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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

Luther B. Bridgers

1884 - 1948 Topics: God's Church Life of Discipleship: Trust and Assurance Author of "There's Within My Heart a Melody" in Chalice Hymnal Luther Burgess Bridgers Born at Margarettsville, NC, son of a minister who conducted revival meetings, he assisted his father conducting meetings (1904-1913). He attended Asbury College at Wilmore, KY, and met his wife, Sarah Jane (Sallie) Veatch in 1905 while there. They had three sons: Luther Hughes, Allen Veatch, and James Marvin. He pastored Methodist Episcopal congregations in KY, NC, and GA, first pastoring in Perry, FL, before doing evangelistic work. He evangelized in the southern U S. He was also known for his fine singing voice and would sing at each meeting. Tragedy struck while he was conducting a revival in Middlesboro, KY, in 1911. Having left his wife and three sons to visit his wife’s parents while he was away, he learned that they had all perished in a house fire. In 1914 he remarried to Aline Winburn, and they had a son, Luther B Jr. After WW1 he took part in missionary outreaches to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia. He often spoke to large crowds and saw many come to Christ. In 1914 he was also named ‘General Evangelist’ of his denomination. In 1921 Asbury College awarded him an honorary DD degree for his evangelistic efforts. He pastored at several Methodist churches in the Atlanta, GA, area, then briefly at a Methodist church at Morehead, NC. After his long ministry, ending in 1945, he retired and moved to Gainesville, GA, where he eventually died. He was known as ‘Melody Man’. He penned a number of hymns, eight of which were published in Charlie Tillman’s ‘The Revival No. 6’. His most famous, noted below, borrowed a tune from a popular song of the time, ‘Melody of Love’. John Perry

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

John Hughes

1873 - 1932 Topics: Discipleship and Service Composer of "CWM RHONDDA" in The United Methodist Hymnal John Hughes (b. Dowlais, Glamorganshire, Wales, 1873; d. Llantwit Fardre, Wales, 1932) received little formal education; at age twelve he was already working as a doorboy at a local mining company in Llantwit Fardre. He eventually became an official in the traffic department of the Great Western Railway. Much of his energy was devoted to the Salem Baptist Church in Pontypridd, where he served as both deacon and precentor. Hughes composed two anthems, a number of Sunday school marches, and a few hymn tunes, of which CWM RHONDDA is universally known, the tune was composed in 1905 Baptist Cymanfa Ganu (song festival) in Capel Rhondda, Pontypridd, Wales. Bert Polman

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.

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

Frank Houghton

1894 - 1972 Person Name: Frank Houghton, 1894-1972 Topics: The Christian Life Discipleship Author of "O Thou, Who dost direct my feet" in The Book of Praise Born: April 24, 1894, Stafford, Staffordshire, England. Died: January 25, 1972, Cornford House, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Buried: Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Son of Thomas Houghton, Curate of Stafford, Frank attended the University of London (BA 1913) London College of Divinity (now St. John’s College, Nottingham, graduated 1914). He was ordained a deacon in 1917, and priest the next year. He served as Curate of St. Benedict’s, Liverpool (1917-9); All Saints, Preston (1919-20). Inspired by missionary Hudson Taylor’s example, he joined the China Inland Mission, serving at Liangshan (1920-21) and Suiting (1921-24 ). In 1923, he married Dorothy Cassels, daughter of Bishop Cassels of West China. In 1924, he became principal of the Theological College in Paoning, Sichuan. He returned to England for medical reasons in 1928, expecting to stay only a short time, but he stayed to edit China’s Millions. He also served as Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of West China (1928-36). He went on to serve as Consecrated Bishop of East Szechwan at Nanchung (1934-40); General Director of the China Inland Mission (1940-51); Vicar of New Milverton, Leamington Spa (1953-60); and Rector of St. Peter, Drayton, Oxford (1960-63). Houghton retired in 1963, and he and his wife lived in Parkstone, Poole. © The Cyber Hymnal™ (www.hymntime.com/tch)

E. J. Hopkins

1818 - 1901 Person Name: Edward John Hopkins (1818-1901) Topics: Discipleship Composer of "ST HUGH" in Ancient and Modern Dr Edward John Hopkins MusDoc United Kingdom 1818-1901. Born at Westminster, England, the son of a clarinetist with the Royal Opera House orchestra, he became an organist (as did two of his brothers) and a composer. In 1826 he became a chorister of the Chapel Royal and sang at the coronation of King William IV in Westminster Abbey. He also sang in the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral, a double schedule requiring skill and dexterity. On Sunday evenings he would play the outgoing voluntary at St. Martin’s in-the-field. He left Chapel Royal in 1834 and started studying organ construction at two organ factories. He took an appointment at Mitcham Church as organist at age 16, winning an audition against other organists. Four years later he became organist at the Church of St. Peter, Islington. In 1841 he became organist at St. Luke’s, Berwick St., Soho. Two Years later he was organist at Temple Church, which had a historic organ (built in 1683). He held this position for 55 years. In 1845 he married Sarah Lovett, and they had four sons and five daughters. He was closely associated with the Bach Society and was organist for the first English performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. In 1855 he collaborated with Edward Rimbault publishing “The organ, its history and construction” (3 editions 1855-70-77). In 1864 he was one of the founders of the “College of organists”. In 1882 he received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He composed 30+ hymn tunes and some psalm chants, used by the Church of England. He died in London, England. John Perry

John Bunyan

1628 - 1688 Person Name: John Bunyan (1628-1688) Topics: Life in Christ Our Response to Christ - In Discipleship Author of "Who would true valour see" in Church Hymnary (4th ed.) Bunyan, John. This great allegorist cannot be included amongst hymn writers, except on the ground that the piece, “He that is down needs fear no fall," from pt. ii. of his Pilgrim's Progress, 1684, is given in a limited number of hymnals. The son of a mechanic, he was born at Elstow, 1628; was a Baptist minister at Bedford; and died in London, Aug. 1688. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) =================================== Bunyan, John, p. 193, ii. Another piece by him is "Valiant's song" in the Pilgrim's Progress, pt. ii., 1684 (2nd edition 1686, p. 177). There, and in E. P. Hood's Our Hymn Book1873, no. 398, it begins "Who would true valour see" (A Pilgrim's Song). In the English Hymnal, 1906, No. 402, it is partly rewritten, and begins "He who would valiant be." [Rev. James Mearns. M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Elizabeth Rundle Charles

1828 - 1896 Person Name: Elizabeth Charles, 1828-1896 Topics: The Life in Christ | Consecration and Discipleship Author of "Never further than Thy Cross" in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada Charles, Elizabeth, née Rundle, is the author of numerous and very popular works intended to popularize the history of early Christian life in Great Britain; of Luther and his times; of Wesley and his work; the struggles of English civil wars; and kindred subjects as embodied in the Chronicles of the Schönherg-Cotta Family, the Diary of Kitty Trevelyan, &c, was born at Tavistock, Devonshire, Her father was John Rundle, M.P., and her husband, Andrew Paton Charles, Barrister-at-Law. Mrs. Charles has made some valuable contributions to hymnology, including original hymns and translations from the Latin and German. These were given in her:— (1) The Voice of Christian Life in Song; or, Hymns and Hymn-writers of Many Lands and Ages, 1858; (2) The Three Wakings, and other Poems, 1859; and (3) The Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family; (4) Poems, New York, 1867. This has some additional pieces. Her hymn on the Annunciation, "Age after age shall call thee [her] blessed," appeared in her Three Wakings, &c., 1859. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ========================= Charles, Elizabeth, née Rundle. Mrs. Charles has assumed the name of "Rundle-Charles," as given in the 1890 edition of the Hymnal Companion. Other hymns in common use are:— 1. Around a Table, not a tomb. Holy Communion. Dated Oct. 1862. In her Poems, 1868, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. 2. Come, and rejoice with me. Joy in Christ. Some-times dated 1846. From her Three Wakings, 1859, p. 146, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "Eureka." 3. Jesus, what once Thou wast. Jesus the Unchangeable One. In Mrs. Brock's Children's Hymn Book, 1881. 4. Never further than Thy Cross. Passiontide. In The Family Treasury, Feb. 1860. 5. What marks the dawning of the Year? New Year. From her Three Wakings, 1859, p. 155. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ====================== Charles, Elizabeth, née Rundle, pp. 218, ii.; 1556, i. Mrs. Rundle-Charles was born Jan. 2, 1828, married in 1851, and died March 28, 1896. Her hymn, "The little birds fill all the air with their glee" (Thankfulness), was published in her Three Waitings, 1859, p. 165, as a "Song for an Infant School." It is found in The Sunday School Hymnary, 1905, and others. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)