thomas Carlyle, and nine years older than John Henry Newman, was born in 1792, at Fairford in Gloucestershire.  He was born in his father’s parsonage, and educated at home by his father till he went to college.  His father then entered him at his own college at Oxford, Corpus Christi. 

Thoroughly trained, Keble obtained high reputation at his University for character and scholarship, and became a Fellow of Oriel.  After some years he gave up work in the University, though he could not divest himself of a large influence there for good, returned home to his old father, who required help in his ministry, and undertook for his the duty of two little curacies. The father lived on to the age of ninety.  John Keble’s love for God and his devotion to the Church had often been expressed in verse.