John White Chadwick › Texts

Chadwick, John White, was born at Marblehead, Mass., U.S., Oct. 19, 1840; graduated at the Cambridge Divinity School, July 19, 1864, and ordained minister of the Second Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 21, 1864. A frequent contributor to the Christian Examiner; The Radical; Old and New; Harper's Magazine; and has published many poems in American periodicals. His hymn on Unity, "Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round," was written for the graduating class of the Divinity School, Cambridge, June 19, 1864. It is in Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1884. It is a hymn of superior merit. [Rev. W. Garrett Horder]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Chadwick, J. W, p. 216, i. Mr. Chadwick's important prose works were the Life of Theodore Parker, 1890, and that of William Ellery Channing, 1903; and his poetical productions A Book of Poems, 1876, and In Nazareth Town and other Poems, 1883. He received his M.A. from Harvard in 1888; and d. Dec. 11, 1901. In addition to "Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round," already noted on p. 216, ii., Mr. Chadwick's widow has supplied us with the following data concerning his hymns:—
1. A gentle tumult in the earth. [Easter.] Dated 1876.
2. Another year of setting suns. [New Year.] Written as a New Year's Hymn for 1873, and originally began "That this shall be a better year." In The Pilgrim Hymnal, Boston, 1904.
3. Come, let us sing a tender song, [Communion of Saints.] Dated 1901, and included in The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904.
4. Everlasting Holy One. [Invocation.] 1875.
5. It singeth low in every heart. [In Memoriam.] Written in 1876, for the 25th Anniversary of the Dedication of his Church at Brooklyn. It has passed into a great many collections in America, and a few in Great Britain, including Horder's Worship Song, 1905.
6. Now sing we a song for the harvest. [Harvest.]
Written for a Harvest Thanksgiving Service in 1871. Given in The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1904, and others.
7. 0 God, we come not as of old. [Perfect Law of Liberty.] Written in 1874, and entitled "The Perfect Law."
8. 0 Love Divine of all that is. [Trust.] Written in 1865, and included in his Book of Poems, 1876, as "A Song of Trust." In several American collections.
9. 0 Thou, Whose perfect goodness crowns. [For an Anniversary.] "Written for the 23th Anniversary of his Installation, Dec. 21, 1889." In The Pilgrim Hymnal, and other collections.
10. Thou Whose Spirit dwells in all. [Easter.] Written in 1890.
11. What has drawn us thus apart? [For Unity.] Undated, in the Boston Unitarian Hymns for Church and Home, 1895.
During the past ten years Mr. Chadwick's hymns have become very popular in America, and especially with the compilers of Congrega¬tional and Unitarian collections.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)