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John Mason

1645 - 1694 Author of "O praise the Lord, praise him, praise him" in Hymns and Hymn Tunes in the English Metrical Psalters 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) ==================== 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)

Fred A. Fillmore

1856 - 1925 Composer of "[O praise the Lord, Praise him, all ye nations]" in Heart Songs Born: May 15, 1856, Paris, Illinois. Died: November 15, 1925, Terrace Park, Ohio. Buried: Milford, Ohio. Frederick Augustus Fillmore, who was born on May 15, 1856, in Paris, IL, one of seven children, five sons and two daughters, born to Augustus Damon and Hannah Lockwood Fillmore. His father was a preacher in the Christian Church, as well as a composer, songbook compiler, and hymn publisher who developed his own system of musical notation using numbers on the staff in place of note heads. Augustus eventually settled in Cincinnati, OH, and established a music publishing business there. Until 1906, there was no official distinction between "Christian Churches" and "Churches of Christ." The names were used pretty much interchangeably, and many older churches of Christ which are faithful today were once known as "Christian Churches." Fred and his older brother James took over their father's publishing business following the death of Augustus in 1870 and established the Fillmore Brothers Music House. This became a successful Cincinnati music form, publishing church hymnals and later band and orchestral music. For many years the firm issued a monthly periodical, The Music Messenger. The brothers edited many hymnbooks and produced many songs which became popular. Beginning with the songbook Songs of Glory in 1874, there appeared many Fillmore publications which became widely used through churches, especially in the midwest. For these collections, Fred provided a great deal of hymn tunes. --launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/hymnoftheday

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Composer of "NOEL" in Songs for the Service of Prayer Dr. Lowell Mason (the degree was conferred by the University of New York) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man. Lowell Mason was born in Medfield, Mass., January 8, 1792. From childhood he had manifested an intense love for music, and had devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself according to such opportunities as were available to him. At the age of twenty he found himself filling a clerkship in a banking house in Savannah, Ga. Here he lost no opportunity of gratifying his passion for musical advancement, and was fortunate to meet for the first time a thoroughly qualified instructor, in the person of F. L. Abel. Applying his spare hours assiduously to the cultivation of the pursuit to which his passion inclined him, he soon acquired a proficiency that enabled him to enter the field of original composition, and his first work of this kind was embodied in the compilation of a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was offered unavailingly to publishers in Philadelphia and in Boston. Fortunately for our musical advancement it finally secured the attention of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, and by its committee was submitted to Dr. G. K. Jackson, the severest critic in Boston. Dr. Jackson approved most heartily of the work, and added a few of his own compositions to it. Thus enlarged, it was finally published in 1822 as The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, which he thus explains, "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." President Winchester, of the Handel and Haydn Society, sold the copyright for the young man. Mr. Mason went back to Savannah with probably $500 in his pocket as the preliminary result of his Boston visit. The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England, and through this means entering into the church choirs, to whom it opened up a higher field of harmonic beauty. Its career of success ran through some seventeen editions. On realizing this success, Mason determined to accept an invitation to come to Boston and enter upon a musical career. This was in 1826. He was made an honorary member of the Handel and Haydn Society, but declined to accept this, and entered the ranks as an active member. He had been invited to come to Boston by President Winchester and other musical friends and was guaranteed an income of $2,000 a year. He was also appointed, by the influence of these friends, director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. Finally he made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church, and gave up the guarantee, but again friendly influence stepped in and procured for him the position of teller at the American Bank. In 1827 Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that was to win for him as has been already stated the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Although this may seem rather a bold claim it is not too much under the circumstances. Mr. Mason might have been in the average ranks of musicianship had he lived in Europe; in America he was well in advance of his surroundings. It was not too high praise (in spite of Mason's very simple style) when Dr. Jackson wrote of his song collection: "It is much the best book I have seen published in this country, and I do not hesitate to give it my most decided approbation," or that the great contrapuntist, Hauptmann, should say the harmonies of the tunes were dignified and churchlike and that the counterpoint was good, plain, singable and melodious. Charles C. Perkins gives a few of the reasons why Lowell Mason was the very man to lead American music as it then existed. He says, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them." The personality of Dr. Mason was of great use to the art and appreciation of music in this country. He was of strong mind, dignified manners, sensitive, yet sweet and engaging. Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage. Dr. Mason visited a number of the music schools in Europe, studied their methods, and incorporated the best things in his own work. He founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Dr. Mason resided in Boston from 1826 to 1851, when he removed to New York. Not only Boston benefited directly by this enthusiastic teacher's instruction, but he was constantly traveling to other societies in distant cities and helping their work. He had a notable class at North Reading, Mass., and he went in his later years as far as Rochester, where he trained a chorus of five hundred voices, many of them teachers, and some of them coming long distances to study under him. Before 1810 he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals. As a composer of solid, enduring church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful this country has introduced. He was a deeply pious man, and was a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Mason in 1817 married Miss Abigail Gregory, of Leesborough, Mass. The family consisted of four sons, Daniel Gregory, Lowell, William and Henry. The two former founded the publishing house of Mason Bros., dissolved by the death of the former in 19G9. Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin. Dr. William Mason was one of the most eminent musicians that America has yet produced. Dr. Lowell Mason died at "Silverspring," a beautiful residence on the side of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, August 11, 1872, bequeathing his great musical library, much of which had been collected abroad, to Yale College. --Hall, J. H. (c1914). Biographies of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

Thoro Harris

1874 - 1955 Person Name: T. H. Author of "Complete in Him" in Rose of Sharon Hymns Born: March 31, 1874, Washington, DC. Died: March 27, 1955, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Buried: International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. After attending college in Battle Creek, Michigan, Harris produced his first hymnal in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1902. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois at the invitation of Peter Bilhorn, and in 1932, to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He composed and compiled a number of works, and was well known locally as he walked around with a canvas bag full of handbooks for sale. His works include: Light and Life Songs, with William Olmstead & William Kirkpatrick (Chicago, Illinois: S. K. J. Chesbro, 1904) Little Branches, with George J. Meyer & Howard E. Smith (Chicago, Illinois: Meyer & Brother, 1906) Best Temperance Songs (Chicago, Illinois: The Glad Tidings Publishing Company, 1913) (music editor) Hymns of Hope (Chicago, Illinois: Thoro Harris, undated, circa 1922) --www.hymntime.com/tch

Grant Colfax Tullar

1869 - 1950 Composer of "VISION" in The Cyber Hymnal Grant Colfax Tullar was born August 5, 1869, in Bolton, Connecticut. He was named after the American President Ulysses S. Grant and Vice President Schuyler Colfax. After the American Civil War, his father was disabled and unable to work, having been wounded in the Battle of Antietam. Tullar's mother died when he was just two years old so Grant had no settled home life until he became an adult. Yet from a life of sorrow and hardship he went on to bring joy to millions of Americans with his songs and poetry. As a child, he received virtually no education or religious training. He worked in a woolen mill and as a shoe clerk. The last Methodist camp meeting in Bolton was in 1847. Tullar became a Methodist at age 19 at a camp meeting near Waterbury in 1888. He then attended the Hackettstown Academy in New Jersey. He became an ordained Methodist minister and pastored for a short time in Dover, Delaware. For 10 years he was the song leader for evangelist Major George A. Hilton. Even so, in 1893 he also helped found the well-known Tullar-Meredith Publishing Company in New York, which produced church and Sunday school music. Tullar composed many popular hymns and hymnals. His works include: Sunday School Hymns No. 1 (Chicago, Illinois: Tullar Meredith Co., 1903) and The Bible School Hymnal (New York: Tullar Meredith Co., 1907). One of Grant Tullar's most quoted poems is "The Weaver": My Life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me; I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily. Oft times He weaveth sorrow And I, in foolish pride, Forget He sees the upper, And I the under side. Not til the loom is silent And the shuttles cease to fly, Shall God unroll the canvas And explain the reason why. The dark threads are as needful In the Weaver's skillful hand, As the threads of gold and silver In the pattern He has planned. He knows, He loves, He cares, Nothing this truth can dim. He gives His very best to those Who chose to walk with Him. Grant Tullar --http://www.boltoncthistory.org/granttullar.html, from Bolton Community News, August 2006.

Thomas Norton

1532 - 1584 Person Name: N. Author of "Laudate nomen" in The Whole Booke of Psalmes

Charles R. Anders

b. 1929 Person Name: Charles R. Anders, b. 1929 Composer of "MICHAEL" in Lutheran Book of Worship

Susan H. Peterson

1950 - 2004 Person Name: Susan H. Peterson, 1950-2004 Author of "Praise The Lord, My Soul" in The Cyber Hymnal Born: October 17, 1950, Port Angeles, Washington. Died: July 23, 2004, Peralta, New Mexico. Susan was the second of two girls in the family. Her father worked for the National Park Service, so Susan enjoyed growing up in National Parks and Historic Sites across America. She did her undergraduate work at Stanford University and earned a BS in mathematics in 1972. The next year she took a one-year graduate program at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, and received a Certificate of Bible upon completion. She decided not to pursue a career in computer science, as she had originally intended, instead embarking on a series of jobs in which she honed her office skills and gained some missions experience. She spent 1976 in Tanzania under the Africa Inland Mission. Upon her return, she settled in Portland, Oregon, where she learned word processing and did editing and proofreading. In 1990, Susan decided to go back to school to learn how to work with visually impaired and blind adults. She received her MA in rehabilitation teaching of the blind from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1991. She then moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where she worked as an editor and desktop publishing technician for 10 years and did volunteer rehabilitation teaching in her spare time. Much of Susan’s editing and desktop publishing work was on books produced by the Missions Commission of World Evangelical Alliance, including Working Your Way to the Nations, Too Valuable to Lose, Send Me!, Global Missiology for the 21st Century, and Doing Member Care Well. She also worked part time for Emergency World, a company that produced training materials for emergency response personnel. Susan moved back to Oregon in 2002, where she continued the same work she did in Colorado. For several years, Susan worked with Wycliffe Associates as part of a team that helped keyboard Bibles and New Testaments that were printed before the age of computers and that needed to be put into electronic format, so that they could be updated or adapted for other languages. Susan’s career as a hymn writer began in 1997, when she set a goal of writing 100 hymns. Her method was to select a passage of Scripture for each song and then find a hymn tune that seemed to fit the passage. She thus combined the enduring Word of God with melodies that have stood the test of time. Her songs were a blessing to her, and she was pleased to be able to share them with others. Lyrics: Alpha, Omega Ascribe to the Lord Our God Be Now Imitators of Your Lord Be Strong in God Behold, These Words Are Trustworthy and True Blest Are the Poor Blest Is the Man Christ a Blind Man Saw One Day Clothe Yourself with Humility Come and Hear the Words of Jesus Come unto Me Count It Joy Cursed Is the One Who Trusts in Man Do Not Be Surprised Do Not Worry Earth Belongs to the Lord, The Everyone Should Be Quick to Listen Faith Means We’re Sure Faith of Our Brothers For unto Us a Child Is Born Give Thanks to God the Lord God, Keep Me Safe God Most High, We Praise You God, the Blessed and Only Ruler God the Lord Does Ask Hallelujah, Praise the Lord! He Has Given Us His Promises Hear Now My Praise, O Lord Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty How Can I, Lord, Keep My Way Pure? How Good It Is, Lord How Great the Love How Many Are Your Works, Lord I Am the Lord, Your God I Am the Vine I Extol You, O Lord I Kneel Before You, Lord I Praise You, Lord If Any Person Is in Christ If You Love Me If You Would Come After Me In You, O Lord, I Put My Trust It Is Good to Praise th’Almighty Jesus, the Good Shepherd Jonah Just Trust in Me Kingdom of Your Heavenly Father, The Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled Let Your Mindset Be the Same Live with Each Other in Love Lord, I Extol Your Name Lord, We Come and Offer Praise Lord, You Have Been Our Dwelling Lord, You Have Searched Me Lord, You’ve Called Us as Your Servants Love Must Be Sincere and Honest Lovely, O Lord, Is Your Dwelling Place Majestic Is Your Name Man Named Nicodemus, A My God, in Whom I Trust My Light and My Salvation My Soul Finds Rest in God Alone Now Let Us Love Each Other Now That You’ve Tasted O Come, Let Us Sing O God, You Are My God O Lord, Life Is Sacred O Lord, You Reign o’er Earth and Sea O Lord, You’re My Shepherd O May All the Peoples Praise You O Shout for Joy Oh, How Majestic and Glorious Oh, the Depth of God’s Wisdom One Day There’ll Be New Earth and Heaven One Named Lazarus Praise Be unto Our God Ephesians Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him Praise, O Servants of the Lord Praise the Lord, My Soul Put Off Your Old Self Wholly Rejoice in God Savior, Like a Shepherd Since Through God’s Mercy Since We Are Now Surrounded Since We Have Confidence Sing to the Lord Sing with Joy This God’s Our God Though I Speak To Whom Will You Compare God? Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart Unto You I Lift My Soul Up Up to the Hills I Look We Now Have Peace with God We Thank You, Lord Wedding Took Place, A Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant What Good Can Come? What Shall We Say? Where Can One Look for --www.hymntime.com/tc

William Walker Combs

1883 - 1974 Person Name: W. W. Combs Composer of "[O praise the Lord]" in Grateful Praise Born: June 1883, Locust Grove, Georgia. Died: Date unknown; the 1940 census shows him in Dallas, Texas. Combs’ parents were William McCollough Combs & Mary Elizabeth Walker Combs. He married Florence Bowman in 1909. His works include: The Voice in Singing: Its Care and Development, 1938 Modern Music Reader (Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company, 1939) © The Cyber Hymnal™ (www.hymntime.com/tch)

W. Wrangham

Person Name: Wrangham Author of "Oh, praise the Lord! for He is good" in Songs for the Service of Prayer Wrangham, W., p. 930. ii., 223. From his New Metrical Version of the Psalms, 1829, the following are in common use in America:— (1) "Eternal God, celestial King," Psalms Ivii; (2) "Praise the Lord, His power confess," Psalms cl.; (3) “To Thee, my righteous King and Lord," Psalms ciii. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)