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John Mason
1645 - 1694 Author of "In thee I live, and move, and am" in Hymns of the Church Universal Mason, John. The known facts of his life are scanty. He was the son of a Dissenting Minister, and the grandfather of John Mason, the author of A Treatise on Self-Knowledge. He was educated at Strixton School, Northants, and Clare Hall, Cambridge. After taking his M.A., he became Curate of Isham; and in 1668, Vicar of Stantonbury, Bucks. A little more than five years afterwards he was appointed Rector of Water-Stratford. Here he composed the volume containing The Songs of Praise, his paraphrase of The Song of Solomon, and the Poem on Dives and Lazarus, with which Shepherd's Penitential Cries was afterwards bound up. This volume passed through twenty editions. Besides the Songs of Praise, it contains six Penitential Cries by Mason, and it is this portion of his work which harmonizes with the compositions of Shepherd. Probably his hymns were used in public worship, and if so, they are among the earliest hymns so used in the Church of England. Some of his hymns are often found in the early Hymn Collections of the 18th century. The most notable work besides this volume is Select Remains of the Rev, John Mason, a collection of sententious and practical sayings and Christian letters, published by his grandson, and much eulogized by Dr. Watts. His friend, Shepherd, who was at Water-Stratford at the remarkable period to which reference is made below, published two of Mason's Sermons, with a preface of his own. Mason was a man of true piety and humility; known for eminent prayerfulness; faithful, experimental, effectual preaching; "a light in the pulpit, and a pattern out of it." His friendship with Baxter, and Shepherd, the Nonconformist Minister of Braintree, probably indicates his sympathies and theological position. Baxter calls him "the glory of the Church of England," and says :—
"The frame of his spirit was so heavenly, his deportment so humble and obliging, his discourse of spiritual things so weighty, with such apt words and delightful air, that it charmed all that had any spiritual relish.”
The close of his life was sensational enough. One night, about a month before his death, he had a vision of the Lord Jesus, wearing on His head a glorious crown, and with a look of unutterable majesty in His face. Of this vision he spoke; and preached a Sermon called The Midnight Cry, in which he proclaimed the near approach of Christ's Second Advent. A report spread that this Advent would take place at Water-Stratford itself, and crowds gathered there from the surrounding villages. Furniture and provisions were brought in, and every corner of the house and village occupied. Most extraordinary scenes occurred, singing and leaping and dancing. The excitement had scarcely died out when the old man passed away (1694), still testifying that he had seen the Lord, and that it was time for the nation to tremble, and for Christians to trim their lamps. His last words were, “I am full of the loving kindness of the Lord."
[Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.]
The full titles of his Songs of Praise, and the additions thereto, are:—
(1) Spiritual Songs; or, Songs of Praise to Almighty God upon several occasions, 1683. (2) The Song of Songs which is Solomon's first Turned, then Paraphrased in English Verse. Published with the former. (3) Dives and Lazarus, incorporated with the former 1685. (4) Penitential Cries, Begun by the Author of the Songs of Praise, And carried on by another Hand. Licensed and Entered, Sept. 13, 1693. This forms the concluding part of all editions of the Songs of Praise after 1693. The complete work was reprinted by D. Sedgwick in 1859. This reprint was accompanied by a short Memoir. In this reprint Mason's Penitential Cries and Ps. 86 are given under Songs of Praise, pp. 49-61, those under Penitential Cries being all by Shepherd (q.v.). Mason's Life, by John Dunton, was published in 1694, and included some miscellaneous poems; and another, by Henry Maurice, in 1695, in which are two hymns not found elsewhere. We may add that Mason published a Catechism, with some Verses for Children. Of this, however, no copy is known to exist.
Mason's Songs are commonly presented in modern hymnbooks in the form of centos, which are sometimes compiled from a single Song, and in other instances from several Songs. Many of these are annotated under their respective first lines. The rest include:—
1. Blest be my God that I was born. Praise for the Gospel.
2. Lord, for the mercies of the night. Morning.
3. Lord of my life, Length of my days. Praise for Deliverance from Immediate danger of Death.
4. My God, a God of pardon is. Praise for Pardon of Sin.
5. My God, my only Help and Hope. Praise for Providence.
6. My God, my reconciled God. Praise for Peace of Conscience.
7. My God was with me all this night. Morning.
8. Thou wast, 0 God; and Thou wast blest. Praise for Creation.
9. Thousands of thousands stand around. Praise. A cento from Songs i. and ii.
In Griffith, Farran & Co.'s Ancient and Modern Library, No. 12, Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victory and Triumph, &c, 1888, p. 208 (edited by W. T. Brooke), a short hymn by Mason is given from Multum in Parvo: or the Jubilee of Jubilees, 1732, beginning "High praises meet and dwell within." It is an indifferent example of Mason's powers as a writer of sacred verse.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Mason, J., p. 716, ii. Mason's Midnight Cry, stated on p. 717, i. as having been preached in 1694, was delivered in 1691. The 1st ed. of this sermon is:—
“The Midnight Cry. A Sermon Preached On the Parable of the Ten Virgins . . . . By J. M., M.A., Rector of W. in the County of B., London: Nathanael Ranew . . 1691.
This edition has no hymns. To the 4th ed. in 1692, published by the same Nathanael Ranew, there was added:—
The Fourth Edition, with the Addition of two Hymns for the Coming of Christ. By the same Author.
The first of these hymns begins:—
"The evening of the Day
Portends a dismal night,"
and is in 12 stanzas of 8 lines. The second hymn is:—
"Come, come, my dearest, dearest Lord,
Make haste and come away."
This is in 14 stanzas of 4 lines. Of the first and fifth eds. there are copies in the Brit. Museum, and of the first in the Julian Collection of the Church House, London.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
John Mason
Ralph Erskine
1685 - 1752 Author of "In thee I live, and move, and am" Erskine, Ralph, was son of Henry Erskine who was Rector of Cornhill, Northumberland, before the Act of Uniformity in 1662, and after the Revolution of 1688 was Parish minister of Chirnside, Berwickshire. He was born at Moneylaws, Northumberland, March 15, 1685, his father being then in exile from Scotland for taking part in conventicles. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1699, was licensed to preach in 1709, in 1711 ordained second minister of the Abbey Church, Dunfermline, and became first minister in 1716. Joining in 1737 with the "Four Brethren," who, protesting against the action of the General As¬sembly on Patronage, had been loosed from their charges by the Commission in 1733 and had formed themselves into a Presbytery at Gairney Bridge, near Kinross, Dec. 5, 1733, thus founding the Associate Church, he was with them and three others cited to, and de¬posed by, the General Assembly of 1740. In 1740 the majority of his congregation seceded with him and built him a church in Queen Anne Street, Dunfermline, in which he continued to minister till his death. He did not, however, cease to preach in his turn in the Abbey Church till after May, 1742. He died at Dunfermline, Nov. 6, 1752.
His published works are included in his Sermons and other Practical Works (Glas. 1764-1765), the complete folio ed. in 2. vols. ed by John Newlands (his son-in-law), contains a short memoir, 141 sermons, and (1) Gospel Sonnets: or, Spiritual Songs . These Gospel Sonnets, of which the 2nd and complete ed. appeared in Edinburgh, 1726, and the 5th finally revised, in London, 1741, though homely, enjoyed great popularity, and did much good in Scotland in the last century. (2) A Paraphrase upon the Song of Solomon. In this, first published in Edinburgh, 1736, the "Song" is spiritualized at great length. (3) Scripture Songs. These are in 2 Books. The Old Testament Songs are (i.) 14 Songs from Genesis to Job; (ii.) Job's Hymns, 100; (iii.) The Song of Solomon, complete ; (iv.) 21 Songs from Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and Jeremiah; (v.) Lamentations, complete; (vi.) 6 Songs from the Minor Prophets. The New Testament Songs are (i.) 17 Songs from the Gospels; (ii.) 24 Songs from the Epistles; (iii.) 16 Songs from the Revelation. Of these parts the 2nd (Glas., 1753), the 3rd (Glas., 1752), and the 5th (Glas., 1750), the Old Testament, were the first published separately. The remainder, published at Glasgow, in 1754 as Scripture Songs, in 3 Books, were undertaken by request of the Associate Synod, in 1748, but not being published before Erskine's death never came into Church use. Many are altered from Watts, and some from the Translations and Paraphrases of 1745. (4) Miscellaneous Poems. These include 3 English and 2 Latin Elegies, a poem on the Civil Magistrate and Religion, and 7 Epitaphs. Smoking Spiritualised is given at the end of the Gospel Sonnets. A number of pieces by Erskine were included, more or less altered, in the Moravian hymn-books. The only one found in a modern hymnal which is well known is annotated under, "Ah! mournful case, what can afford," and another not now in common use under “Aurora veils her rosy face." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Ralph Erskine
