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Synesius of Cyrene, Bishop of Ptolemais

370 - 430 Person Name: Synesius of Cyrene, ca. 375-430 Topics: Discipleship Author of "Lord Jesus, Think on Me" in Ambassador Hymnal Synesius, a native of Cyrene, born circa 375. His descent was illustrious. His pedigree extended through seventeen centuries, and in the words of Gibbon, "could not be equalled in the history of mankind." He became distinguished for his eloquence and philosophy, and as a statesman and patriot he took a noble stand. When the Goths were threatening his country he went to the court of Arcadius, and for three years tried to rouse it to the dangers that were coming on the empire. But Gibbon says, ”The court of Arcadius indulged the zeal, applauded the eloquence, and neglected the advice of Synesius." In 410 he was made Bishop of Ptolemaïs, but much against his will. He died in 430. Synesius's opinions have been variously estimated. That he was imbued with the Neo-Platonic philosophy there is no doubt but that he was a semi-Christian, as alleged by Mosheim or that he denied the doctrine of the Resurrection as stated directly by Gibbon [see Decline and Fall, vol. ii.]; and indirectly by Bingham [see Christian Antiq., Lond., 1843, i., pp. 464-5] is very doubtful. Mr. Chatfield, who has translated his Odes in his Songs and Hymns of the Greek Christian Poets, 1876, contends that his tenth Ode "Lord Jesus, think on me," proves that he was not a semi-Christian, and that he held the doctrine of the Resurrection. The first is clear: but the second is open to doubt. He certainly prays to the Redeemer: but there is nothing in the hymn to shew that he looked upon the Redeemer as being clothed in His risen body. This tenth ode is the only Ode of Synesius, which has come into common use. The original Odes are found in the Anth. Graeca Carm. Christ, 1871, p. 2 seq., and Mr. Chatfield's trs. in his Songs, &c, 1876. Synesius's Odes have also been translation by Alan Stevenson, and included in his The Ten Hymns of Synesius, Bishop of Tyreore, A.D. 410 in English Verse. And some Occasional Pieces by Alan Stevenson, LL.B. Printed for Private Circulation, 1865. -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

R. M. McIntosh

1836 - 1889 Person Name: Rigdon M. McIntosh Topics: Discipleship Composer of "THE KINGDOM IS COMING" in Great Songs of the Church (Revised) Used Pseudonym: Robert M. McIntosh ========== Rigdon (Robert) McCoy McIntosh USA 1836-1899 Born at Maury County, TN, into a farming family, he attended Jackson College in Columbia, TN, graduating in 1854. He studied music under Asa Everett in Richmond, VA, and became a traveling singing school teacher. He also served briefly in the Civil War. He wrote several hymns during this period of his life. In 1860 he married Sarah McGlasson, and they had a daughter, Loulie Everett. In 1875 he was appointed head of the Vanderbilt University Music Department in Nashville, TN. In 1877 he joined the faculty of Emory College, Oxford, GA. In 1895 he left Emory College to devote his time to the R M McIntosh Publishing Company. He also served as music editor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South Publishing House for over 30 years. His song book publications include: “Good news” (1876), “Light & life” (1881), “Prayer & praise” (1883), “New life” (1879), “New life #2” (1886), and “Songs of service” (1896). He died in Atlanta, GA. John Perry

William Henry Monk

1823 - 1889 Topics: Life of Discipleship Death and Eternal Life; God's Church Life of Discipleship: Death and Eternal Life Composer of "EVENTIDE" in Chalice Hymnal William H. Monk (b. Brompton, London, England, 1823; d. London, 1889) is best known for his music editing of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861, 1868; 1875, and 1889 editions). He also adapted music from plainsong and added accompaniments for Introits for Use Throughout the Year, a book issued with that famous hymnal. Beginning in his teenage years, Monk held a number of musical positions. He became choirmaster at King's College in London in 1847 and was organist and choirmaster at St. Matthias, Stoke Newington, from 1852 to 1889, where he was influenced by the Oxford Movement. At St. Matthias, Monk also began daily choral services with the choir leading the congregation in music chosen according to the church year, including psalms chanted to plainsong. He composed over fifty hymn tunes and edited The Scottish Hymnal (1872 edition) and Wordsworth's Hymns for the Holy Year (1862) as well as the periodical Parish Choir (1840-1851). Bert Polman

Shirley Erena Murray

1931 - 2020 Person Name: Shirley Erena Murray, b. 1931 Topics: Discipleship Author of "God of Freedom, God of Justice" in New Wine In Old Wineskins Shirley Erena Murray (b. Invercargill, New Zealand, 1931) studied music as an undergraduate but received a master’s degree (with honors) in classics and French from Otago University. Her upbringing was Methodist, but she became a Presbyterian when she married the Reverend John Stewart Murray, who was a moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. Shirley began her career as a teacher of languages, but she became more active in Amnesty International, and for eight years she served the Labor Party Research Unit of Parliament. Her involvement in these organizations has enriched her writing of hymns, which address human rights, women’s concerns, justice, peace, the integrity of creation, and the unity of the church. Many of her hymns have been performed in CCA and WCC assemblies. In recognition for her service as a writer of hymns, the New Zealand government honored her as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit on the Queen’s birthday on 3 June 2001. Through Hope Publishing House, Murray has published three collections of her hymns: In Every Corner Sing (eighty-four hymns, 1992), Everyday in Your Spirit (forty-one hymns, 1996), and Faith Makes the Song (fifty hymns, 2002). The New Zealand Hymnbook Trust, for which she worked for a long time, has also published many of her texts (cf. back cover, Faith Makes the Song). In 2009, Otaga University conferred on her an honorary doctorate in literature for her contribution to the art of hymn writing. I-to Loh, Hymnal Companion to “Sound the Bamboo”: Asian Hymns in Their Cultural and Liturgical Context, p. 468, ©2011 GIA Publications, Inc., Chicago

Annie S. Hawks

1835 - 1918 Topics: Life of Discipleship Prayer and Guidance; God's Church Life of Discipleship: Prayer and Guidance Author of "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Chalice Hymnal Hawks, Annie Sherwood. Mrs. Hawks was born in Hoosick, N. Y., May 28, 1835, and has resided for many years at Brooklyn. Her hymns were contributed to Bright Jewels, Pure Gold, Boyal Diadem, Brightest and Best, Temple Anthems, Tidal Wave, and other popular Sunday School hymnbooks. They include "I need Thee every hour" (written April, 1872), "Thine, most gracious Lord," "Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?" and others of the same type. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==============

William T. Sleeper

1819 - 1904 Person Name: William T. Sleeper, 1819-1904 Topics: The Christian Life Call to Discipleship; Discipleship Author of "Out of My Bondage, Sorrow and Night (Jesus, I Come)" in African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal Sleeper, W. T. is given in I. D. Sankey’s Sacred Songs & Solos, 1881, as the author of “A ruler once came to Jesus by night” (Need for the New Birth). --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) =============== William T. Sleeper (1819-1904)] Born: February 9, 1819, Danbury, New Hampshire. Died: September 24, 1904, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Sleeper attended Phillips-Exeter Academy, the University of Vermont, and the Andover Theological Seminary. After ordination, he conducted home ministry work in Massachusetts and Maine. He later became pastor of the Summer Street Congregational Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he served over 30 years. His works include: The Rejected King, and Hymns of Jesus, 1883. -- www.hymntime.com

H. J. B.

1803 - 1871 Person Name: Henry J. Buckoll Topics: Discipleship Translator of "Come, My Soul, Thou Must Be Waking" in The Hymnbook ========= Buckoll, Henry James, M.A., son of the Rev. James Buckoll, Rector of Siddington, near Cirencester, Gloucester; born at Siddington, Sept. 9,1803. He was educated at Rugby and Queen's College, Oxford, graduating B.A.in 1826, and became Assistant Master at Rugby the same year. He took Holy Orders in 1827, and died at Rugby June 6, 1871. He was probably the editor of the first edition of the Rugby School Collection. In 1839 he edited a Collection of Hymns for the Rugby Parish Church, and in 1850 compiled, with Dr. Goulburn, a new edition of the Collection for the Rugby School Chapel. That collection contains 14 of his hymns, a few of which were translations from the Latin and German. His Hymns translated from the German were published 1842. It contained 67 translations from Bunsen's Versuch, 1833, most of which are in the original metres, and are annotated in this work under their first lines in German. Buckoll's hymns and trs. are mostly found in the hymn-books of the Public Schools. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

St. Ephraem, Syrus

303 - 373 Person Name: Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373) Topics: Discipleship Author (ascribed to) of "Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands" in Ancient and Modern Ephraem Syrus. About A.D. 307 there was born at Nisibis, in northern Mesopotamia, Ephraem or Ephraim Syrus, the most celebrated father of the Syrian church, and famous not only as a theologian, but also as a poet and hymn-writer. Historians differ as to the details of his life; but it is known that having first been a pupil of James, bishop of Nisibis, he finished his education at Edessa, where for the rest of his days he chiefly resided. He visited Basil at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and by him he was ordained to the office of deacon. He died at Edessa in June, 373. Ephraim was a most voluminous writer of commentaries, expository sermons, hymns, and metrical homilies. Metrical Homilies, first mentioned in connection with him, are a peculiar kind of composition, to which we know of nothing in other literature exactly similar. The tracts in verse explanatory of the Christian religion, circulated by missionaries in some parts of India, and which the people like to read aloud in a kind of chant, seem most nearly to resemble them. The Homilies are in metre, i.e. in lines containing a fixed number of syllables, e.g. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 12, as the case may be, and are divided into strophes, but differ from hymns proper in their greater length and more decidedly didactic character. We might have supposed them to be poems intended to be simply read, but from notes found on manuscripts giving directions as to the singing, it appears as though, at least in some cases, they were actually sung or chanted in connection with religious services. In neither the hymns nor the homilies is any regard paid to accent or quantity, and only occasionally does there seem to have been an attempt at rhyme or assonance. The main characteristics of Syriac poetry are (1) a certain elevation of style, (2) division of the verses into strophep, and (3) the use of lines or verses with a fixed number of syllables The poetical compositions of Ephraim, so far as printed, are as follows, beginning with his works edited by J. S. Assemani and P. Benedict at Rome, in 1732-46. (1) Eleven metrical expositions, in heptasyllabic and pentasyllabic metre, of portions of Scripture treating of the Creation, the Temptation of Eve, the Mission of Jonah, and the Repentance of the Ninevites. The last-named is the most striking and the longest, extending to between 500 and 600 strophes of four lines each. Of the use made of it by the Nestorian Christians of the present day we shall speak in the second part of this article. (2) Thirteen discourses on Christ's Nativity. These are of various lengths and metres. The last is tetra-syllabic, in strophes of 10 lines, every tenth line being a doxology. The life of Christ is supposed by the author to have extended to thirty years, and to every one of these years is assigned an act of praise from some created beings, beginning with the cherubim in the first year, and ending with the dead who have lived again, the living who have repented, and heaven and earth, which through Christ have been reconciled, in the thirtieth. Dr. Burgess says that this is "a very beautiful production, tastefully conceived, and carried out in a masterly manner." (3) Next come 56 homilies in various metres against "False Doctrines," especially those of Bardesanes, Marcion, and the Manichaeans. Elsewhere we are told that it was Ephraim's desire to counteract the influence of these heretical songs, as well as to provide a substitute for profane games and noisy dances, which prompted him to compose hymns and train choirs, " in the midst of whom he stood, a spiritual harper, and arranged for them different kinds of songs, and taught them the variation of chants, until the whole city was gathered to him and the party of the adversary was put to shame." (4) Then follow 87 homilies against Rationalists or Free Thinkers, in which occur many curious and highly artificial arrangements of metres. These are succeeded by a collection of seven homilies, forming a separate work, entitled "The Pearl, concerning Faith." This poem is tetra-syllabic, in strophes of 10 lines each, and highly fanciful in conception, though not without pas¬sages of beauty. A pearl is treated as suggestive of truths connected with Christ and His Church. (5) Four other controversial homilies follow, after which come the pieces which may be more properly called Hymns. Of these perhaps the most interesting are 85 relating to "Death," apparently intended to be used in funeral services (6) This collection of Funeral Hymns is followed by four short pieces on the "Freedom of the Will," the strophes of which have an alphabetical arrangement, like the Hebrew of the 119th Psalm. The succeeding 16 homilies have the general title "Exhortations to Penitence," but among them are found morning and evening hymns, and a hymn for the Lord's day. (7) Next come twelve homilies on the "Paradise of Eden," and finally, in the Roman edition of Ephraim's works, 18 discourses on various subjects in pentasyllabic and hexasyllabic metres. But in 1866, Bichll pub. "Carmina Nisibena," 21 in number, the subject of most of them being the struggle between the Persian monarch, Sapor, and the Romans. The rest are on the "Overthrow of Satan," the "Resurrection of the Body," and kindred topics. In 1882 and 1886 Lamy published 2 vols., entitled S. Ephraemi Syri Hymni et Sermones, containing hitherto unpublished metrical homilies and hymns, on the Epiphany, the Nativity, the Blessed Virgin, the Passover, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, &c. --Julian, John A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907

Timothy Rees

1874 - 1939 Person Name: Timothy Rees, 1874-1939 Topics: Discipleship Author of "God Is Love" in Journeysongs (3rd ed.)

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Person Name: Lowell Mason, 1792-1872 Topics: The Christian Life Discipleship and Consecration; Hymns for the Young Discipleship and Consecration Adapter of "VOICE DIVINE" in The Book of Praise 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 1869. 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). Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.