Sabine Baring-Gould

I’m searching for the right word to introduce Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924). Eccentric? Unconventional? Quirky? He reportedly taught with a pet bat on his shoulders. You get the picture! A recent biographer wondered how he had the capacity for such expansive learning. One person whimsically described him as “the last man who knew everything.” He wrote histories of famous people and distant lands. He led archaeological digs and compiled folk tunes from mill workers and boat people. He wrote a treatise on the problem of evil as well as an academic study of werewolves. His life was unconventional from the start. When Sabine turned three, his family set off on a trip around Europe that lasted thirteen years. He became an Anglican priest in England and met a “mill girl,” Grace, when she was fourteen. He paid for her education and married her when she turned eighteen. He honored her when she died forty-eight years later with words on her tombstone, “Half my Soul.” They had fifteen children, and he eventually moved to his boyhood home of three thousand acres after his father died. He labored ten years to remodel Lew Trenchard Manor and restore the church on its property, becoming its pastor.Churches in his region celebrated Pentecost one year by a procession to a neighboring town. Concerned that young children would struggle to keep up, he composed “Onward Christian Soldiers” to accompany them as they marched between villages. He wrote the song hurriedly one evening, lamenting later that some of the rhymes were faulty. He expressed surprise when the song appeared in hymn books. He also wrote the evening hymn, “Now the Day is Over.” While he initially wrote it for children, this prayer poem appeals to young and old alike. God watches over us. His angels of mercy surround our bed. We can rest because God is vigilant on our behalf: