H. M. Gunn

Gunn, Henry Mayo, was born March 25, 1817, at Chard, Somerset, and educated at Mill Hill School, and at University College. He held several pastorates, beginning with Basingstoke in 1841, and closing with Sevenoaks in 1881. He d. May 21, 1886. He published various works, chiefly descriptive of the Nonconformist Churches and their principles. Besides translating some of the earlier Greek and Latin hymns for the Excelsior edited by the late Dr. James Hamilton, he wrote many hymns, including:—
1. Higher, higher to the Cross. The Cross of Christ. Appeared, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, in the 1866 Supplement to the collection used in the Redland Congregational Church, Bristol. It is also issued in sheet form.
2. Our fathers were high-minded men. Fidelity to Principle. This was suggested by the disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843. It was published in the Alton Sunday School Collection, 1844, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. It is in several hymn-books, including the Congregational Union Book of Praise for Children, 1881.
3. To realms beyond the sounding sea. Prayer on behalf of Colonists. Appeared in the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859, No. 903, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines.
4. We want no priest but Jesus. Priesthood of Christ. Printed for the annual meeting of the Wilts Congregational Union, 1872. It is largely circulated as a broadsheet, and has been tranlsated into Italian for the use of the Evangelical Church of Italy. [Rev. W. Garrett Horder]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology