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Benjamin Beddome

1717 - 1795 Person Name: Benjamin Beddome, 1717-1795 Author of "Sovereign of Heav'n And Earth, Behold" in The Cyber Hymnal Benjamin Beddome was born at Henley-in Arden, Warwickshire, January 23, 1717. His father was a Baptist minister. He studied at various places, and began preaching in 1740. He was pastor of a Baptist society at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, until his death in 1795. In 1770, he received the degree of M.A. from the Baptist College in Providence, Rhode Island. He published several discourses and hymns. "His hymns, to the number of 830, were published in 1818, with a recommendation from Robert Hall." Montgomery speaks of him as a "writer worthy of honour both for the quantity and the quality of his hymns." --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872. ========================= Beddome, Benjamin , M.A. This prolific hymnwriter was born at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, Jan. 23, 1717, where his father, the Rev. John Beddome, was atthat time Baptist Minister. He was apprenticed to a surgeon in Bristol, but removing to London, he joined, in 1739, the Baptist church in Prescott St. At the call of this church he devoted himself to the work of the Christian ministry, and in 1740 began to preach at Bourton-on-the-Water, in Gloucestershire. Declining invitations to remove to London or elsewhere, he continued pastor at Bourton until his death, on Sep. 3, 1795, at the age of 78. Mr. Beddome was for many years one of the most respected Baptist ministers in the West of England. He was a man of some literary culture. In 1770 he received the degree of M.A. from Providence College, Rhode Island. He was the author of an Exposition of the Baptist Catechism, 1752, in great repute at the time, and reprinted by Dr. C. Evans in 1772. It was his practice to prepare a hymn every week to be sung after his Sunday morning sermon. Though not originally intended for publication, he allowed thirteen of these to appear in the Bristol Baptist Collection of Ash & Evans (1769), and thirty-six in Dr. Rippon's Baptist Selection (1787), whence a number of them found their way into the General Baptist Hymn Book of 1793 and other collections. In 1817, a posthumous collection of his hymns was published, containing 830 pieces, with an introduction by the Rev. Robert Hall, and entitled "Hymns adapted to Public Worship or Family Devotion, now first published from the Manuscripts of the late Rev. B. Beddome, M.A." Preface dated "Leicester, Nov. 10, 1817." Some of the early copies bear the same date on the title page. Copies bearing both the 1817 and 1818 dates are in the British Museum. The date usually given is 1818. Some hymns are also appended to his Sermons, seven volumes of which were published l805—1819; and over twenty are given in the Baptist Register of various dates. Beddome's hymns were commended by Montgomery as embodying one central idea, "always important, often striking, and sometimes ingeniously brought out." Robert Hall's opinion is just, when in his "Recommendatory Preface" to the Hymns, &c, he says, p. vii.:— "The man of taste will be gratified with the beauty and original turns of thought which many of them ex¬hibit, while the experimental Christian will often perceive the most secret movements of his soul strikingly delineated, and sentiments pourtrayed which will find their echo in every heart." With the exception of a few composed for Baptisms and other special occasions, their present use in Great Britain is limited, but in America somewhat extensive. One of the best is the Ordination Hymn, "Father of Mercies, bow Thine ear." Another favourite is “ My times of sorrow and of joy," composed, by a singular coincidence, to be sung on Sunday, Jan. 14, 1778, the day on which his son died, most unexpectedly, in Edinburgh. "Let party names no more," is very popular both in Great Brit, and America. "Faith, His a precious gift," "Witness, ye men and angels, now," and the hymn for Holy Baptism, "Buried beneath the yielding wave," are also found in many collections. Beddome's popularity is, however, now mainly in America. [Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M.A.] Beddome is thus seen to be in common use to the extent of about 100 hymns. In this respect he exceeds every other Baptist hymnwriter; Miss Steele ranking second. The authorities for Beddome's hymns are: (1) A Collection of Hymns adapted to Public Worship, Bristol, W. Pine, 1769, the Collection of Ash & Evans; (2) Dr. Rippon's Selections 1787, and later editions; (3) Sermons printed from the Manuscripts of the late Rev. Benjamin Beddome, M.A.,... with brief Memoir of the Author, Dunstable & Lond., 1805-1819; (4) Dr. Rippon's Baptist Register, 1795, &c.; (5) The Beddome Manuscripts, in the Baptist College, Bristol; (6) and Hymns adapted to Public Worship, or Family Devotion now first published, from Manuscripts of the late Rev. B. Beddome, A.M. With a Recommendatory Preface by the Rev. R. Hall, A.M. Lond., 1817. In his Preface, Mr. Hall gives this account of the Beddome Manuscript:— "The present Editor was entrusted several years ago with the MSS, both in prose and verse, with permission from the late Messrs. S. & B. Beddome, sons of the Author, to publish such parts of them as he might deem proper. He is also indebted to a descendant of the Rev. W. Christian, formerly pastor of the Baptist Church at Sheepshead, Leicestershire, for some of the Author's valuable hymns, which had been carefully preserved in the family. From both these sources, as well as others of less consequence, the present interesting volume has been derived." -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ======================= Beddome, Benjamin, pp. 121-124. Other hymns in common use:— 1. Great God, before Thy mercy-seat. (1817). Lent. 2. Great God, oppressed with grief and fear. (1787.) Reading H. Scripture. 3. How glorious is Thy word, 0 God. Holy Scripture. From "When Israel, &c," p. 124, i. 4. In God I ever will rejoice. Morning. From his Hymns, &c, 1817. 5. Jesus, my Lord, divinely fair. (1817.) Jesus the King of Saints. Begins with stanza ii. of “Listen, ye mortals, while I sing." 6. Rejoice, for Christ the Saviour reigns. Missions. Altered form of "Shout, for the blessed, &c," p. 123, ii. 7. Satan, the world, and sin. (1817.) In Temptation. 8. Thou, Lord of all above. (1817.) Lent. 9. Unto Thine altar, Lord. (1787.) Lent. 10. Ye saints of every rank, with joy. (1800.) Public Worship. The dates given above are, 1787 and 1800, Rippon's Selection; and 1817 Beddome's Hymns. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II

Oliver Wendell Holmes

1809 - 1894 Person Name: O. W. Holmes Author of "O Lord of hosts, Almighty King" in The Church Hymnal Holmes, Oliver Wendell, M.D, LL.D., son of the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D. of Cambridge, U.S.A., was born at Cambridge, Aug. 29, 1809, and educated at Harvard, where he graduated in 1829. After practising for some time in Boston, he was elected in 1847 to the chair of Anatomy, in Harvard. His writings in prose and verse are well known and widely circulated. They excel in humour and pathos. Although not strictly speaking a hymnwriter, a few of his hymns are in extensive use, and include:— 1. Father of mercies, heavenly Friend. Prayer during war. 2. Lord of all being, throned afar. God's Omnipresence. This is a hymn of great merit. It is dated 1848. 3. 0 Lord of hosts, Almighty King. Soldiers’ Hymn. Dated 1861. 4. 0 Love divine that stoop'st to share. Trust. 1859. Of these Nos. 2 and 4 are in his Professor at the Breakfast Table, and are in common use in Great Britain, in Martineau's Hymns, 1873, and others. In 1886 the D.C.L. degree was conferred upon Professor Holmes by the University of Oxford. He was a member of the Unitarian body. He died Oct 7, 1894. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Holmes, O. W. , p. 530, i. His Songs in Many Keys was published in 1861, his Poems, 1869, and the Cambridge edition of his Complete Poetical Works, 1895. Additional hymns of his have come into common use of late, including:— 1. Land where the banners wave last in the sun. [American National Hymn.] Appeared in his Songs in Many Keys, 1861 (7th ed. 1864, p. 289) as "Freedom, our Queen." 2. Lord, Thou hast led us as of old. [Promised Unity.] In his Before the Curfew and other Poems, chiefly occasional, Boston, 1888, as "An hymn set forth to bo sung by the Great Assembly at Newtown [Mass.]." In the Complete Poetical Works it is dated 1886. The hymn "Soon shall the slumbering morn awake," in Hymns for Church and Home, Boston, 1895, is composed of stanzas v.-vii. 3. Our Father, while our hearts unlearn The creeds that wrong Thy name. [Fruits of the Spirit.] Written for the 25th Anniversary Reorganization of the Poston Young Men's Christian Union, May 31, 1893. In his Complete Poetical Works, 1895, p. 298, Horder's Worship Song, 1905, and other collections. 4. Thou gracious [God] Power Whose mercy lends. [Reunion.] "Written for the annual meeting of the famous class '29, Harvard University, in 1869. ln the Methodist Hymn Book, 1904, it begins "Thou gracious God, Whose mercy lends." [Rev. L. F. Benson, D.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Joseph Parry

1841 - 1903 Composer of "ABERYSTWYTH" in Trinity Psalter Hymnal Joseph Parry (b. Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales, 1841; d. Penarth, Glamorganshire, 1903) was born into a poor but musical family. Although he showed musical gifts at an early age, he was sent to work in the puddling furnaces of a steel mill at the age of nine. His family immigrated to a Welsh settlement in Danville, Pennsylvania in 1854, where Parry later started a music school. He traveled in the United States and in Wales, performing, studying, and composing music, and he won several Eisteddfodau (singing competition) prizes. Parry studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at Cambridge, where part of his tuition was paid by interested community people who were eager to encourage his talent. From 1873 to 1879 he was professor of music at the Welsh University College in Aberystwyth. After establishing private schools of music in Aberystwyth and in Swan sea, he was lecturer and professor of music at the University College of South Wales in Cardiff (1888-1903). Parry composed oratorios, cantatas, an opera, orchestral and chamber music, as well as some four hundred hymn tunes. Bert Polman

Henri F. Hemy

1818 - 1888 Composer of "ST. CATHERINE (Walton)" in The Cyber Hymnal Henri F. Hemy, born in the United Kingdom. Hemy spent time at sea as a young man, emigrating to Australia in 1850 with his family. Unable to make a decent living in Melbourne, he returned to Newcastle England. He was organist at St. Andrews Roman Catholic Church in Newcastle, later teaching professor of music at Tynemouth and at St. Cuthbert's College in Durham. He was pianist to Lord Ravensworth, Music Director of Ushaw College, and his orchestra played at fashionable venues in the region. He sang baritone as well. He composed waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and galops. 3 music works: Easy Hymn Tunes for Catholic Schools; Royal Modern Tutor for Pianoforte; Crown of Jesus. He was active in local politics and published a manifesto in the daily newspaper. He lost a ward election. He also painted artwork. He set most of Longfellow's works to music. John Perry

Charles Wesley

1707 - 1788 Author of "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" in The Cyber Hymnal Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepened, and he became one of the first band of "Oxford Methodists." In 1735 he went with his brother John to Georgia, as secretary to General Oglethorpe, having before he set out received Deacon's and Priest's Orders on two successive Sundays. His stay in Georgia was very short; he returned to England in 1736, and in 1737 came under the influence of Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians, especially of that remarkable man who had so large a share in moulding John Wesley's career, Peter Bonier, and also of a Mr. Bray, a brazier in Little Britain. On Whitsunday, 1737, [sic. 1738] he "found rest to his soul," and in 1738 he became curate to his friend, Mr. Stonehouse, Vicar of Islington, but the opposition of the churchwardens was so great that the Vicar consented that he "should preach in his church no more." Henceforth his work was identified with that of his brother John, and he became an indefatigable itinerant and field preacher. On April 8, 1749, he married Miss Sarah Gwynne. His marriage, unlike that of his brother John, was a most happy one; his wife was accustomed to accompany him on his evangelistic journeys, which were as frequent as ever until the year 1756," when he ceased to itinerate, and mainly devoted himself to the care of the Societies in London and Bristol. Bristol was his headquarters until 1771, when he removed with his family to London, and, besides attending to the Societies, devoted himself much, as he had done in his youth, to the spiritual care of prisoners in Newgate. He had long been troubled about the relations of Methodism to the Church of England, and strongly disapproved of his brother John's "ordinations." Wesley-like, he expressed his disapproval in the most outspoken fashion, but, as in the case of Samuel at an earlier period, the differences between the brothers never led to a breach of friendship. He died in London, March 29, 1788, and was buried in Marylebone churchyard. His brother John was deeply grieved because he would not consent to be interred in the burial-ground of the City Road Chapel, where he had prepared a grave for himself, but Charles said, "I have lived, and I die, in the Communion of the Church of England, and I will be buried in the yard of my parish church." Eight clergymen of the Church of England bore his pall. He had a large family, four of whom survived him; three sons, who all became distinguished in the musical world, and one daughter, who inherited some of her father's poetical genius. The widow and orphans were treated with the greatest kindness and generosity by John Wesley. As a hymn-writer Charles Wesley was unique. He is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns, and though, of course, in so vast a number some are of unequal merit, it is perfectly marvellous how many there are which rise to the highest degree of excellence. His feelings on every occasion of importance, whether private or public, found their best expression in a hymn. His own conversion, his own marriage, the earthquake panic, the rumours of an invasion from France, the defeat of Prince Charles Edward at Culloden, the Gordon riots, every Festival of the Christian Church, every doctrine of the Christian Faith, striking scenes in Scripture history, striking scenes which came within his own view, the deaths of friends as they passed away, one by one, before him, all furnished occasions for the exercise of his divine gift. Nor must we forget his hymns for little children, a branch of sacred poetry in which the mantle of Dr. Watts seems to have fallen upon him. It would be simply impossible within our space to enumerate even those of the hymns which have become really classical. The saying that a really good hymn is as rare an appearance as that of a comet is falsified by the work of Charles Wesley; for hymns, which are really good in every respect, flowed from his pen in quick succession, and death alone stopped the course of the perennial stream. It has been the common practice, however for a hundred years or more to ascribe all translations from the German to John Wesley, as he only of the two brothers knew that language; and to assign to Charles Wesley all the original hymns except such as are traceable to John Wesley through his Journals and other works. The list of 482 original hymns by John and Charles Wesley listed in this Dictionary of Hymnology have formed an important part of Methodist hymnody and show the enormous influence of the Wesleys on the English hymnody of the nineteenth century. -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Charles Wesley, the son of Samuel Wesley, was born at Epworth, Dec. 18, 1707. He was educated at Westminster School and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. In 1735, he took Orders and immediately proceeded with his brother John to Georgia, both being employed as missionaries of the S.P.G. He returned to England in 1736. For many years he engaged with his brother in preaching the Gospel. He died March 29, 1788. To Charles Wesley has been justly assigned the appellation of the "Bard of Methodism." His prominence in hymn writing may be judged from the fact that in the "Wesleyan Hymn Book," 623 of the 770 hymns were written by him; and he published more than thirty poetical works, written either by himself alone, or in conjunction with his brother. The number of his separate hymns is at least five thousand. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872.

John L. Bell

b. 1949 Person Name: John L. Bell, b. 1949 Paraphraser and Arranger of "O Great God and Lord of the Earth" in Psalms for All Seasons John Bell (b. 1949) was born in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, intending to be a music teacher when he felt the call to the ministry. But in frustration with his classes, he did volunteer work in a deprived neighborhood in London for a time and also served for two years as an associate pastor at the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam. After graduating he worked for five years as a youth pastor for the Church of Scotland, serving a large region that included about 500 churches. He then took a similar position with the Iona Community, and with his colleague Graham Maule, began to broaden the youth ministry to focus on renewal of the church’s worship. His approach soon turned to composing songs within the identifiable traditions of hymnody that began to address concerns missing from the current Scottish hymnal: "I discovered that seldom did our hymns represent the plight of poor people to God. There was nothing that dealt with unemployment, nothing that dealt with living in a multicultural society and feeling disenfranchised. There was nothing about child abuse…,that reflected concern for the developing world, nothing that helped see ourselves as brothers and sisters to those who are suffering from poverty or persecution." [from an interview in Reformed Worship (March 1993)] That concern not only led to writing many songs, but increasingly to introducing them internationally in many conferences, while also gathering songs from around the world. He was convener for the fourth edition of the Church of Scotland’s Church Hymnary (2005), a very different collection from the previous 1973 edition. His books, The Singing Thing and The Singing Thing Too, as well as the many collections of songs and worship resources produced by John Bell—some together with other members of the Iona Community’s “Wild Goose Resource Group,” —are available in North America from GIA Publications. Emily Brink

Samuel Crossman

1623 - 1684 Person Name: Samuel Crossman, c. 1624-1683 Author of "My Song Is Love Unknown" in With One Voice Crossman, Samuel , B.D. From A. Wood's Athenae Oxonienses (1720, vol. ii. p. 730) we gather all that is known of this hymnwriter. Wood says concerning him:— "Samuel Crossman, Bachelor of Divinity of Cambridge, and Prebendary of Bristol, son of Samuel Crossman, of Bradfield Monachorum, in Suffolk. He hath written and published several things, as The Young Man's Monitor, &c, London, 1664, 8vo., and several sermons, among which are two sermons preached in the Cathedral of Bristol, 30th Jan., 1679, and 30th Jan., 1680, being the days of public humiliation for the execrable murder of King Charles I, printed at London, 1681, &c.; also a sermon preached 23rd April, 1680, in the Cathedral Church of Bristol, before the Gentlemen of the Artillery Company newly raised in that City, printed at London, 1680, &c; and, "An Humble Plea for the quiet rest of God's Ark," preached before Sir Joh. Moore, Lord Mayor of London, at St. Mildred's Church in the Poultrey, 5th February, 1681, London, 1682, 4to, &c. He died 4th February, 1683, aged 69 years, and was buried in the South Aisle of the Cathedral Church in Bristol" [of which he had been appointed Dean a few weeks before]. Crossman's contributions to hymnody were given in a small pamphlet entitled:— The Young Man's Meditation, or some few Sacred Poems upon Select Subjects, and Scriptures. By Samuel Crossman, B.D. London, Printed by J. H., &c, 1664. This pamphlet, which was reprinted by D. Sedgwick, London, 1863, contains 9 sacred poems. Of these the following are in common use:— 1. My life's a shade, my days. Resurrection. This is in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, together with a chorus to each stanza of 4 Lines. It is sometimes given as "Life is a shade, my days," as in Kennedy, 1863. 2. Sweet place, sweet place alone, Pt. i. Jerusalem on high, Pt. ii. These two parts form one poem on Heaven. The most popular portion is Pt. ii. This is given in numerous collections in Great Britain and America. Part i. is not so extensively used. From the two parts the cento "Earth's but a sorry tent," in the Dutch Reformed Hymns of the Church, N. Y. 1869, is also taken. 3. Farewell, poor world, I must be gone. Death anticipated. This is given in the Comprehensive Rippon, 1844, and in a few of the older American hymnbooks. 4. My song is love unknown. In the Anglican Hymnbook, 1863 -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Person Name: Lowell Mason Arranger of "AZMON" in The Cyber Hymnal 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.

L. L. Pickett

1859 - 1928 Author of "The murder mills shall go" Rv Leander Lycurgus Pickett USA 1859-1928. Born at Burnsville, MS, he became a Methodist evangelist. He held meetings in several states and at Holiness campgrounds. After marrying Ludie, they served pastorates in northeast TX, and Columbia, SC, before moving to Wilmore, KY. Pickett married Pruvy Melviney Dorough in 1878, and they had a son, James, in 1880. After her death in 1887, he married Ludie in 1888. He was a renowned speaker, leader, minister, author, hymnwriter, and patriot, prominent in the Holiness Movement, and helped found Asbury College (now University), at Wilmore, KY, where he also served as the financial agent of the board of trustees for many years. The Picketts boarded m,inistry students attending Asbury, among whom was missionary E Stanley Jones. In 1905 a student prayer meeting at the Pickett home spilled out to the Asbury campus in a revival that spread around the town of Wilmore. Between 1891 and 1926 Pickett published 11 song books, some with others, including John Sweney, William J Kirkpatrick, John Bryant, Martin Knapp, Elisha A Hoffman, Burke Culpepper, William Marks, Benjamin Butts, and Robert McNeill. He died at Middlesboro, KY. John Perry

George S. Burleigh

Author of "O not with the fife, and the murderous knife"

Stephen P. Starke

b. 1955 Person Name: Stephen P. Starke, b. 1955 Author of "On Budding Hearts, God Wrote the Law" in One and All Rejoice Rev. Stephen P. Starke has always had a heart for hymns. At a young age, Starke played hymns out of The Lutheran Hymnal and read through the hymnal to pass the time before Sunday services. Pastor Starke graduated from Concordia University Chicago with a BA. While completing his MDiv from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, he attempted his first hymn text and was encouraged to write more. Since that time, he has written more than 175 hymns inspired by music and the Scriptures. He has been commissioned to write hymns for special occasions, including the 125th anniversary of Concordia University Wisconsin, as well as his daughter’s wedding. Because of his extensive work as a hymnwriter, Pastor Starke received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Concordia University, Irvine, California, and an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon. It is through the medium of hymns that Pastor Starke desires to preserve and pass on the truths of the Gospel for generations to come.

Isaac Watts

1674 - 1748 Author of "Suffered for sin" in Laudes Domini Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary labours. He did not retire from ministerial duties, but preached as often as his delicate health would permit. The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His "Horae Lyricae" was published in December, 1705. His "Hymns" appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is "Behold the glories of the Lamb," written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is everywhere known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. Montgomery calls Watts "the greatest name among hymn-writers," and the honour can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred. Watts died November 25, 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. A monumental statue was erected in Southampton, his native place, and there is also a monument to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey. "Happy," says the great contemporary champion of Anglican orthodoxy, "will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God." ("Memorials of Westminster Abbey," p. 325.) --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872. ================================= Watts, Isaac, D.D. The father of Dr. Watts was a respected Nonconformist, and at the birth of the child, and during its infancy, twice suffered imprisonment for his religious convictions. In his later years he kept a flourishing boarding school at Southampton. Isaac, the eldest of his nine children, was born in that town July 17, 1674. His taste for verse showed itself in early childhood. He was taught Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by Mr. Pinhorn, rector of All Saints, and headmaster of the Grammar School, in Southampton. The splendid promise of the boy induced a physician of the town and other friends to offer him an education at one of the Universities for eventual ordination in the Church of England: but this he refused; and entered a Nonconformist Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690, under the care of Mr. Thomas Rowe, the pastor of the Independent congregation at Girdlers' Hall. Of this congregation he became a member in 1693. Leaving the Academy at the age of twenty, he spent two years at home; and it was then that the bulk of the Hymns and Spiritual Songs (published 1707-9) were written, and sung from manuscripts in the Southampton Chapel. The hymn "Behold the glories of the Lamb" is said to have been the first he composed, and written as an attempt to raise the standard of praise. In answer to requests, others succeeded. The hymn "There is a land of pure delight" is said to have been suggested by the view across Southampton Water. The next six years of Watts's life were again spent at Stoke Newington, in the post of tutor to the son of an eminent Puritan, Sir John Hartopp; and to the intense study of these years must be traced the accumulation of the theological and philosophical materials which he published subsequently, and also the life-long enfeeblement of his constitution. Watts preached his first sermon when he was twenty-four years old. In the next three years he preached frequently; and in 1702 was ordained pastor of the eminent Independent congregation in Mark Lane, over which Caryl and Dr. John Owen had presided, and which numbered Mrs. Bendish, Cromwell's granddaughter, Charles Fleetwood, Charles Desborough, Sir John Hartopp, Lady Haversham, and other distinguished Independents among its members. In this year he removed to the house of Mr. Hollis in the Minories. His health began to fail in the following year, and Mr. Samuel Price was appointed as his assistant in the ministry. In 1712 a fever shattered his constitution, and Mr. Price was then appointed co-pastor of the congregation which had in the meantime removed to a new chapel in Bury Street. It was at this period that he became the guest of Sir Thomas Abney, under whose roof, and after his death (1722) that of his widow, he remained for the rest of his suffering life; residing for the longer portion of these thirty-six years principally at the beautiful country seat of Theobalds in Herts, and for the last thirteen years at Stoke Newington. His degree of D.D. was bestowed on him in 1728, unsolicited, by the University of Edinburgh. His infirmities increased on him up to the peaceful close of his sufferings, Nov. 25, 1748. He was buried in the Puritan restingplace at Bunhill Fields, but a monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey. His learning and piety, gentleness and largeness of heart have earned him the title of the Melanchthon of his day. Among his friends, churchmen like Bishop Gibson are ranked with Nonconformists such as Doddridge. His theological as well as philosophical fame was considerable. His Speculations on the Human Nature of the Logos, as a contribution to the great controversy on the Holy Trinity, brought on him a charge of Arian opinions. His work on The Improvement of the Mind, published in 1741, is eulogised by Johnson. His Logic was still a valued textbook at Oxford within living memory. The World to Come, published in 1745, was once a favourite devotional work, parts of it being translated into several languages. His Catechisms, Scripture History (1732), as well as The Divine and Moral Songs (1715), were the most popular text-books for religious education fifty years ago. The Hymns and Spiritual Songs were published in 1707-9, though written earlier. The Horae Lyricae, which contains hymns interspersed among the poems, appeared in 1706-9. Some hymns were also appended at the close of the several Sermons preached in London, published in 1721-24. The Psalms were published in 1719. The earliest life of Watts is that by his friend Dr. Gibbons. Johnson has included him in his Lives of the Poets; and Southey has echoed Johnson's warm eulogy. The most interesting modern life is Isaac Watts: his Life and Writings, by E. Paxton Hood. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] A large mass of Dr. Watts's hymns and paraphrases of the Psalms have no personal history beyond the date of their publication. These we have grouped together here and shall preface the list with the books from which they are taken. (l) Horae Lyricae. Poems chiefly of the Lyric kind. In Three Books Sacred: i.To Devotion and Piety; ii. To Virtue, Honour, and Friendship; iii. To the Memory of the Dead. By I. Watts, 1706. Second edition, 1709. (2) Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In Three Books: i. Collected from the Scriptures; ii. Composed on Divine Subjects; iii. Prepared for the Lord's Supper. By I. Watts, 1707. This contained in Bk i. 78 hymns; Bk. ii. 110; Bk. iii. 22, and 12 doxologies. In the 2nd edition published in 1709, Bk. i. was increased to 150; Bk. ii. to 170; Bk. iii. to 25 and 15 doxologies. (3) Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children. By I. Watts, London, 1715. (4) The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, And apply'd to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts. London: Printed by J. Clark, at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry, &c, 1719. (5) Sermons with hymns appended thereto, vol. i., 1721; ii., 1723; iii. 1727. In the 5th ed. of the Sermons the three volumes, in duodecimo, were reduced to two, in octavo. (6) Reliquiae Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse, on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written chiefly in Younger Years. By I. Watts, D.D., London, 1734. (7) Remnants of Time. London, 1736. 454 Hymns and Versions of the Psalms, in addition to the centos are all in common use at the present time. --Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================================== Watts, I. , p. 1241, ii. Nearly 100 hymns, additional to those already annotated, are given in some minor hymn-books. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ================= Watts, I. , p. 1236, i. At the time of the publication of this Dictionary in 1892, every copy of the 1707 edition of Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs was supposed to have perished, and all notes thereon were based upon references which were found in magazines and old collections of hymns and versions of the Psalms. Recently three copies have been recovered, and by a careful examination of one of these we have been able to give some of the results in the revision of pp. 1-1597, and the rest we now subjoin. i. Hymns in the 1709 ed. of Hymns and Spiritual Songs which previously appeared in the 1707 edition of the same book, but are not so noted in the 1st ed. of this Dictionary:— On pp. 1237, L-1239, ii., Nos. 18, 33, 42, 43, 47, 48, 60, 56, 58, 59, 63, 75, 82, 83, 84, 85, 93, 96, 99, 102, 104, 105, 113, 115, 116, 123, 124, 134, 137, 139, 146, 147, 148, 149, 162, 166, 174, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 200, 202. ii. Versions of the Psalms in his Psalms of David, 1719, which previously appeared in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707:— On pp. 1239, U.-1241, i., Nos. 241, 288, 304, 313, 314, 317, 410, 441. iii. Additional not noted in the revision:— 1. My soul, how lovely is the place; p. 1240, ii. 332. This version of Ps. lxiv. first appeared in the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, as "Ye saints, how lovely is the place." 2. Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine; p. 1055, ii. In the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, Bk. i., No. 35, and again in his Psalms of David, 1719. 3. Sing to the Lord with [cheerful] joyful voice, p. 1059, ii. This version of Ps. c. is No. 43 in the Hymns & Spiritual Songs, 1707, Bk. i., from which it passed into the Ps. of David, 1719. A careful collation of the earliest editions of Watts's Horae Lyricae shows that Nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, p. 1237, i., are in the 1706 ed., and that the rest were added in 1709. Of the remaining hymns, Nos. 91 appeared in his Sermons, vol. ii., 1723, and No. 196 in Sermons, vol. i., 1721. No. 199 was added after Watts's death. It must be noted also that the original title of what is usually known as Divine and Moral Songs was Divine Songs only. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907) =========== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

C. G. Gläser

1784 - 1829 Person Name: Carl G. Gläser Composer of "AZMON" in The Cyber Hymnal Carl Gotthelf Gläser Germany 1781-1829. Born at Weissenfels, Burgenlandkreis, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, he received musical training from his father, after which he attended St. Thomas school in Leipzig. He became an author and composer. At Barmen he taught voice, piano, and violin. He also wrote and conducted chorale music. He died at Barmen. John Perry

T. B. Murray

1798 - 1860 Person Name: Thomas B. Murray Author of "Murder Of The Innocents" in The Cyber Hymnal

Anonymous

Composer of "CHRISTE SANCTORUM" in The Cyber Hymnal In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.

William Kethe

? - 1594 Person Name: W. K. Author of "Confitemini Dom." in The Whole Booke of Psalmes William Kethe (b. Scotland [?], d. Dorset England, c. 1594). Although both the time and place of Kethe's birth and death are unknown, scholars think he was a Scotsman. A Protestant, he fled to the continent during Queen Mary's persecution in the late 1550s. He lived in Geneva for some time but traveled to Basel and Strasbourg to maintain contact with other English refugees. Kethe is thought to be one of the scholars who translated and published the English-language Geneva Bible (1560), a version favored over the King James Bible by the Pilgrim fathers. The twenty-five psalm versifications Kethe prepared for the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561 were also adopted into the Scottish Psalter of 1565. His versification of Psalm 100 (All People that on Earth do Dwell) is the only one that found its way into modern psalmody. Bert Polman ======================== Kethe, William, is said by Thomas Warton in his History of English Poetry, and by John Strype in his Annals of the Reformation, to have been a Scotsman. Where he was born, or whether he held any preferment in England in the time of Edward VI., we have been unable to discover. In the Brieff discours off the troubles begonne at Franckford, 1575, he is mentioned as in exile at Frankfurt in 1555, at Geneva in 1557; as being sent on a mission to the exiles in Basel, Strassburg, &c, in 1558; and as returning with their answers to Geneva in 1559. Whether he was one of those left behind in 1559 to "finishe the bible, and the psalmes bothe in meeter and prose," does not appear. The Discours further mentions him as being with the Earl of Warwick and the Queen's forces at Newhaven [Havre] in 1563, and in the north in 1569. John Hutchins in his County history of Dorset, 1774, vol. ii. p. 316, says that he was instituted in 1561 as Rector of Childe Okeford, near Blandford. But as there were two Rectors and only one church, leave of absence might easily be extended. His connection with Okeford seems to have ceased by death or otherwise about 1593. The Rev. Sir Talbot H. B. Baker, Bart., of Ranston, Blandford, who very kindly made researches on the spot, has informed me that the Registers at Childe Okeford begin with 1652-53, that the copies kept in Blandford date only from 1732 (the earlier having probably perished in the great fire there in 1731), that no will can be found in the district Probate Court, and that no monument or tablet is now to be found at Childe Okeford. By a communication to me from the Diocesan Registrar of Bristol, it appears that in a book professing to contain a list of Presentations deposited in the Consistory Court, Kethe is said to have been presented in 1565 by Henry Capel, the Patron of Childe Okeford Inferior. In the 1813 edition of Hutchins, vol. iii. pp. 355-6, William Watkinson is said to have been presented to this moiety by Arthur Capel in 1593. Twenty-five Psalm versions by Kethe are included in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561, viz. Ps. 27, 36, 47, 54, 58, 62, 70, 85, 88, 90, 91, 94, 100, 101, 104, 107, 111, 112, 113, 122, 125, 126, 134, 138, 142,—the whole of which were adopted in the Scottish Psalter of 1564-65. Only nine, viz. Ps. 104, 107, 111, 112, 113, 122, 125, 126, 134, were included in the English Psalter of 1562; Ps. 100 being however added in 1565. Being mostly in peculiar metres, only one, Ps. 100, was transferred to the Scottish Psalter of 1650. The version of Ps. 104, "My soul, praise the Lord," is found, in a greatly altered form, in some modern hymnals. Warton calls him ”a Scotch divine, no unready rhymer," says he had seen a moralisation of some of Ovid by him, and also mentions verses by him prefixed to a pamphlet by Christopher Goodman, printed at Geneva in 1558; a version of Ps. 93 added to Knox's Appellation to the Scottish Bishops, also printed at Geneva in 1558; and an anti-papal ballad, "Tye the mare Tom-boy." A sermon he preached before the Sessions at Blandford on Jan. 17, 1571, was printed by John Daye in 1571 (preface dated Childe Okeford, Jan. 29,157?), and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick. [Rev James Mearns, M.A]. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==================== Kethe, William, p. 624, i., line 30. The version which Warton describes as of Psalm 93 is really of Psalm 94, and is that noted under Scottish Hymnody, p. 1022, ii., as the version of Psalms 94 by W. Kethe. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Fred Pratt Green

1903 - 2000 Author of "Christ Is the World's Light" in The United Methodist Hymnal The name of the Rev. F. Pratt Green is one of the best-known of the contemporary school of hymnwriters in the British Isles. His name and writings appear in practically every new hymnal and "hymn supplement" wherever English is spoken and sung. And now they are appearing in American hymnals, poetry magazines, and anthologies. Mr. Green was born in Liverpool, England, in 1903. Ordained in the British Methodist ministry, he has been pastor and district superintendent in Brighton and York, and now served in Norwich. There he continued to write new hymns "that fill the gap between the hymns of the first part of this century and the 'far-out' compositions that have crowded into some churches in the last decade or more." --Seven New Hymns of Hope , 1971. Used by permission.

Ruth C. Duck

b. 1947 Person Name: Ruth Duck Author of "Why Stand So Far Away, My God?" in Sing the Faith

Edward Caswall

1814 - 1878 Person Name: Edward Caswall, 1814-1878 Translator of "All you who seek for sure relief" in Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New Edward Caswall was born in 1814, at Yately, in Hampshire, where his father was a clergyman. In 1832, he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, and in 1836, took a second-class in classics. His humorous work, "The Art of Pluck," was published in 1835; it is still selling at Oxford, having passed through many editions. In 1838, he was ordained Deacon, and in 1839, Priest. He became perpetural Curate of Stratford-sub-Castle in 1840. In 1841, he resigned his incumbency and visited Ireland. In 1847, he joined the Church of Rome. In 1850, he was admitted into the Congregation of the Oratory at Birmingham, where he has since remained. He has published several works in prose and poetry. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872 ===================== Caswall, Edward, M.A., son of the Rev. R. C. Caswall, sometime Vicar of Yately, Hampshire, born at Yately, July 15, 1814, and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating in honours in 1836. Taking Holy Orders in 1838, he became in 1840 Incumbent of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, and resigned the same in 1847. In 1850 (Mrs. Caswall having died in 1849) he was received into the Roman Catholic communion, and joined Dr. Newman at the Oratory, Edgbaston. His life thenceforth, although void of stirring incidents, was marked by earnest devotion to his clerical duties and a loving interest in the poor, the sick, and in little children. His original poems and hymns were mostly written at the Oratory. He died at Edgbaston, Jan. 2, 1878, and was buried on Jan. 7 at Redwall, near Bromsgrove, by his leader and friend Cardinal Newman. Caswall's translations of Latin hymns from the Roman Breviary and other sources have a wider circulation in modern hymnals than those of any other translator, Dr. Neale alone excepted. This is owing to his general faithfulness to the originals, and the purity of his rhythm, the latter feature specially adapting his hymns to music, and for congregational purposes. His original compositions, although marked by considerable poetical ability, are not extensive in their use, their doctrinal teaching being against their general adoption outside the Roman communion. His hymns appeared in:— (1) Lyra Catholica, which contained 197 translations from the Roman Breviary, Missal, and other sources. First ed. London, James Burns, 1849. This was reprinted in New York in 1851, with several hymns from other sources added thereto. This edition is quoted in the indices to some American hymn-books as Lyra Cath., as in Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, and others. (2) Masque of Mary, and Other Poems, having in addition to the opening poem and a few miscellaneous pieces, 53 translations, and 51 hymns. 1st ed. Lon., Burns and Lambert, 1858. (3) A May Pageant and Other Poems, including 10 original hymns. Lon., Burns and Lambert, 1865. (4) Hymns and Poems, being the three preceding volumes embodied in one, with many of the hymns rewritten or revised, together with elaborate indices. 1st ed. Lon., Burns, Oates & Co., 1873. Of his original hymns about 20 are given in the Roman Catholic Crown of Jesus Hymn Book, N.D; there are also several in the Hymns for the Year, N.D., and other Roman Catholic collections. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ====================== Caswall, E. , p. 214, ii. Additional original hymns by Caswall are in the Arundel Hymns, 1902, and other collections. The following are from the Masque of Mary, &c, 1858:— 1. Christian soul, dost thou desire. After Holy Communion. 2. Come, let me for a moment cast. Holy Communion. 3. O Jesu Christ [Lord], remember. Holy Communion. 4. Oft, my soul, thyself remind. Man's Chief End. 5. Sleep, Holy Babe. Christmas. Appeared in the Rambler, June 1850, p. 528. Sometimes given as "Sleep, Jesus, sleep." 6. The glory of summer. Autumn. 7. This is the image of the queen. B. V. M. His "See! amid the winter's snow,” p. 1037, i., was published in Easy Hymn Tunes, 1851, p. 36. In addition the following, mainly altered texts or centos of his translations are also in common use:— 1. A regal throne, for Christ's dear sake. From "Riches and regal throne," p. 870, ii. 2. Come, Holy Ghost, Thy grace inspire. From "Spirit of grace and union," p. 945, i. 3. Hail! ocean star, p. 99, ii,, as 1873. In the Birmingham Oratory Hymn Book, 1850, p. 158. 4. Lovely flow'rs of martyrs, hail. This is the 1849 text. His 1873 text is "Flowers of martyrdom," p. 947, i. 5. None of all the noble cities. From "Bethlehem! of noblest cities," p. 946, ii. 6. O Jesu, Saviour of the World. From “Jesu, Redeemer of the world," p. 228, ii. 7. 0 Lady, high in glory raised. From "O Lady, high in glory, Whose," p. 945, i. The Parochial Hymn Book, 1880, has also the following original hymns by Caswall. As their use is confined to this collection, we give the numbers only:— IS os. 1, 2, 3, 159 (Poems, 1873, p. 453), 209 (1873, p. 288), 299, 324 (1873, p. 323), 357, 402, 554, 555, 558, 569 (1873, p. 334). These are from his Masque of Mary 1858. Nos. 156, 207 (1873, p. 296), 208 (1873, p. 297), 518. These are from his May Pageant, 1865. As several of these hymns do not begin with the original first lines, the original texts are indicated as found in his Poems, 1873. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Paul Gerhardt

1607 - 1676 Person Name: Paul Gerhardt Author of "See, World, Upon The Bloody Tree" in The Cyber Hymnal Paul Gerhardt (b. Gräfenheinichen, Saxony, Germany, 1607; d. Lubben, Germany, 1676), famous author of Lutheran evangelical hymns, studied theology and hymnody at the University of Wittenberg and then was a tutor in Berlin, where he became friends with Johann Crüger. He served the Lutheran parish of Mittenwalde near Berlin (1651-1657) and the great St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin (1657-1666). Friederich William, the Calvinist elector, had issued an edict that forbade the various Protestant groups to fight each other. Although Gerhardt did not want strife between the churches, he refused to comply with the edict because he thought it opposed the Lutheran "Formula of Concord," which condemned some Calvinist doctrines. Consequently, he was released from his position in Berlin in 1666. With the support of friends he became archdeacon at Lubben in 1669 and remained there until his death. Gerhardt experienced much suffering in his life; he and his parishioners lived in the era of the Thirty Years' War, and his family experienced incredible tragedy: four of his five children died young, and his wife died after a prolonged illness. In the history of hymnody Gerhardt is considered a transitional figure-he wrote at a time when hymns were changing from a more objective, confessional, and corporate focus to a pietistic, devotional, and personal one. Like other German hymns, Gerhardt's were lengthy and intended for use throughout a service, a group of stanzas at a time. More than 130 of his hymns were published in various editions of Cruger's Praxis Pietatis Melica, the Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch (1653), and Ebeling's Das andere Dutzeud geistliche Andachtslieder Herrn Paul Gerhardts (1666-1667). John Wesley and Catherine Winkworth both made famous English translations of Gerhardt's texts. Bert Polman ====================== Gerhardt, Paulus, son of Christian Gerhardt, burgomaster of Gräfenhaynichen, near Wittenberg, was born at Grafenhaynichen, Mar. 12, 1607. On January 2, 1628, he matriculated at the University of Wittenberg. In the registers of St. Mary's church, Wittenberg, his name appears as a godfather, on July 13, 1641, described still as "studiosus," and he seems to have remained in Wittenberg till at least the end of April, 1642. He appears to have gone to Berlin in 1642 or 1643, and was there for some time (certainly after 1648) a tutor in the house of the advocate Andreas Barthold, whose daughter (Anna Maria, b. May 19, 1622, d. March 5, 1668) became his wife in 1655. During this period he seems to have frequently preached in Berlin. He was appointed in 1651, at the recommendation of the Berlin clergy, Lutheran Probst (chief pastor) at Mittenwalde, near Berlin, and ordained to this post Nov. 18, 1651. In July, 1657, he returned to Berlin as third diaconus of St. Nicholas's church; but becoming involved in the contest between the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm (who was of the Reformed Church) and the Lutheran clergy of Berlin, he was deposed from his office in February, 1666, though he still remained in Berlin. In Nov. 1668, he accepted the post of archidiaconus at Lübben, on the Spree, was installed in June, 1669, and remained there till his death on June 7, 1676 (Koch, iii. 297-326; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, viii. 774-783, &c). The outward circumstances of Gerhardt's life were for the most part gloomy. His earlier years were spent amid the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. He did not obtain a settled position in life till he was 44 years of age. He was unable to marry till four years later; and his wife, after a long illness, died during the time that he was without office in Berlin; while of the five children of the marriage only one passed the period of childhood. The sunniest period of his life was during the early years of his Berlin ministry (i.e. 1657-1663), when he enjoyed universal love and esteem; while his latter years at Lübben as a widower with one surviving child were passed among a rough and unsympathising people. The motto on his portrait at Lübben not unjustly styles him "Theologus in cribro Satanae versatus." Gerhardt ranks, next to Luther, as the most gifted and popular hymnwriter of the Lutheran Church. Gervinus (ed. 1842, pt. iii. p. 366), the well-known historian of German literature, thus characterises him:— "He went back to Luther's most genuine type of hymn in such manner as no one else had done, only so far modified as the requirements of his time demanded. In Luther's time the belief in Free Grace and the work of the Atonement, in Redemption and the bursting of the gates of Hell was the inspiration of his joyful confidence; with Gerhardt it is the belief in the Love of God. With Luther the old wrathful God of the Romanists assumed the heavenly aspect of grace and mercy; with Gerhardt the merciful Righteous One is a gentle loving Man. Like the old poets of the people he is sincerely and unconstrainedly pious, naive, and hearty; the bliss fulness of his faith makes him benign and amiable; in his way of writing he is as attractive, simple, and pleasing as in his way of thinking." With a firm grasp of the objective realities of the Christian Faith, and a loyal adherence to the doctrinal standpoint of the Lutheran Church, Gerhardt is yet genuinely human; he takes a fresh, healthful view both of nature and of mankind. In his hymns we see the transition to the modern subjective tone of religious poetry. Sixteen of his hymns begin with, “I." Yet with Gerhardt it is not so much the individual soul that lays bare its sometimes morbid moods, as it is the representative member of the Church speaking out the thoughts and feelings he shares with his fellow members; while in style Gerhardt is simple and graceful, with a considerable variety of verse form at his command, and often of bell-like purity in tone. From the first publication of Gerhardt's hymns they at once came into favour among all ranks and creeds; and a large proportion are among the hymns most cherished and most widely used by German-speaking Christians at the present day. They appeared principally in the various editions of Crüger's Praxis, and the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653. The first collected edition was prepared by J. G. Ebeling, and published in separate "Dozens" 1-4 in 1666, 5-10 in 1667, i.e. 120 in all. In the edition of J. H. Feustking, Zerbst, 1707, a few stanzas were intercalated (from manuscripts in the possession of Gerhardt's surviving son), but no new hymns were added. Among modern editions of Gerhardt's hymns (mostly following the text of Ebeling) may be mentioned those by Langbecker, 1842; Schultz, 1842; Wackernagel, 1843; Becker, 1851; Goedeke, 1877, and Gerok, 1878. The Historico-Critical edition of Dr. J. F. Bachmann, 1866, is the most complete (with 11 additional pieces hardly Church hymns), and reverts to the pre-Ebeling text. The length of many of Gerhardt's hymns ("Ein Lämmlein" is 10 stanzas of 10 lines; "Fröhlich soil," 15 stanzas of 8 lines, &c), and the somewhat intricate metres of others, have caused his hymns to be less used in English than otherwise might have been the case; but a considerable proportion have come in some form or other into English hymnbooks. A large selection, translated with scrupulous faithfulness but not retaining much of the lyric grace of the originals, was published by the Rev. John Kelly, in 1867, as Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs; while many individual hymns have been translated by John Wesley, Miss Winkworth, Miss Cox, Miss Borthwick, and many others. His translations from St. Bernard are noted under "O Haupt voll Blut." There are separate notes on 19 of his greater hymns. Besides these the following have passed into English:— I. Hymns in English common use: i. Auf den Nebel folgt die Sonn. Thanksgiving after great sorrow and affliction. In Crüger's Praxis, 1656, No. 249, in 15 stanzas of 7 1.; thence in Wackernagel’s ed. of his Geistliche Lieder, No. 87, and Bachmann's ed., No. 64. In the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 402. Translated as:— Cometh sunshine after rain. A good translation, omitting stanzas iv.-vii., x., xi., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855, p. 100 (translations of x., xi. added to 2nd ed., 1856). Repeated, omitting the translations of stanzas ii., x.-xii., as No. 4 in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. In the Christian Hymn Book, Cincinnati, 1865, No. 799, begins with st. xiii., "Now as long as here I roam." Another translation is:—"After clouds we see the sun," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 261. ii. Die Zeit ist nunmehr nah. Day of Judgment—Second Advent. Founded on Acts iii. 20. In the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch 1653, No. 367, iii 18 stanzas of 6 lines, and thence in Wackernagel's edition of his Geistliche Lieder, 1843, No. 119 (1874, No. 124), and Bachmann's edition, No. 40. In the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S., ed. 1863, No. 1517. Translated as:— O Christ! how good and fair. Being a translation of stanzas iii., iv., vi., vii., x.-xiii., xvii., by Mrs. Charles, in her Voice of Christian Life in Song, 1858, p. 242. Her translations of stanzas iii., x., xii., are No. 150 in G. S. Jellicoe's Collection, 1867. Other trs. are:—(1) "May I when time is o'er," of stanzas vii., viii. as part of No. 831 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789; in the 1801 and later eds. (1886, No. 1229), beginning, "I shall, when time is o'er." (2) “The time is very near," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 341. iii. Gottlob, nun ist erschollen. Peace. Thanksgiving for the Proclamation of the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, after the Thirty Years’ War. In Crüger's Praxis 1656, No. 409, in 6 stanzas of 12 lines, and thence in Wackernagel's edition of his Geistliche Lieder, No. 64, and Bachmann's ed., No. 84; and in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 589. Translated as: — Thank God it hath resounded. A full and good tr. by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 156, repeated, omitting stanza ii., in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. St. i., v., vi., form No. 49 in M. W. Stryker's Christian Chorals, 1885. Another tr. is: ”Praise God! for forth hath sounded," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 251. iv. Ich, der ich oft in tiefes Leid. Ps. cxlv. First published in J. G. Ebeling's edition of his Geistliche Andachten Dritte Dutzet, 1666, No. 27, in 18 stanzas of 7 lines. Thence in Wackernagel's ed., No. 95, and Bachmann's ed., No. 103; also in the Berlin Geistliche LiederSchatz, ed. 1863, No. 1004. Translated as:— I who so oft in deep distress . A good translation, omitting stanzas ii.-iv., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 149. Her translations of stanzas i., xiii.-xvi., xviii., were included as No. 224, and of stanzas vi., viii., ix., xi. altered, and beginning, "O God! how many thankful songs," as No. 168, in Holy Song, 1869. Another tr. is:—-"Who is so full of tenderness," of stanza viii. as stanza iv. of No. 1075 in the Supplement of 1808 to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801 (1886, No. 537). v. Ich steh an deiner Krippen bier. Christmas. Included in Crüger's Praxis, 1656, No. 105, in 15 stanzas of 7 lines. Thence in Wackernagel's ed., No. 9, and Bachmann's ed., No. 45; and in the Berlin Geistliche LiederSchatz, ed. 1863, No. 167. A beautiful hymn, in which the poet puts himself in the place of the shepherds and the wise men visiting Bethlehem; and in praise and adoration tenders his devotion, his love and his all, to the Infant Saviour in the manger. Translated as:— My faith Thy lowly bed beholds. A translation of stanzas i., iv., vii., xv., by A. T. Russell, as No. 57 in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851. Other trs. are:— (1) "I stand beside Thy manger-bed," by Miss Manington, 1864, p. 38. (2) "Now at the manger here I stand," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 32. vi. Ich weiss dass mein Erlöser lebt. Easter. Founded on Job xix. 25-27. First published in J. G. Ebeling's ed. of his Geistliche Andachten Zehende Dutzet, 1667, No. 119, in 9 stanzas of 7 lines; repeated in Wackernagel's ed., 1843, No. 118 (1874, No. 123); in Bachmann's ed., No. 119; and in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S. ed. 1863, No. 301. Translated as:— I know that my Redeemer lives, In this my faith is fast. A full and spirited translation by J. Oxenford, in Lays of the Sanctuary, 1859, p. 122. His translations of stanzas i., iii., vii.-ix., were included, altered, as No. 779 in Kennedy, 1863. Another tr. is:— "I know that my Redeemer lives, This hope," &c, by Miss Manington, 1863, p. 78. vii. Ich weiss, mein Gott, dass all mein Thun. Supplication. A prayer for success in all Christian works and purpose; founded on Jeremiah x. 23, and Acts v. 38, 39. Included in Crüger's Praxis, 1656, No. 332, in 18 stanzas of 5 lines. In Wackernagel's ed., No. 40; Bachmann's ed., No. 71, and the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S., ed. 1863. Translated as:— I know, my God, and I rejoice. A good translation of stanzas i.-iii., viii., xi., ix., by Miss Winkworth, as No. 121 in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. Another translation is:— "My God! my works and all I do” by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 102. viii. Kommt, und lasst uns Christum ehren. Christmas. Founded on St. Luke ii. 15. First published in J. G. Ebeling's ed. of his Geistliche Andachten Fünffte Dutzet, 1667, No. 56, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. Thence in Wackemagel's ed., No. 6; Bachmann's ed., No. 110; and the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 43. Translated as:— 1. Come, unite in praise and singing. Omitting stanzas vi., vii., contributed by A. T. Russell to Maurice's Choral Hymnbook, 1861, No. 707. 2. Bring to Christ your best oblation. A full and good translation by P. Massie in his Lyra Domestica, 1864, p. 96; repeated in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory and Reid's Praise Book, 1872. Other translations are:— (1) "Come, and let us Christ revere now," by Miss Manington, 1864, p. 25. (2) "Come, and Christ the Lord be praising," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 24. ix. Lobet den Herren, alle die ihn fürchten. Morning. Included in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch 1653, No. 7, in 10 stanzas of 5 lines. In Wackernagel's ed., No. 100, and Bachmann's ed., No. 21, and in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S. edition 1863, No. 1063. Translated as:— Praise God! revere Him! all ye men that fear Him! This is from the version in Bunsen's Allgemeine Gesangbücher, 1846, No. 167, stanza i. being from Gerhardt, and st. ii., iii., from "Lobet den Herren, denn er ist sehr freundlich" (q. v.); and appeared in the Dalston Hospital Hymnbook, 1848, No. 55, signed "A. G." Other translations are:— (1) "Our Lord be praising, All His glory raising," by H. J. Buckoll, 1842, p. 27. (2) "Praise ye Jehovah, all ye men who fear Him," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 279. x. Micht so traurig, nicht so sehr. Christian Contentment. In the 3rd edition, 1648, of Crüger's Praxis, No. 251, in 15 stanzas of 6 1., repeated in Wackernagel's ed., No. 53; Bachmann's ed., No. 16, and the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S., ed. 1863, No. 851. It is founded on Ps. cxvi. 7; Ps. xlii. 6-12; 1 Tim. vi. 6. Translated as:— Ah! grieve not so, nor so lament. A free translation by Mrs. Findlater, of stanzas i., ii., vii.-x., xiii., xv., in the 1st Ser., 1854, of the Hymns from the Land of Luther, p. 48 (1884, p. 50). Repeated, abridged, in Holy Song, 1869, and Dale's English Hymnbook, 1875. Other translations are:- (l) "Why this sad and mournful guise," by Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 85. (2) "Not so darkly, not so deep," by Miss Warner, 1858 (1861, p. 58). (3) “0 my soul, why dost thou grieve," by J. Kelly, 1867. xi. Nun lasst uns gehn und treten. New Year. Included in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653, No. 106, in 15 st. of 4 1. Thence in Wackernagel's ed., No. 12; Bachmann's ed., No. 24, and the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S., ed. 1863, No. 200. Evidently written during the Thirty Years' War. Translated as:— In pray'r your voices raise ye. In full, by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 45. From this, 8 st. are included as No. 48 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. Other translations are:— (1) "Now let each humble Creature," in the Supplement to German Psalter, ed. 1765, p. 4, and Select Hymns from German Psalter, Tranquebar, 1754. p. 7. In the Moravian Hymnbook, 1789, No. 507 (1849, No. 1106), greatly altered, and beginning, “Year after year commenceth." (2) "0 come with prayer and singing," by R. Massie in the British Herald , Jan., 1865, p. 8. (3) “Christians all, with one accord," by E. Massie, 1867, p. 168. (4) "With notes of joy and songs of praise," by Dr. R. Maguire, 1883, p. 24. xii. Schaut! Schaut! was ist für Wunder dar? Christmas. First published in J. G. Ebeling's ed. of his Geistliche Andachten Fünffte Dutzet, 1667, No. 55, in 18 stanzas of 4 1. Thence in Wackernagel’s ed., No. 4; Bachmann's ed., No. 109. Translated as:— Behold! Behold! what wonders here. In full, by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 14. From this, 12 st. were included in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, as Nos. 25, 26: No. 26 beginning with the translation of st. xiii., "It is a time of joy today." xiii. Warum willt du draussen stehen. Advent. Suggested by Gen. xxiv. 31. Appeared in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653, No. 78, in 9 stanzas of 8 lines; viz., stanzas i.—vii., xi., xii., of the full form; st. viii.-x. being added in Ebeling's Geistliche Andachten Fünffte Dutzet, 1667, No. 50. The full text, in 12 stanzas, is also in Wackernagel's ed., No. 2; Bachmann's ed., No. 23, and Geistliche Lieder S., 1851, No. 20. Translated as:— Wherefore dost Thou longer tarry. A good translation, omitting st. viii.-x., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyrica Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 6. In her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 153, the translations of st. iii., v., xi., are omitted. Other trs. are:- (l) “Wherefore dost Thou, blest of God," by R. Massie, in Lyra Domestica, 1864, p. 90. (2) “Why, without, then, art Thou staying," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 5. xiv. Was alle Weisheit in der Welt. Trinity Sunday. In Crüger's Praxis, 1656, No. 212, in 8 stanzas of 9 lines. Thence in Wackernagel's ed., No. 1, and Bachmann's ed., No, 59, and the Berlin Geistliche Lieder S., ed. 1863, No. 50. Translated as:— Scarce tongue can speak, ne'er human ken. In full, by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 1, repeated as No. 111 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. Another translation is:—"The mystery hidden from the eyes," by R. Massie, in Lyra Domestica, 1864, p. 87. xv. Was Gott gefällt, mein frommes Kind. Resignation. This beautiful hymn, on resignation to “what pleases God," first appeared in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653, No. 290, in 20 stanzas of 5 lines. Thence in Wackernagel's ed., No. 60; Bachmann's ed., No. 37, and the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 723. Translated as:—- What God decrees, child of His love. A good translation of stanzas i., ii., v., vi., viii., xii., xv., xviii., xx., by Mrs. Findlater, in the 3rd Ser., 1858, of the Hymns from the Land of Luther, p. 49 (1884, p. 170). Included, in full, in Bishop Ryle's Collection, 1860, No. 171; and abridged in Christian Hymns, Adelaide, 1872, and beginning, "What God decrees, take patiently," in Kennedy, 1863, No. 1344. Other translations are:— (1) "What pleaseth God with joy receive," by Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 94. (2) “What pleases God, 0 pious soul," by Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 193, (3) ”What pleaseth God, my faithful child," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 189. xvi. Wie schőn ists doch, Herr Jesu Christ. For Married Persons. Founded on Ps. cxxviii. First published in Ebeling's ed. of his Geistliche Andachten Vierte Dutzet, 1666, No. 38, in 8 st. of 12 1. Thence in Wackernagel's ed., 1843, No. 108 (1874, No. 109); Bachmann's ed., No. 105, and the Unverfälschter Liedersegen S., 1851, No. 680. Translated as:— Oh, Jesus Christ! how bright and fair. In full, by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 307, repeated, altered, and omitting st. iii.—v., in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, No. 339. II. Hymns not in English common use: xvii. Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt. Good Friday. On St. John iii. 16. In Crüger's Praxis, 1661, No. 372, in 17 stanzas. Translated as, "Be of good cheer in all your wants,” by P. H. Molther, of stanza 16, as No. 181 in the Moravian Hymnbook, 1789 (1886, No. 217). xviii. Auf, auf, mein Herz mit Freuden. Easter. In Crüger's Praxis, 1648, No. 141, in 9 stanzas. The translations are:-- (1) "Up! Up! my heart with gladness, See," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 71. (2) "Up, up, my heart, with gladness; Receive," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 228. xix. Du bist zwar mein und bleibest mein. For the Bereaved. A beautiful hymn of consolation for parents on the loss of a son. Written on the death of Constantin Andreas, younger son of Johannes Berkov, pastor of St. Mary's Church, Berlin, and first printed as one of the "Dulcia amicorum solatia" at the end of the funeral sermon by Georg Lilius, Berlin, 1650. Included in Ebeline's ed. of Gerhardt's Geistliche Andachten Sechste Dutzet, Berlin, 1667, No. 72, in 12 stanzas. The translations are: (1) "Thou'rt mine, yes, still thou art mine own”, by Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 123. (2) "Yes, thou art mine, still mine, my son," by J. D. Burns, in the Family Treasury, 1861, p. 8, and his Remains, 1869, p. 249. (3) "Mine art thou still, and mine shalt be," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 333. (4) "Thou art mine own, art still mine own," by Dr. J. Guthrie, 1869, p. 100. xx. Du, meine Seele, singe. Ps. cxlvi. In the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, Berlin, 1653, No. 183, in 10 stanzas. Translated as, “O come, my soul, with singing," by Miss Burlingham, in the British Herald, Jannary, 1866, p. 207, and as No. 423 in Reid's Praise Book, 1872. xxi. Gieb dich zufrieden, und sei stille. Cross and Consolation—-Ps. xxxvii. 7. In Ebeling Erstes Dutzet, 1666, No. 11, in 15 stanzas. Translated as: (1) “Be thou content: be still before," by Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 156, and in Bishop Ryle's Collection, 1860, No. 269. (2) “Be thou contented! aye relying," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 202. (3) “Tranquilly lead thee, peace possessing," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 246. xxii. Hőr an! mein Herz, die sieben Wort. Passiontide. On the Seven Words from the Cross. Founded on the hymn noted under Bőschenstein, J. (q.v.). In Crüger's Praxis, 1656, No. 137, in 15 stanzas. Translated as: (1) “Come now, my soul, thy thoughts engage," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 309). (2) "Seven times the Saviour spake my heart," by R. Massie, in the British Herald, Sept., 1865, p. 133. (3) "My heart! the seven words hear now," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 63. xxiii. Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn. Resignation. In Crüger's Praxis, 1648, No. 249, in 12 st. Translated as: (1) "I into God's own heart and mind," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 219. (2) "To God's all-gracious heart and mind”, by Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 213, repeated in Statham's Collection, Edinburgh, 1869 and 1870. xxiv. 0 Jesu Christ! dein Kripplein ist. Christmas. At the Manger of Bethlehem. In Crüger's Praxis, 1656, No. 101, in 15 stanzas. Translated as: (1) Be not dismay'd—-in time of need" (st. xi.) in the Moravian Hymnbook, 1789, No. 236. (2) "O blessed Jesus! This," by Miss Winkworth, 1858, p, 18. (3) "O Jesus Christ! Thy cradle is," by Miss Manington, 1864, p. 41. (4) "Thy manger is my paradise," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 26. xxv. Voller Wunder, voller Kunst. Holy Matrimony. In Ebeling Vierte Dutzet, 1666, No. 40, in 17 st. Often used in Germany at marriages on the way to church. Translated as: (1) "Full of wonder, full of skill," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 215). (2) "Full of wonder, full of skill," in Mrs. Stanley Carr's translation of Wildenhahn's Paul Gerhardt, ed. 1856, p. 52. (3) "Full of wonder, full of art," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 302. (4) "Full of wonder, full of art," by Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 215. xxvi. Warum machet solche Schmerzen. New Year. On St. Luke ii. 21. In Crüger's Praxis, 1648, No. 97, in 4 stanzas. Bunsen, in his Versuch, 1833, No. 120, gives st. iii., iv. altered to "Freut euch, Sünder, allerwegen." Tr. as: (1) "Mortals, who have God offended," by Miss Cox, 1841, p. 21, from Bunsen. (2) "Why should they such pain e'er give Thee," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 43. xxvii. Weg, mein Herz, mit den Gedanken. Lent. On St. Luke xv. In Crüger's Praxis, 1648, No. 36, in 12 stanzas. Translated as: (1) "Let not such a thought e'er pain thee," by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 83. (2) "Hence, my heart, with such a thought," by Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 210. Besides the above, a considerable number of other hymns by Gerhardt have been translated by Mr. Kelly, and a few by Dr. Mills, Miss Manington, and others. The limits of our space forbid detailed notes on these versions. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============================= Gerhardt, Paulus, pp. 409, ii., 1565, i. The most recent edition of Gerhardt's hymns is in vol. iii. of the Fischer-Tümpel Deutsche evangelische Kirchenlied des Siebzehnten Jahr-hunderts, 1906, Nos. 389-495. In fixing the text the compilers have been enabled to use the recently discovered 1647, 1653 and 1657 Berlin editions of Cruger's Praxis Pietatis Melica. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Ralph Vaughan Williams

1872 - 1958 Person Name: R. Vaughan Williams Arranger of "CHRISTE SANCTORUM" in Hymns for Celebration Through his composing, conducting, collecting, editing, and teaching, Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, October 12, 1872; d. Westminster, London, England, August 26, 1958) became the chief figure in the realm of English music and church music in the first half of the twentieth century. His education included instruction at the Royal College of Music in London and Trinity College, Cambridge, as well as additional studies in Berlin and Paris. During World War I he served in the army medical corps in France. Vaughan Williams taught music at the Royal College of Music (1920-1940), conducted the Bach Choir in London (1920-1927), and directed the Leith Hill Music Festival in Dorking (1905-1953). A major influence in his life was the English folk song. A knowledgeable collector of folk songs, he was also a member of the Folksong Society and a supporter of the English Folk Dance Society. Vaughan Williams wrote various articles and books, including National Music (1935), and composed numerous arrangements of folk songs; many of his compositions show the impact of folk rhythms and melodic modes. His original compositions cover nearly all musical genres, from orchestral symphonies and concertos to choral works, from songs to operas, and from chamber music to music for films. Vaughan Williams's church music includes anthems; choral-orchestral works, such as Magnificat (1932), Dona Nobis Pacem (1936), and Hodie (1953); and hymn tune settings for organ. But most important to the history of hymnody, he was music editor of the most influential British hymnal at the beginning of the twentieth century, The English Hymnal (1906), and coeditor (with Martin Shaw) of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928). Bert Polman

Martin Luther

1483 - 1546 Person Name: Dr. M. Luther Author of "Lord, keep us in Thy Word and work" in Hymns of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Luther, Martin, born at Eisleben, Nov. 10, 1483; entered the University of Erfurt, 1501 (B.A. 1502, M.A.. 1503); became an Augustinian monk, 1505; ordained priest, 1507; appointed Professor at the University of Wittenberg, 1508, and in 1512 D.D.; published his 95 Theses, 1517; and burnt the Papal Bull which had condemned them, 1520; attended the Diet of Worms, 1521; translated the Bible into German, 1521-34; and died at Eisleben, Feb. 18, 1546. The details of his life and of his work as a reformer are accessible to English readers in a great variety of forms. Luther had a huge influence on German hymnody. i. Hymn Books. 1. Ellich cristlich lider Lobgesang un Psalm. Wittenberg, 1524. [Hamburg Library.] This contains 8 German hymns, of which 4 are by Luther. 2. Eyn Enchiridion oder Handbuchlein. Erfurt, 1524 [Goslar Library], with 25 German hymns, of which 18 are by Luther. 3. Geystliche Gesangk Buchleyn. Wittenberg, 1524 [Munich Library], with 32 German hymns, of which 24 are by Luther. 4. Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert. Wittenberg. J. Klug, 1529. No copy of this book is now known, but there was one in 1788 in the possession of G. E. Waldau, pastor at Nürnberg, and from his description it is evident that the first part of the Rostock Gesang-Buch, 1531, is a reprint of it. The Rostock Gesang-Buch, 1531, was reprinted by C. M. Wiechmann-Kadow at Schwerin in 1858. The 1529 evidently contained 50 German hymns, of which 29 (including the Litany) were by Luther. 5. Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert. Erfurt. A. Rauscher, 1531 [Helmstädt, now Wolfenbüttel Library], a reprint of No. 4. 6. Geistliche Lieder. Wittenberg. J. Klug, 1535 [Munich Library. Titlepage lost], with 52 German hymns, of which 29 are by Luther. 7. Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert. Leipzig. V. Schumann, 1539 [Wernigerode Library], with 68 German hymns, of which 29 are by Luther. 8. Geistliche Lieder. Wittenberg. J. Klug, 1543 [Hamburg Library], with 61 German hymns, of which 35 are by Luther. 9. Geystliche Lieder. Leipzig. V. Babst, 1545 [Gottingen Library]. This contains Luther's finally revised text, but adds no new hymns by himself. In pt. i. are 61 German hymns, in pt. ii. 40, of which 35 in all are by Luther. For these books Luther wrote three prefaces, first published respectively in Nos. 3, 4, 9. A fourth is found in his Christliche Geseng, Lateinisch und Deudsch, zum Begrebnis, Wittenberg, J. Klug, 1542. These four prefaces are reprinted in Wackernagel’s Bibliographie, 1855, pp. 543-583, and in the various editions of Luther's Hymns. Among modern editions of Luther's Geistliche Lieder may be mentioned the following:— Carl von Winterfeld, 1840; Dr. C. E. P. Wackernagel, 1848; Q. C. H. Stip, 1854; Wilhelm Schircks, 1854; Dr. Danneil, 1883; Dr. Karl Gerok, 1883; Dr. A. F. W. Fischer, 1883; A. Frommel, 1883; Karl Goedeke, 1883, &c. In The Hymns of Martin Luther. Set to their original melodies. With an English version. New York, 1883, ed. by Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon and Nathan H. Allen, there are the four prefaces, and English versions of all Luther's hymns, principally taken more or less altered, from the versions by A. T. Russell, R. Massie and Miss Winkworth [repub. in London, 1884]. Complete translations of Luther's hymns have been published by Dr. John Anderson, 1846 (2nd ed. 1847), Dr. John Hunt, 1853, Richard Massie, 1854, and Dr. G. Macdonald in the Sunday Magazine, 1867, and his Exotics, 1876. The other versions are given in detail in the notes on the individual hymns. ii. Classified List of Luther's Hymns. Of Luther's hymns no classification can be quite perfect, e.g. No. 3 (see below) takes hardly anything from the Latin, and No. 18 hardly anything from the Psalm. No. 29 is partly based on earlier hymns (see p. 225, i.). No. 30 is partly based on St. Mark i. 9-11, and xvi., 15, 16 (see p. 226, ii.). No. 35 is partly based on St. Luke ii. 10-16. The following arrangement, however, will answer all practical purposes. A. Translations from the Latin. i. From Latin Hymns: 1. Christum wir sollen loben schon. A solis ortus cardine 2. Der du bist drei in Einigkeit. O Lux beata Trinitas. 3. Jesus Christus unser Heiland, Der von. Jesus Christus nostra salus 4. Komm Gott Schopfer, heiliger Geist. Veni Creator Spiritus, Mentes. 5. Nun komm der Beidenheiland. Veni Redemptor gentium 6. Was flirchst du Feind Herodes sehr. A solis ortus cardine ii. From Latin Antiphons, &c.: 7. Herr Gott dich loben wir. Te Deum laudamus. 8. Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich. Dapacem, Domine 9. Wir glauben all an einen Gott. iii. Partly from the Latin, the translated stanzas being adopted from Pre-Reformation Versions: 10. Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott. 11. Mitten wir im Leben sind. Media vita in morte sumus. B. Hymns revised and enlarged from Pre-Reformation popular hymns. 12. Gelobet seist du Jesus Christ. 13. Gott der Vater wohn uns bei. 14. Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet. 15. Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist. C. Psalm versions. 16. Ach Gott vom Himmel, sieh darein. 17. Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir. 18. Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott. 19. Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl. 20. Es wollt uns Gott genädig sein. 21. War Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit. 22. Wohl dem, der in Gotten Furcht steht. D. Paraphrases of other portions of Holy Scripture. 23. Diess sind die heilgen zehn Gebot. 24. Jesaia dem Propheten das geschah. 25. Mensch willt du leben seliglich. 26. Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin. 27. Sie ist mir lieb die werthe Magd. 28. Vater unser im Himmelreich. E. Hymns mainly Original. 29. Christ lag in Todesbanden. 30. Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam. 31. Ein neues Lied wir heben an. 32. Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort. 33. Jesus Christus unser Heiland, Der den, 34. Nun freut euch lieben Christengemein. 35. Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her. 36. Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar. In addition to these — 37. Fur alien Freuden auf Erden. 38. Kyrie eleison. In the Blätter fur Hymnologie, 1883, Dr. Daniel arranges Luther's hymns according to what he thinks their adaptation to modern German common use as follows:— i. Hymns which ought to be included in every good Evangelical hymn-book: Nos. 7-18, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38. ii. Hymns the reception of which into a hymn-book might be contested: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 33. iii. Hymns not suited for a hymn-book: Nos. 1, 5, 6, 27, 31, 37. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

James Montgomery

1771 - 1854 Person Name: James Montgomery Author of "The Morning Dawns Upon The Place" in The Cyber Hymnal James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missions and the British Bible Society. He published eleven volumes of poetry, mainly his own, and at least four hundred hymns. Some critics judge his hymn texts to be equal in quality to those of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley . Many were published in Thomas Cotterill's Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1819 edition) and in Montgomery's own Songs of Zion (1822), Christian Psalmist (1825), and Original Hymns (1853). Bert Polman ======================== Montgomery, James, son of John Montgomery, a Moravian minister, was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Nov. 4, 1771. In 1776 he removed with his parents to the Moravian Settlement at Gracehill, near Ballymena, county of Antrim. Two years after he was sent to the Fulneck Seminary, Yorkshire. He left Fulneck in 1787, and entered a retail shop at Mirfield, near Wakefield. Soon tiring of that he entered upon a similar situation at Wath, near Rotherham, only to find it quite as unsuitable to his taste as the former. A journey to London, with the hope of finding a publisher for his youthful poems ended in failure; and in 1792 he was glad to leave Wath for Shefield to join Mr. Gales, an auctioneer, bookseller, and printer of the Sheffield Register newspaper, as his assistant. In 1794 Mr. Gales left England to avoid a political prosecution. Montgomery took the Sheffield Register in hand, changed its name to The Sheffield Iris, and continued to edit it for thirty-one years. During the next two years he was imprisoned twice, first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hynms, the delivery of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London, and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety but very little of stirring incident to his life. In 1833 he received a Royal pension of £200 a year. He died in his sleep, at the Mount, Sheffield, April 30, 1854, and was honoured with a public funeral. A statue was erected to his memory in the Sheffield General Cemetery, and a stained glass window in the Parish Church. A Wesleyan chapel and a public hall are also named in his honour. Montgomery's principal poetical works, including those which he edited, were:— (1) Prison Amusements, 1797; (2) The Wanderer of Switzerland, 1806; (3) The West Indies, 1807; (4) The World before the Flood, 1813; (5) Greenland and Other Poems, 1819; (6) Songs of Zion, 1822; (7) The Christian Psalmist, 1825; (8) The Christian Poet, 1825; (9) The Pelican Island, 1828; (10) The Poet’s Portfolio, 1835; (11) Original Hymns for Public, Private, and Social Devotion, 1853. He also published minor pieces at various times, and four editions of his Poetical Works, the first in 1828, the second in 1836, the third in 1841, and the fourth in 1854. Most of these works contained original hymns. He also contributed largely to Collyer's Collection, 1812, and other hymnbooks published during the next 40 years, amongst which the most noticeable was Cotterill's Selections of 1819, in which more than 50 of his compositions appeared. In his Christian Psalmist, 1825, there are 100 of his hymns, and in his Original Hymns, 1853, 355 and 5 doxologies. His Songs of Zion, 1822, number 56. Deducting those which are repeated in the Original Hymns, there remain about 400 original compositions. Of Montgomery's 400 hymns (including his versions of the Psalms) more than 100 are still in common use. With the aid of Montgomery's MSS. we have given a detailed account of a large number. The rest are as follows:— i. Appeared in Collyer's Collection, 1812. 1. Jesus, our best beloved Friend. Personal Dedication to Christ. 2. When on Sinai's top I see. Sinai, Tabor, and Calvary. ii. Appeared in Cotterill's Selection, 1819. 3. Come to Calvary's holy mountain. The Open Fountain. 4. God in the high and holy place. God in Nature. The cento in Com. Praise, 1879, and others, "If God hath made this world so fair," is from this hymn. 5. Hear me, O Lord, in my distress. Ps. cxliii. 6. Heaven is a place of rest from sin. Preparation for Heaven. 7. I cried unto the Lord most just. Ps. cxlii. 8. Lord, let my prayer like incense rise. Ps. cxxxix. 9. O bless the Lord, my soul! His grace to thee proclaim. Ps. ciii. 10. Out of the depths of woe. Ps. cxxx. Sometimes "When from the depths of woe." 11. The world in condemnation lay. Redemption. 12. Where are the dead? In heaven or hell? The Living and the Dead. iii. Appeared in his Songs of Zion, 1822. 13. Give glory to God in the highest. Ps. xxix. 14. Glad was my heart to hear. Ps. cxxii. 15. God be merciful to me. Ps. lxix. 16. God is my strong salvation. Ps. xxvii. 17. Hasten, Lord, to my release. Ps. lxx. 18. Have mercy on me, O my God. Ps. li. 19. Hearken, Lord, to my complaints. Ps. xlii. 20. Heralds of creation cry. Ps. cxlviii. 21. How beautiful the sight. Ps. cxxxiii. 22. How precious are Thy thoughts of peace. Ps. cxxxix. 23. I love the Lord, He lent an ear. Ps. cxvi. 24. In time of tribulation. Ps. lxxvii. 25. Jehovah is great, and great be His praise. Ps. xlviii. Sometimes, "0 great is Jehovah, and great is His Name." 26. Judge me, O Lord, in righteousness. Ps. xliii. 27. Lift up your heads, ye gates, and wide. Ps.xxiv. 28. Lord, let me know mine [my] end. Ps. xxxi. 29. Of old, 0 God, Thine own right hand. Ps. lxxx. 30. O God, Thou art [my] the God alone. Ps. lxiii. 31. 0 Lord, our King, how excellent. Ps. viii. Sometimes, "0 Lord, how excellent is Thy name." 32. O my soul, with all thy powers. Ps. ciii. 33. One thing with all my soul's desire. Ps. xxvii. From this, "Grant me within Thy courts a place." 34. Searcher of hearts, to Thee are known. Ps. cxxxix. 35. Thank and praise Jehovah's name. Ps. cvii. 36. Thee will I praise, O Lord in light. Ps. cxxxviii. 37. The Lord is King; upon His throne. Ps. xciii. 38. The Lord is my Shepherd, no want shall I know. Ps. xxiii. 39. The tempter to my soul hath said. Ps. iii. 40. Thrice happy he who shuns the way. Ps. i. 41. Thy glory, Lord, the heavens declare. Ps. xix. 42. Thy law is perfect, Lord of light. Ps. xix. 43. Who make the Lord of hosts their tower. Ps. cxxv. 44. Yea, I will extol Thee. Ps. xxx. iv. Appeared in his Christian Psalmist. 1825. 45. Fall down, ye nations, and adore. Universal adoration of God desired. 46. Food, raiment, dwelling, health, and friends. The Family Altar. 47. Go where a foot hath never trod. Moses in the desert. Previously in the Leeds Congregational Collection, 1822. 48. Green pastures and clear streams. The Good Shepherd and His Flock. 49. Less than the least of all. Mercies acknowledged. 50. Not to the mount that burned with fire [flame]. Communion of Saints. 51. On the first Christian Sabbath eve. Easter Sunday Evening. 52. One prayer I have: all prayers in one. Resignation. 53. Our heavenly Father hear. The Lord's Prayer. 54. Return, my soul, unto thy rest. Rest in God. 55. Spirit of power and might, behold. The Spirit's renewing desired. 56. The Christian warrior, see him stand. The Christian Soldier. Sometimes, "Behold the Christian warrior stand." 57. The days and years of time are fled. Day of Judgment. 58. The glorious universe around. Unity. 59. The pure and peaceful mind. A Children's Prayer. 60. This is the day the Lord hath made (q. v.). Sunday. 61. Thy word, Almighty Lord. Close of Service. 62. What secret hand at morning light ? Morning. 63. While through this changing world we roam. Heaven. 64. Within these walls be peace. For Sunday Schools. v. Appeared in his Original Hymns, 1853. 65. Behold yon bright array. Opening a Place of Worship. 66. Behold the book whose leaves display. Holy Scriptures. 67. Come ye that fear the Lord. Confirmation. 68. Home, kindred, friends, and country, these. Farewell to a Missionary. 69. Let me go, the day is breaking. Jacob wrestling. 70. Not in Jerusalem alone. Consecration of a Church. 71. Praise the high and holy One. God the Creator. In common with most poets and hymnwriters, Montgomery strongly objected to any correction or rearrangement of his compositions. At the same time he did not hesitate to alter, rearrange, and amend the productions of others. The altered texts which appeared in Cotterill's Selections, 1819, and which in numerous instances are still retained in some of the best hymnbooks, as the "Rock of Ages," in its well-known form of three stanzas, and others of equal importance, were made principally by him for Cotterill's use. We have this confession under his own hand. As a poet, Montgomery stands well to the front; and as a writer of hymns he ranks in popularity with Wesley, Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Cowper. His best hymns were written in his earlier years. In his old age he wrote much that was unworthy of his reputation. His finest lyrics are "Angels from the realms of glory," "Go to dark Gethsemane," "Hail to the Lord's Anointed," and "Songs of praise the angels sang." His "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," is an expanded definition of prayer of great beauty; and his "Forever with the Lord" is full of lyric fire and deep feeling. The secrets of his power as a writer of hymns were manifold. His poetic genius was of a high order, higher than most who stand with him in the front rank of Christian poets. His ear for rhythm was exceedingly accurate and refined. His knowledge of Holy Scripture was most extensive. His religious views were broad and charitable. His devotional spirit was of the holiest type. With the faith of a strong man he united the beauty and simplicity of a child. Richly poetic without exuberance, dogmatic without uncharitableness, tender without sentimentality, elaborate without diffusiveness, richly musical without apparent effort, he has bequeathed to the Church of Christ wealth which could onlv have come from a true genius and a sanctified! heart. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

J. Hart

1712 - 1768 Person Name: Hart Author of "O the pangs by Christians felt" in Selection of Hymns, for Public Worship designed to be used with Watts' Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years many of his most earnest and impassioned hymns were written. These appeared as:— Hymns composed on Various Subjects, with the Author's Experience, London, 1759. During this year he became the Minister of the Independent Chapel, Jewin Street, London. In 1762 he added a Supplement to his Hymns; and in 1765 an Appendix. In modern editions of his Hymns these three are embodied in one volume as:— Hymns composed on Various Subjects: With the Author's Experience, The Supplement and Appendix. By the Rev. Joseph Hart, late Minister of the Gospel in Jewin Street, London. Allott & Co. [no date]. Hart died on May 24, 1768. At one time his hymns were widely used, especially by Calvinistic Nonconformists. Many of them are of merit, and are marked by great earnestness, and passionate love of the Redeemer. The best known are: “Come, Holy Spirit, come"; “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched"; "This God is the God we adore"; and "Lord, look on all assembled here." Those which are more limited in their use include:— i. From his Hymns, &c, 1759. 1. Descend from heaven, celestial Dove. Whitsuntide. No. 6, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. In Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory., 1872, No. 374, st. iv., v. are omitted. It is in extensive use in America. 2. Great High Priest, we view Thee stooping. High Priesthood of Christ. No. 56, pt. ii., in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. In Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 236; Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, N. Y., 1872, No. 435, &c. 8. How wondrous are the works of God. Redeeming Love. No. 21, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines. In the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878, st. i.-iv. are given as No. 11. 4. If ever it could come to pass. Final Perseverance. No. 58, in 3 stanzas of 6 lines. Repeated in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 729. 6. Jesus is our God and Saviour . Faith and Repentance. No. 54, in 7 stanzas of 8 lines. In Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 146, st. iv. is omitted. In the London Hymn Book (enlarged), 1879, st. iii. and v. are given as "Nothing but Thy blood, 0 Jesus." 6. Jesus, while He dwelt below. Gethsemane. No. 75, in 23 stanzas of 6 lines. In Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 230, sixteen stanzas are broken up into three parts: (i.) "Jesus, while He dwelt below"; (ii.) "Full of love to man's lost race"; (iii.) "There my God bore all my guilt." A cento is also given in Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, N. Y., 1872, No. 441, as "Many woes had Christ [He] endured." It is composed of st. viii., ix., xiii., xx., xxiii., slightly altered. In the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878, No. 34, 8 stanzas are given in two parts: pt. i. as, "Jesus, while He dwelt below"; pt. ii. "Eden from each flowery bed." 7. Lamb of God, we fall before Thee. Christ All in All. No. 17 in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. It is in various collections, and as altered in Kennedy , 1863, No. 1171, is much improved. 8. Let us all with grateful praises. Christmas. No. 14 in 7 stanzas of 8 lines. In Spurgeon's 0ur Own Hymn Book, 1866, it is reduced to 4 stanzas of 4 lines. 9. Lord, look on all assembled here. For a Public Fast. No. 96, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. It is in several of the older hymnbooks. 10. Lord, we lie before Thy feet. Lent. No. 74, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines, and based on 2 Chron. xx. 20. In Spurgeon's 0ur Own Hymn Book, 1866, stanza i., iii., vi. are given as No. 585. 11. Mercy is welcome news indeed. God's Mercy in pardoning Sin. No. 51, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, on St. Luke vii. 42. In Spurgeon, 1866, No. 544. 12. Much we talk of Jesu's blood. Passiontide. No. 41, in 4 st. of 8 lines, on Lam. i. 12. In Spurgeon, 1866, it is abridged to 4 stanzas of 4 lines. 13. Bow from the garden to the cross. Good Friday. No. 63, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "The Crucifixion." In Spurgeon, 1866, No. 274, st. ii.-v., vi.-ix. are given as "See how the patient Jesus stands." 14. The Fountain of Christ Assist me to sing. The Fountain. No. 86, in 8 stanzas of 8 lines on Zech. xiii. 1. In Spurgeon, 1866, st. i., v., vii., viii., are given as No. 375. 15. The moon and stars shall lose their light. Advent. No. 48, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, on St. Matt. xxiv. 35. In Spurgeon, 1866. 16. The sinner that truly believes. Saving Faith. No. 88, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "Saving Faith" In Spurgeon, 1866, No. 533, st. ii. is omitted, and the opening line is altered to "The moment a sinner believes." ii. From his Supplement, 1762. 17. Behold what awful pomp. Advent. No. 52, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. It is usually abridged as in the American Methodist Episcopal Hymns, 1849, No. 1107. 18. Christ is the Eternal Rock. The Offices of Christ. No. 27, in 6 stanzas of 8 lines. In Windle's Metrical Psalter & Hymnal, 1862, stanzas i., ii., v. are given as No. 53. 19. Christians, dismiss your fear. Easter. No. 33, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines into Dr. Alexander's Augustine Hymn Book, 1849, No. 79, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. 20. Dismiss us with Thy blessing, Lord. Close of Service. No. 78, in 2 stanzas of 4 lines. In a few collections. 21. Gird thy loins up, Christian soldier. The Christian Armour . No. 29, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, on Eph. vi. 11. Found in several of the older, and a few of the modern collections. 22. Glory to God on high, Our peace, &c. Holy Communion. No. 3, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. In Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872, No. 704, st. v., vi. are omitted. 23. Holy Ghost, inspire our praises. On behalf of Ministers. No. 77, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines. In the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878, No. 412, st. iii.-v. are given as, "Happy soul that hears and follows." 24. Jesus once for sinners slain. Holy Communion. No. 18, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. In American use. 25. Lord, help us on Thy word to feed. Close of Service. No. 80, in 2 stanzas of 4 lines. In several modern hymnbooks. 26. O for a glance of heavenly day. Lent. No. 64, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. In Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872, and other American collections it is usually repeated in full. In Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833, it was given as, "Lord, shed a beam of heavenly day," and this is repeated in modern hymnbooks. 27. Once more before we part. Close of Service. No. 79, in 2 stanzas of 4 lines. Popular in Great Britain and America. 28. Once more we come before our God. Before a Sermon. No. 21, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, into Hatfield, 1872, No. 111, and others. 29. Sons of God by bless'd adoption. Burial. No. 45, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines, into Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 981, as "Sons of God by blest adoption." 30. Suffering Saviour, Lamb of God . Holy Communion. No. 14, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. In W. F. Stevenson's Hymns for Church & Home, 1873, st. iii., vii. are omitted. 31. That doleful night before His death. Holy Communion. No. 17, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines. In the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878, st. i. 11. 4-8, and st. ii., are given as, "To keep Thy Feast, Lord, we are met." iii. From his Appendix, 1765. 32. Christians, in your several stations. Christian Duty. No. 7, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines. It is slightly altered in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 742, and dated 1759 in error. 33. Prayer was [is] appointed to convey. Prayer. No. 12 in 6 stanzas of 4 lines into Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, No. 542, with alterations and the omission of st. ii., v. In some American collections it begins, "Prayer is to God, the soul's sure way." --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ======================= Hart, Joseph, p. 492, ii. Other hymns in common use are— 1. The blest memorials of Thy grief (1762). Holy Communion. 2. To comprehend the great Three-One (1759). Holy Trinity. 3. Vain man, thy fond pursuits forbear (1759). Death. 4. When the blest day of Pentecost (1759). Whitsuntide. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

John Brownlie

1857 - 1925 Translator of "When on the cruel Cross" in Hymns of the Greek Church Brownlie, John, was born at Glasgow, Aug. 6, 1857, and was educated at Glasgow University, and at the Free Church College in the same city. In 1884 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow; in 1885 he became Assistant Minister of the Free Church, Portpatrick, and on the death of the Senior Minister in 1890 he entered upon the full charge of the Church there. He has interested himself in educational matters, became a Member of the local School Board in 1888, a governor of Stranraer High School in 1897, and Chairman of the governors in 1901. His hymnological works are:— 1. The Hymns and Hymnwriters of the [Scottish] Church Hymnary, 1899. This is a biographical, historical, and critical companion to that hymnal, and is well done and accurate. 2. Hymns of Our Pilgrimage, 1889; Zionward; Hymns of the Pilgrim Life, 1890; and Pilgrim Songs, 1892. These are original hymns. The Rest of God, 1894, a poem in three parts. 3. Hymns of the Early Church, Being Translations from the Poetry of the Latin Church, arranged in the Order of the Christian Year . . . 1896. 4. Hymns from East and West, Being Translations from the Poetry of the Latin and Greek Churches . . . 1898. 5. Hymns of the Greek Church, Translated with Introduction and Notes, 1900. Second Series: Hymns of the Holy Eastern Church, Translated from the Service Books, with Introductory Chapters on the History, Doctrine and Worship of the Church, 1902. Third Series: Hymns from the Greek Office Books, Together with Centos and Suggestions, 1904. Fourth Series: Hymns from the East, Being Centos and Suggestions from the Office Books of the Holy Eastern Church, 1906. Of Mr. Brownlie's original hymns the following have come into common use:— 1. Ever onward, ever upward. Aspiration. From Pilgrim Songs, 3rd Series, 1892, p. 11. 2. Girt with heavenly armour. The Armour of God. Pilgrim Songs, 3rd Series, 1892, p. 49. 3. Hark! the voice of angels. Praise. Pilgrim Songs, 3rd Series, 1892, p. 57. 4. O bind me with Thy bonds, my Lord. The Divine Yoke. From Hymns of our Pilgrimage, 1889, p. 27. 5. O God, Thy glory gilds the sun. Adoration. From Zionward, &c, 1890, p. 33. 6. Spake my heart by sorrow smitten. Seeking God. From Pilgrim Songs, 3rd series, 1892, p. 25. 7. The flowers have closed their eyes. Evening Pilgrim Songs, 3rd series, 1892, p. 6tf. 8. There is a song which the angels sing. The Angels' Song. A cento from the poem The Best of God, 1894, p. 36. 9. Thou art my Portion, saith my soul. God, the Portion of His People. From Pilgrim Songs, 1892, p. 45. 10. Close beside the heart that loves me. Resting in God. This is one of the author's "Suggestions " based upon the spirit rather than the words of portions of the Greek Offices. It was given in Hymns of the Holy Eastern Church, 1902, p. 128. Mr. Brownlie's translations from the Latin have been adopted in the hymnals to a limited extent only, mainly because the ground had been so extensively and successfully covered by former translators. With the translations from the Greek the case was different, as for popular use few translations were available in addition to the well known and widely used renderings by Dr. Neale. Mr. Brownlie's translations have all the beauty, simplicity, earnestness, and elevation of thought and feeling which characterise the originals. Their suitability for general use is evidenced in the fact that the number found in the most recently published hymn-books, including Church Hymns, 1903, The New Office Hymn Book, 1905, and The English Hymnal, 1906, almost equal in number those by Dr. Neale. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

John Newton

1725 - 1807 Author of "How David, When by Sin Deceived" in The Cyber Hymnal John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide-surveyor in Liverpool, England, Newton came under the influence of George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley and began to study for the ministry. He was ordained in the Church of England and served in Olney (1764-1780) and St. Mary Woolnoth, London (1780-1807). His legacy to the Christian church includes his hymns as well as his collaboration with William Cowper (PHH 434) in publishing Olney Hymns (1779), to which Newton contributed 280 hymns, including “Amazing Grace.” Bert Polman ================== Newton, John, who was born in London, July 24, 1725, and died there Dec. 21, 1807, occupied an unique position among the founders of the Evangelical School, due as much to the romance of his young life and the striking history of his conversion, as to his force of character. His mother, a pious Dissenter, stored his childish mind with Scripture, but died when he was seven years old. At the age of eleven, after two years' schooling, during which he learned the rudiments of Latin, he went to sea with his father. His life at sea teems with wonderful escapes, vivid dreams, and sailor recklessness. He grew into an abandoned and godless sailor. The religious fits of his boyhood changed into settled infidelity, through the study of Shaftesbury and the instruction of one of his comrades. Disappointing repeatedly the plans of his father, he was flogged as a deserter from the navy, and for fifteen months lived, half-starved and ill-treated, in abject degradation under a slave-dealer in Africa. The one restraining influence of his life was his faithful love for his future wife, Mary Catlett, formed when he was seventeen, and she only in her fourteenth year. A chance reading of Thomas à Kempis sowed the seed of his conversion; which quickened under the awful contemplations of a night spent in steering a water-logged vessel in the face of apparent death (1748). He was then twenty-three. The six following years, during which he commanded a slave ship, matured his Christian belief. Nine years more, spent chiefly at Liverpool, in intercourse with Whitefield, Wesley, and Nonconformists, in the study of Hebrew and Greek, in exercises of devotion and occasional preaching among the Dissenters, elapsed before his ordination to the curacy of Olney, Bucks (1764). The Olney period was the most fruitful of his life. His zeal in pastoral visiting, preaching and prayer-meetings was unwearied. He formed his lifelong friendship with Cowper, and became the spiritual father of Scott the commentator. At Olney his best works—-Omicron's Letters (1774); Olney Hymns (1779); Cardiphonia, written from Olney, though published 1781—were composed. As rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, in the centre of the Evangelical movement (1780-1807) his zeal was as ardent as before. In 1805, when no longer able to read his text, his reply when pressed to discontinue preaching, was, "What, shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak!" The story of his sins and his conversion, published by himself, and the subject of lifelong allusion, was the base of his influence; but it would have been little but for the vigour of his mind (shown even in Africa by his reading Euclid drawing its figures on the sand), his warm heart, candour, tolerance, and piety. These qualities gained him the friendship of Hannah More, Cecil, Wilberforce, and others; and his renown as a guide in experimental religion made him the centre of a host of inquirers, with whom he maintained patient, loving, and generally judicious correspondence, of which a monument remains in the often beautiful letters of Cardiphonia. As a hymnwriter, Montgomery says that he was distanced by Cowper. But Lord Selborne's contrast of the "manliness" of Newton and the "tenderness" of Cowper is far juster. A comparison of the hymns of both in The Book of Praise will show no great inequality between them. Amid much that is bald, tame, and matter-of-fact, his rich acquaintance with Scripture, knowledge of the heart, directness and force, and a certain sailor imagination, tell strongly. The one splendid hymn of praise, "Glorious things of thee are spoken," in the Olney collection, is his. "One there is above all others" has a depth of realizing love, sustained excellence of expression, and ease of development. "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds" is in Scriptural richness superior, and in structure, cadence, and almost tenderness, equal to Cowper's "Oh! for a closer walk with God." The most characteristic hymns are those which depict in the language of intense humiliation his mourning for the abiding sins of his regenerate life, and the sense of the withdrawal of God's face, coincident with the never-failing conviction of acceptance in The Beloved. The feeling may be seen in the speeches, writings, and diaries of his whole life. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] A large number of Newton's hymns have some personal history connected with them, or were associated with circumstances of importance. These are annotated under their respective first lines. Of the rest, the known history of which is confined to the fact that they appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779, the following are in common use:— 1. Be still, my heart, these anxious cares. Conflict. 2. Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near. Trust. 3. By the poor widow's oil and meal. Providence. 4. Chief Shepherd of Thy chosen sheep. On behalf of Ministers. 5. Darkness overspreads us here. Hope. 6. Does the Gospel-word proclaim. Rest in Christ. 7. Fix my heart and eyes on Thine. True Happiness. 8. From Egypt lately freed. The Pilgrim's Song. 9. He Who on earth as man was Known. Christ the Rock. 10. How blest are they to whom the Lord. Gospel Privileges. 11. How blest the righteous are. Death of the Righteous. 12. How lost was my [our] condition. Christ the Physician. 13. How tedious and tasteless the hours. Fellowship with Christ. 14. How welcome to the saints [soul] when pressed. Sunday. 15. Hungry, and faint, and poor. Before Sermon. 16. In mercy, not in wrath, rebuke. Pleading for Mercy. 17. In themselves, as weak as worms. Power of Prayer. 18. Incarnate God, the soul that knows. The Believer's Safety. 19. Jesus, Who bought us with His blood. The God of Israel. "Teach us, 0 Lord, aright to plead," is from this hymn. 20. Joy is a [the] fruit that will not grow. Joy. 21. Let hearts and tongues unite. Close of the Year. From this "Now, through another year," is taken. 22. Let us adore the grace that seeks. New Year. 23. Mary to her [the] Saviour's tomb. Easter. 24. Mercy, 0 Thou Son of David. Blind Bartimeus. 25. My harp untun'd and laid aside. Hoping for a Revival. From this "While I to grief my soul gave way" is taken. 26. Nay, I cannot let thee go. Prayer. Sometimes, "Lord, I cannot let Thee go." 27. Now may He Who from the dead. After Sermon. 28. 0 happy they who know the Lord, With whom He deigns to dwell. Gospel Privilege. 29. O Lord, how vile am I. Lent. 30. On man in His own Image made. Adam. 31. 0 speak that gracious word again. Peace through Pardon. 32. Our Lord, Who knows full well. The Importunate Widow. Sometimes altered to "Jesus, Who knows full well," and again, "The Lord, Who truly knows." 33. Physician of my sin-sick soul. Lent. 34. Pleasing spring again is here. Spring. 35. Poor, weak, and worthless, though I am. Jesus the Friend. 36. Prepare a thankful song. Praise to Jesus. 37. Refreshed by the bread and wine. Holy Communion. Sometimes given as "Refreshed by sacred bread and wine." 38. Rejoice, believer, in the Lord. Sometimes “Let us rejoice in Christ the Lord." Perseverance. 39. Salvation, what a glorious plan. Salvation. 40. Saviour, shine and cheer my soul. Trust in Jesus. The cento "Once I thought my mountain strong," is from this hymn. 41. Saviour, visit Thy plantation. Prayer for the Church. 42. See another year [week] is gone. Uncertainty of Life. 43. See the corn again in ear. Harvest. 44. Sinner, art thou still secure? Preparation for the Future. 45. Sinners, hear the [thy] Saviour's call. Invitation. 46. Sovereign grace has power alone. The two Malefactors. 47. Stop, poor sinner, stop and think. Caution and Alarm. 48. Sweeter sounds than music knows. Christmas. 49. Sweet was the time when first I felt. Joy in Believing. 50. Ten thousand talents once I owed. Forgiveness and Peace. 51. The grass and flowers, which clothe the field. Hay-time. 52. The peace which God alone reveals. Close of Service. 53. Thy promise, Lord, and Thy command. Before Sermon. 54. Time, by moments, steals away. The New Year. 55. To Thee our wants are known. Close of Divine Service. 56. We seek a rest beyond the skies. Heaven anticipated. 57. When any turn from Zion's way. Jesus only. 58. When Israel, by divine command. God, the Guide and Sustainer of Life. 59. With Israel's God who can compare? After Sermon. 60. Yes, since God Himself has said it. Confidence. 61. Zion, the city of our God. Journeying Zionward. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================= Newton, J., p. 803, i. Another hymn in common use from the Olney Hymns, 1779, is "Let me dwell on Golgotha" (Holy Communion). --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ----- John Newton was born in London, July 24, 1725. His mother died when he was seven years old. In his eleventh year he accompanied his father, a sea captain, on a voyage. For several years his life was one of dissipation and crime. He was disgraced while in the navy. Afterwards he engaged in the slave trade. Returning to England in 1748, the vessel was nearly wrecked in a storm. This peril forced solemn reflection upon him, and from that time he was a changed man. It was six years, however, before he relinquished the slave trade, which was not then regarded as an unlawful occupation. But in 1754, he gave up sea-faring life, and holding some favourable civil position, began also religious work. In 1764, in his thirty-ninth year, he entered upon a regular ministry as the Curate of Olney. In this position he had intimate intercourse with Cowper, and with him produced the "Olney Hymns." In 1779, Newton became Rector of S. Mary Woolnoth, in London, in which position he became more widely known. It was here he died, Dec. 21, 1807, His published works are quite numerous, consisting of sermons, letters, devotional aids, and hymns. He calls his hymns "The fruit and expression of his own experience." --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872 See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church =======================

Reginald Heber

1783 - 1826 Person Name: Reginald Heber, 1783-1826 Author of "Oh Weep Not O'er Thy Children's Tomb" in The Cyber Hymnal Reginald Heber was born in 1783 into a wealthy, educated family. He was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17, and winning two awards for his poetry during his time there. After his graduation he became rector of his father's church in the village of Hodnet near Shrewsbury in the west of England where he remained for 16 years. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 and worked tirelessly for three years until the weather and travel took its toll on his health and he died of a stroke. Most of his 57 hymns, which include "Holy, Holy, Holy," are still in use today. -- Greg Scheer, 1995 ==================== Heber, Reginald, D.D. Born at Malpas, April 21, 1783, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford; Vicar of Hodnet, 1807; Bishop of Calcutta, 1823; died at Trichinopoly, India, April 3, 1826. The gift of versification shewed itself in Heber's childhood; and his Newdigate prize poem Palestine, which was read to Scott at breakfast in his rooms at Brazenose, Oxford, and owed one of its most striking passages to Scott's suggestion, is almost the only prize poem that has won a permanent place in poetical literature. His sixteen years at Hodnet, where he held a halfway position between a parson and a squire, were marked not only by his devoted care of his people, as a parish priest, but by literary work. He was the friend of Milman, Gifford, Southey, and others, in the world of letters, endeared to them by his candour, gentleness, "salient playfulness," as well as learning and culture. He was on the original staff of The Quarterly Review; Bampton Lecturer (1815); and Preacher at Lincoln's Inn (1822). His edition of Jeremy Taylor is still the classic edition. During this portion of his life he had often had a lurking fondness for India, had traced on the map Indian journeys, and had been tempted to wish himself Bishop of Calcutta. When he was forty years old the literary life was closed by his call to the Episcopate. No memory of Indian annals is holier than that of the three years of ceaseless travel, splendid administration, and saintly enthusiasm, of his tenure of the see of Calcutta. He ordained the first Christian native—Christian David. His first visitation ranged through Bengal, Bombay, and Ceylon; and at Delhi and Lucknow he was prostrated with fever. His second visitation took him through the scenes of Schwartz's labours in Madras Presidency to Trichinopoly, where on April 3,1826, he confirmed forty-two persons, and he was deeply moved by the impression of the struggling mission, so much so that “he showed no appearance of bodily exhaus¬tion." On his return from the service ”He retired into his own room, and according to his invariable custom, wrote on the back of the address on Confirmation 'Trichinopoly, April 3, 1826.' This was his last act, for immediately on taking off his clothes, he went into a large cold bath, where he had bathed the two preceding mornings, but which was now the destined agent of his removal to Paradise. Half an hour after, his servant, alarmed at his long absence, entered the room and found him a lifeless corpse." Life, &c, 1830, vol. ii. p. 437. Heber's hymns were all written during the Hodnet period. Even the great missionary hymn, "From Greenland's icy mountains," notwithstanding the Indian allusions ("India's coral strand," "Ceylon's isle"), was written before he received the offer of Calcutta. The touching funeral hymn, "Thou art gone to the grave," was written on the loss of his first babe, which was a deep grief to him. Some of the hymns were published (1811-16) in the Christian Observer, the rest were not published till after his death. They formed part of a ms. collection made for Hodnet (but not published), which contained, besides a few hymns from older and special sources, contributions by Milman. The first idea of the collection appears in a letter in 1809 asking for a copy of the Olney Hymns, which he "admired very much." The plan was to compose hymns connected with the Epistles and Gospels, to be sung after the Nicene Creed. He was the first to publish sermons on the Sunday services (1822), and a writer in The Guardian has pointed out that these efforts of Heber were the germs of the now familiar practice, developed through the Christian Year (perhaps following Ken's Hymns on the Festivals), and by Augustus Hare, of welding together sermon, hymnal, and liturgy. Heber tried to obtain from Archbishop Manners Sutton and the Bishop of London (1820) authorization of his ms. collection of hymns by the Church, enlarging on the "powerful engine" which hymns were among Dissenters, and the irregular use of them in the church, which it was impossible to suppress, and better to regulate. The authorization was not granted. The lyric spirit of Scott and Byron passed into our hymns in Heber's verse; imparting a fuller rhythm to the older measures, as illustrated by "Oh, Saviour, is Thy promise fled," or the martial hymn, "The Son of God goes forth to war;" pressing into sacred service the freer rhythms of contemporary poetry (e.g. "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning"; "God that madest earth and heaven"); and aiming at consistent grace of literary expression.. Their beauties and faults spring from this modern spirit. They have not the scriptural strength of our best early hymns, nor the dogmatic force of the best Latin ones. They are too flowing and florid, and the conditions of hymn composition are not sufficiently understood. But as pure and graceful devotional poetry, always true and reverent, they are an unfailing pleasure. The finest of them is that majestic anthem, founded on the rhythm of the English Bible, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." The greatest evidence of Heber's popularity as a hymnwriter, and his refined taste as a compiler, is found in the fact that the total contents of his ms. collection which were given in his posthumous Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year. London, J. Murray, 1827; which included 57 hymns by Heber, 12 by Milman, and 29 by other writers, are in common in Great Britain and America at the present time. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] Of Bishop Heber's hymns, about one half are annotated under their respective first lines. Those given below were published in Heber's posthumous Hymns, &c, 1827. Some of them are in extensive use in Great Britain and America; but as they possess no special histories they are grouped together as from the Hymns, &c, 1827:— 1. Beneath our feet, and o'er our head. Burial. 2. Creator of the rolling flood. St. Peter's Day, or, Gospel for 6th Sunday after Trinity. 3. Lo, the lilies of the field. Teachings of Nature: or, Gospel for 15th Sunday after Trinity. 4. 0 God, by Whom the seed is given. Sexagesima. 6. 0 God, my sins are manifold. Forgiveness, or, Gospel for 22nd S. after Trinity. 6. 0 hand of bounty, largely spread. Water into Wine, or, Gospel for 2nd S. after Epiphany. 7. 0 King of earth, and air, and sea. Feeding the Multitude; or, Gospel for 4th S. in Lent. 8. 0 more than merciful, Whose bounty gave. Good Friday. 9. 0 most merciful! 0 most bountiful. Introit Holy Communion. 10. 0 Thou, Whom neither time nor space. God unsearchable, or, Gospel for 5th Sunday in Lent. 11. 0 weep not o'er thy children's tomb. Innocents Day. 12. Room for the proud! Ye sons of clay. Dives and Lazarus, or, Gospel for 1st Sunday after Trinity. 13. Sit thou on my right hand, my Son, saith the Lord. Ascension. 14. Spirit of truth, on this thy day. Whit-Sunday. 15. The feeble pulse, the gasping breath. Burial, or, Gospel for 1st S. after Trinity. 16. The God of glory walks His round. Septuagesima, or, the Labourers in the Marketplace. 17. The sound of war in earth and air. Wrestling against Principalities and Powers, or, Epistle for 2lst Sunday after Trinity. 18. The world is grown old, her pleasures are past. Advent; or, Epistle for 4th Sunday in Advent. 19. There was joy in heaven. The Lost Sheep; or, Gospel for 3rd S. after Trinity. 20. Though sorrows rise and dangers roll. St. James's Day. 21. To conquer and to save, the Son of God. Christ the Conqueror. 22. Virgin-born, we bow before Thee. The Virgin Mary. Blessed amongst women, or, Gospel for 3rd S. in Lent. 23. Wake not, 0 mother, sounds of lamentation. Raising the Widow's Son, or, Gospel for 16th S. after Trinity. 24. When on her Maker's bosom. Holy Matrimony, or, Gospel for 2nd S. after Epiphany. 25. When through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming. Stilling the Sea, or, Gospel for 4th Sunday after Epiphany. 26. Who yonder on the desert heath. The Good Samaritan, or, Gospel for 13th Sunday after Trinity. This list is a good index of the subjects treated of in those of Heber's hymns which are given under their first lines, and shows that he used the Gospels far more than the Epistles in his work. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Communauté de Taizé

Person Name: The Community of Taize Author of "Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40 (A Responsorial Reading)" in Psalms for All Seasons

Gerhardt Tersteegen

1697 - 1769 Person Name: G. Ter Steegen, d. 1769 Author of "Ter Steegen's Golden Timepiece" in Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series) Tersteegen, Gerhard, a pious and useful mystic of the eighteenth century, was born at Mörs, Germany, November 25, 1697. He was carefully educated in his childhood, and then apprenticed (1715) to his older brother, a shopkeeper. He was religiously inclined from his youth, and upon coming of age he secured a humble cottage near Mühlheim, where he led a life of seclusion and self-denial for many years. At about thirty years of age he began to exhort and preach in private and public gatherings. His influence became very great, such was his reputation for piety and his success in talking, preaching, and writing concerning spiritual religion. He wrote one hundred and eleven hymns, most of which appeared in his Spiritual Flower Garden (1731). He died April 3, 1769. Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles S. Nutter and Wilbur F. Tillett, 1911 ==================================================== Gerhardt Tersteegen or ter Stegen, was born at Moers, Netherlands [sic. Germany] , November 25, 1697. He was destined for the Reformed ministry, but after his father's death when the boy was only six, his mother was unable to send him to the university. He studied at the Gymnasium in Moers, and then earned a meager living as a silk weaver, sharing his frugal daily fare with the poor. Malnutrition and privation undermined his health to such an extent that he suffered a serious depression for some five years, following which he wrote a new covenant with God, signing it in his own blood. A strong mystic, he did not attend the services of the Reformed Church after 1719. Although forming no sect of his own, he became well known as a religious teacher and leader. His house was known as "The Pilgrim's Cottage" -- a retreat for men seeking a way of life, while he himself was known as "the physician of the poor and forsaken." Barred from preaching in his own country until 1750, he visited Holland annually from 1732 to 1755, holding meetings. In addition to his other labors he carried on a tremendous correspondence. Overwork resulted in physical breakdown, so that during the latter years of his life he could speak only to small gatherings. He died at Muhlheim on April 3, 1769. One of the three most important of Reformed hymn writers, he is also regarded as the chief representative of the mystics. He wrote 111 hymns. His important Geisliches Blumengartlein was published in 1729. H.E. Govan published The Life of Gerhard Tersteegen, with selctions from his writings, in 1902. --The Hymnal 1940 Companion =========================== Tersteegen, Gerhard, son of Heinrich Tersteegen (otherwise ter Stegen or zur Stiege), merchant at Mörs (Meurs), in Rhenish Prussia, was born at Mors, Nov. 25, 1697. His parents intended that he should become a minister of the Reformed Church in Germany. His father however died in 1703, and his mother found that after giving him a thorough classical training in the Latin school at Mörs she was unable to afford the cost of his University course. He was accordingly apprenticed, in 1713, to his brother-in-law, a merchant at Mühlheim on the Ruhr, and in 1717 started in business on his own account, at Mühlheim. As he found his time much broken up, and his opportunities of meditation few, he gave up his business in 1719; and, after a short trial of linen weaving, took up the easier and much more lucrative occupation of weaving silk ribbons. During the years 1719-24 he passed through a period of spiritual depression, at the end of which his faith in the reconciling grace of Christ became assured (see No. xxxiv. below), and on Maundy Thursday, 1724, he wrote out a solemn covenant with God which he signed with his own blood. Previous to this, even before 1719, he had ceased to attend the ordinary services of the Reformed Church; and also absented himself from Holy Communion on the ground that he could not in conscience communicate along with open sinners. About the beginning of 1725 he began to speak at the prayer meetings which had been held at Mühlheim, since 1710, by Wilhelm Hoffmann, who was a candidate of theology (licensed preacher) of the Reformed Church. Tersteegen soon became known as a religious teacher among the "Stillen im Lande," as the attenders on these meetings were called, and in 1728 gave up his handicraft in order to devote himself entirely to the translation of works by medieval and recent Mystics and Quietists, including Madame Guyon and others, and the composition of devotional books, to correspondence on religious subjects, and to the work of a spiritual director of the "awakened souls." From this date to his death he was supported by a small regular income which was subscribed by his admirers and friends. About 1727 a house at Otterbeck, between Mühlheim and Elberfeld, was set apart as a "Pilgerhütte," where the "awakened souls" could go into a spiritual retreat, under the direction of Tersteegen. This house, with accommodation for eight persons, was retained until about 1800. Tersteegen, however, did not confine himself to Mühlheim, but travelled over the district, addressing gatherings of like-minded Christians, giving special attention to Elberfeld, Barmen, Solingen, and Crefeld. From 1732 to 1755 he also went regularly every year to Holland, to visit his spiritual kinsfolk at Amsterdam and elsewhere. From 1730 to 1750 a law against conventicles was strictly enforced, and Tersteegen could not hold meetings except on his visits to Holland. During this period he removed to a house which had been Wilhelm Hoffmann's, where he preached, and provided food and simple medicines for the poor. After 1750 he resumed his public speaking until 1756, when he overstrained himself, and had to confine himself to the smallest gatherings absolutely. In 1769, dropsy set in, and after patient endurance for a season he died on April 3, 1769, at Mühlheim (Koch, vi. 46). Up to the end of his life Tersteegen remained outside the Reformed Church, but never set up a sect of his own. After his death his followers as a rule reunited themselves with it, especially when a less formal type of religion began to prevail therein. Tersteegen's most important hymnological work was his Geistliches Blümen-Gärtlein, of which many editions were published. Tersteegen ranks as one of the three most important hymnwriters associated with the Reformed Church in Germany, the other two being F. A. Lampe and Joachim Neander. He is however more closely allied, both as a Mystic and as a Poet, with Johann Scheffler than with either of his co-religionists. He almost equals Scheffler in power of expression and beauty of form, and if Scheffler has more pictorial grace, and a more vivid imagination, Tersteegen has more definiteness of teaching, a firmer grasp of the Christian verities, and a greater clearness in exposition. Inner union of the soul with God and Christ, the childlike simplicity and trust which this brings, renunciation of the world and of self, and daily endeavour to live as in the presence of God and in preparation for the vision of God, are the keynotes of his hymns. To his intense power of realising the unseen, his clear and simple diction, and the evident sincerity with which he sets forth his own Christian experience, his hymns owe much of their attractiveness and influence. During his lifetime they did not come much into use except through the Harfenspiel, as above, and they did not meet the taste of compilers during the Rationalistic period. But since Bunsen in his Yersuch, 1833, and Knapp in his Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz, 1837, brought his hymns once more into notice they have been received in greater or less measure into almost all the German hymnbooks, among the Lutherans as well as among the Reformed, the most popular of all being his “Gott ist gegenwärtig". A number of Tersteegen's hymns are noted under their own first lines. They appeared, almost all for the first time, in the successive editions of his Geistliches Blümen-Gärtlein, viz., in the 1st ed., 1729; 2nd ed., 1735; 3rd ed., 1738; 4th ed., 1745; 5th ed., 1751; 6th ed., 1757; 7th ed., 1768; and in each case (after 1729) in the Third Book of that work. Those which have passed into English are as follows:— i. Freue dich, du Kinder-Orden. Christmas. Translated as:— Little children, God above, 1858, p. 78. Another tr. is: "Children rejoice, for God is come to earth." By Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 30. ii. Jedes Herz will etwas lieben. Love to Christ. In the 4th ed., 1745, as above, Bk. iii., No. 70, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "The Soul wishes to take Jesus as her best Beloved." Translated as:— 1. The heart of man must something love. A cento beginning with st. ii. “Though all the world my choice deride," is in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, and also in the Plymouth Collection, 1855, and other American hymnals. 2. Something every heart is loving. A full and good translation by Mrs. Bevan, in her Songs of Eternal Life, 1858, p. 58. iii. Jesu, der du bist alleine. Communion of Saints. In the 2nd ed., 1735, in 11 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "Prayer on behalf of the brethren." Translated as:— Jesus, whom Thy Church doth own. By Miss Winkworth, omitting st. iii., in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 99. iv. Jesu, mein Erbarmer! höre. Lent or Penitence. In the 2nd ed., 1735, in 12 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "In outward and inward sufferings and Temptations." Translated as:— Jesus, pitying Saviour, hear me. In full, by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 133. In her Christian Singer, 1869, p. 298, she gave st. ii., v., vi., beginning "Lost in darkness, girt with dangers." v. Nun so will ich denn mein Leben. Self-Surrender. Translated (omitting st. ii., iii., vi., x.) as:— 1. Lo! my choice is now decided. By Miss Cox, in her Sacred Hymns from the German, 1841, p. 125. Her translations of st. viii., ix., vii., altered and beginning, "One thing first and only knowing," are repeated in Hedge & Huntington's Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston, U.S., 1853. 2. Now at last I end the strife. By Miss Winkworth, in herLyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. vi. 0 liebe Seele! könntst du werden. The Childlike Spirit. Translated as:— Soul! couldst thou, while on earth remaining. In Miss Cox'sHymns from German, 1864, p. 197, it begins "Soul, while on earth thou still remainest." Other trs. are: (1) "Wouldst thou, my soul, the secret find." By Lady E. Fortescue, 1843, p. 47. (2) “Dear soul, couldst thou become a child." By Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 22. vii. Siegesfürste, Ehrenkönig. Ascension. Translated as:— Conquering Prince and Lord of Glory, By Miss Winkworth, omitting st. ii., in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 48. viii. Wie gut ists, wenn man abgespehnt. Lent or Self-Renunciation. In the first edition, entitled "Of the sweetness of the hidden life of Christians." Translated as:— How sweet it is, when, wean'd from all. This is a good and full translation by S. Jackson, in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p. 417). Other hymns by Tersteegen which have been rendered into English are:— ix. Ach Gott, es taugt doch draussen nicht. On the Vanity of Earthly Things. Tr. as, "Ah God! the world has nought to please." By Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 304. x. Ach, könnt ich stille sein. Peace in God. Translated as (1) "Oh! could I but be still." By Mrs. Bevan, 1859, p. 134. (2) "Ah, could I but be still." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 77. xi. Allgenugsam Wesen. God's All-sufficiency . The trs. are (1) "Thou All-sufficient One! Who art." By Miss Warner, 1858, p. 601, repeated in Hymns of the Ages, Boston, U.S., 1865, p. 163. (2) "Thou, whose love unshaken." xii. Bald endet sich mein Pilgerweg. Eternal Life. Translated as “Weary heart, be not desponding." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 84. xiii. Berufne Seelen! schlafet nicht. Lent. The translations are (1) "Ye sleeping souls, awake From dreams of carnal ease." By S. Jackson, in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p, 413). (2) "Sleep not, 0 Soul by God awakened." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 98. xiv. Das äussre Sonnenlicht ist da. Morning. Tr. as (1) "The World's bright Sun is risen on high." By H. J. Buckoll, 1842, p. 51. (2) "The outer sunlight now is there." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 75. xv. Das Kreuz ist dennoch gut. Cross and Consolation. Translated as "The Cross is ever good." By Mrs. Findlater in Hymns from the Land of Luther, 1862, p. 72 (1884, p. 234). xvi. Die Blümlein klein und gross in meines Herren Garten. On the Graces of the New Testament. The trs. are (l) "Flowers that in Jesu's garden have a place." By Miss Dunn in her translation of Tholuck's Stunden, 1853, p. 114. (2) "Full many flowers, in my Lord's garden blooming." By Dr. R. Menzies in his translation of Tholuck's Stunden, 1870, p. 182. xvii. Die Liebe will was gauzes haben.Entire Consecration. Tr. as "Love doth the whole—not part—desire." By Miss Warner, 1869, p. 12. xviii. Für dich sei ganz mein Herz und Leben. Consecration to Christ. The trs. are (1) "Constrain'd by love so warm and tender." By R. Massie in the British Herald, April, 1865, p. 55. (2) "My soul adores the might of loving." By Mrs. Edmund Ashley in the British Herald, Sept., 1867, p. 136, repeated in Reid's Praise Book, 1872, No. 582. xix. Grosser Gott, in dem ich schwebe. God's Presence. Translated as "God, in Whom I have my being." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 81. xx. Jauchzet ihr Himmel! frohlocket ihr englische Chören. Christmas. Tr. as "Triumph, ye heavens! rejoice ye with high adoration." xxi. Jesu, den ich meine. Life in Christ. Tr. as ”Jesus, whom I long for." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 92. xxii. Jesus-Nam, du höchster Name. The Name of Jesus. Translated as "Jesu's name, thou highest name." By S. Jackson in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p. 415). xxiii. Liebwerther, süsser Gottes-Wille. Resignation to the Will of God. The translations are (1) "Thou sweet beloved Will of God." By Mrs. Bevan, 1858, p. 14. (2) “Will of God, all sweet and perfect." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 96. xxiv. Mein ganzer Sin. Lent. Turning to God. Tr. as "My whole desire Doth deeply turn away." By Miss Warner, 1869, p. 30. xxv. Mein Gott, mein Gott, mein wahres Leben. Self-Dedication. Tr. as "My God, my God, my life divine!" By S. Jackson in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832 (1837, p. 414). xxvi. Mein Herz, ein Eisen grob und alt. Cross and Consolation. Tr. as "A rough and shapeless block of iron is my heart." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 79. xxvii. Mein'n ersten Augenblick. Morning. Tr. as "Each moment I turn me." xxviii. Nun lobet alle Gottes Sohn. Praise to Christ. Tr. as "Give glory to the Son of God." By Mrs. Bevan, 1858, p. 75. xxix. 0 Jesu, König, hoch zu ehren. Self-surrender. Tr. as “0 Jesus, Lord of majesty." By Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 136. xxx. So gehts von Schritt zu Schritt. For the Dying. Tr. as "Thus, step by step, my journey to the Infinite." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 105. xxxi. So ist denn doch nun abermal ein Jahr. New Year. Tr. as "Thus, then another year of pilgrim-life." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 73. xxxii. Sollt ich nicht gelassen sein. Cross and Consolation. Tr. as “Should I not be meek and still." By Mrs. Bevan, 1858, p. 45. xxxiii. Von allen Singen ab. Turning to God. Tr. as "From all created things." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 100. xxxiv. Wie bist du mir so innig gut. The Grace of Christ. Written in 1724 at the close of his time of spiritual despondency. “This state of spiritual darkness continued five years; until at length whilst on a journey to a neighbouring town, the day-spring from on high again visited him; and the atoning mercy of Jesus Christ was made so deeply and convincingly apparent to him, that his heart was set entirely at rest. On this occasion he composed that beautiful hymn, &c." Translated as “How gracious, kind, and good, My great High Priest art Thou" (st. i.-v.), No. 74 in Dr. Leifchild's Original Hymns, 1842. xxxv. Wiederun ein Augenblick. The Flight of Time. Tr. as: (1) “Of my Time one Minute more." (2) "One more flying moment." By Lady Durand, 1873, p. 26. xxxvi. Willkomm'n, verklarter Gottes Sohn. Easter. This is translated as "O Glorious Head, Thou livest now." By Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 89. Repeated in Schaff’s Christ in Song, 1870. The first Book of the Blumen-Gärtlein contains short poems, more of the nature of aphorisms than of hymns. In the ed. of I76S there are in all 568 pieces in Book i., and of these Miss Winkworth has translated Nos. 429, 474, 565, 573, 575, 577 in her Christian Singers, 1869. Others are tr. by Lady Durand, in her Imitations from the German of Spitta and Terstsegen, 1873, as above, and by S. Jackson, in his Life of Tersteegen, 1832. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

Bartholomäus Crasselius

1667 - 1724 Person Name: B. Crasselius Composer of "WINCHESTER NEW" in The Church Hymnal Crasselius, Bartholomäus, son of Johannes Crasselt, sheepmaster at Wemsdorf near Glauchau, Saxony; was born at Wernsdorf, Feb. 21, 1667. After studying at Halle, under A. H. Francke, he became, in 1701, pastor at Nidda, in Wetteravia, Hesse. In 1708 he was appointed Lutheran pastor at Düsseldorf, where he died Nov. 30, 1724, after a somewhat troubled pastorate, during which he felt called upon to testify strongly and somewhat bitterly against the shortcomings of the place and of the times (Koch, iv. 418-421; Allg. Deutsche Biographie, iv. 566-67; Bode, p. 55; manuscript from Pastor Baltzer, Wernsdorf; the second dating his call to Dusseldorf 1706). Of the 9 hymns by him which Freylinghausen included in his Geistreiches Gesang-Buch, 1704, two have been translated:— i. Dir, dir, Jehovah, will ich singen. Prayer. A hymn of supplication for the spirit of grace rightly to praise and worship God, founded on St. John, xvi. 23-28, the Gospel for Rogation Sunday. First published in the Geistreiches Gesang-Buch &., Halle, 1697, p. 587, in 8 stanzas of 6 lines. Repeated as No. 291 in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1704, and since in almost all collections, as in the Berlin Geistliche Liedersegen. ed. 1863, No. 936. The well-known tune (known in England as Winchester New as reduced to L. M. in Hymns Ancient & Modern, No. 50) which appeared with this hymn in Freylinghausen, 1704, is altered from a melody to “Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten," in the Musicalisch Handbuch der Geistlichen Melodien, Hamburg, 1690. See L. Erk's Choralbuch, 1863, No. 63, and p. 247; also No. 261. The common, but erroneous ascription of this tune to Crasselius arose from confusion between the authorship of the tune and the words. There is no evidence that Crasselius wrote any tunes. Translations in common use:— 1. Jehovah, let me now adore Thee, a good and full translation by Miss Winkworth, as No. 117, in her Chorale Buch for England, 1863, set to the 1704 melody. 2. To Thee, 0 Lord, will I sing praises, in full, by Dr. M. Loy, in the Evangelical Review, Gettysburg, July 1861, and as No. 216 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. Other translations are:— (i) "To Thee, Jehovah, I'll be singing," in the Supplement to German Psalmody, ed. 1765, p. 41, and in Select Hymns from German Psaltery, Tranquebar, 1754, p. 72. (2) "Draw me, O Father, to the Son," a translation of stanza ii., by P. H. Molther, as No. 185 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789. In the ed. of 1886 it is enlarged to 3 stanzas by the addition of the translation of stanzas i. and viii., and in this form it begins:—“To Thee, Jehovah, will I sing." (3) "To Thee, O Lord, I come with singing," by Miss Burlingham, in the British Herald, April, 1866, p. 248, repeated as No. 402 in Reid's Praise Book, 1872. ii. Erwach, 0 Mensch, erwache. Lent. Appeared in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1704, No. 266, in 4 stanzas of 9 lines. Included in Bunsen's Versuch, 1833, No. 298, and Allgemeine Gesang-Buch 1846, No. 13. Translated as "Awake, O man, and from thee shake," by Miss Winkworth, 1855, p. 61. The hymn, "Heiligster Jesu, Heiligungsquelle," ascribed to Crasselius, is noted under J. v. Lodenstein. See also "Hallelujah! Lob, Preis und Ehr." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Jacques Berthier

1923 - 1994 Person Name: Jacques Berthier, 1923-1994 Author of "Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40 (A Responsorial Reading)" in Psalms for All Seasons Jacques Berthier (b. Auxerre, Burgundy, June 27, 1923; d. June 27, 1994) A son of musical parents, Berthier studied music at the Ecole Cesar Franck in Paris. From 1961 until his death he served as organist at St. Ignace Church, Paris. Although his published works include numerous compositions for organ, voice, and instruments, Berthier is best known as the composer of service music for the Taizé community near Cluny, Burgundy. Influenced by the French liturgist and church musician Joseph Gelineau, Berthier began writing songs for equal voices in 1955 for the services of the then nascent community of twenty brothers at Taizé. As the Taizé community grew, Berthier continued to compose most of the mini-hymns, canons, and various associated instrumental arrangements, which are now universally known as the Taizé repertoire. In the past two decades this repertoire has become widely used in North American church music in both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. Bert Polman

Aurelius Clemens Prudentius

348 - 410 Person Name: Prudentius Author of "Hymn for the Epiphany" in Hymns of Prudentius Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, "The Christian Pindar" was born in northern Spain, a magistrate whose religious convictions came late in life. His subsequent sacred poems were literary and personal, not, like those of St. Ambrose, designed for singing. Selections from them soon entered the Mozarabic rite, however, and have since remained exquisite treasures of the Western churches. His Cathemerinon liber, Peristephanon, and Psychomachia were among the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. A concordance to his works was published by the Medieval Academy of America in 1932. There is a considerable literature on his works. --The Hymnal 1940 Companion ============= Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens , with the occasional prefix of Marcus (cf. Migne, vol. lix. p. 593, and Dressel, p. ii. n), is the name of the most prominent and most prolific author of sacred Latin poetry in its earliest days. Of the writer himself we know nothing, or next to nothing, beyond what he has himself told us in a short introduction in verse to his works. From that source we learn that he was a Spaniard, of good family evidently, and that he was born A.D. 348 somewhere in the north of Spain, either at Saragossa, Tarragona, or Calahorra, but at which is left uncertain, by his applying the same expression to all, which if applied only to one would have fixed his place of birth. After receiving a good education befitting his social status he applied himself for some years to practising as a pleader in the local courts of law, until he received promotion to a judgeship in two cities successively:— "Bis legum moderanrine Frenos nobilium reximus urbium Jus civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos;" and afterwards to a post of still higher authority: "Tandem militiae gradu Evectum pietas principis extulit." Archbishop Trench considers this last to have been "a high military appointment at court," and such the poet's own words would seem to describe; but it may well be doubted whether a civilian and a lawyer would be eligible for such employment; in which case we may adopt the solution of the difficulty offered in the Prolegomena to our author's works (Migne, vol. lix. p. 601):— "Evectus indeest ad superiorem rnilitia? gradum, nimirum militia? civil is, palatinae, aut praesidialis, non bellicae, castrensis, aut cohortalis; nam ii qui officiis jure consultorum praesidum, rectorum et similium funguntur, vulgo in cod. Theod. militare et ad superiores militias ascendere dicuntur." It was after this lengthened experience at a comparatively early age of positions of trust and power that Prudentius, conscience-smitten on account of the follies and worldliness that had marked his youth and earlier manhood, determined to throw up all his secular employments, and devote the remainder of his life to advancing the interests of Christ's Church by the power of his pen rather than that of his purse and personal position. Accordingly we find that he retired in his 57th year into poverty and private life, and began that remarkable succession of sacred poems upon which his fame now entirely rests. We have no reason however to regard him as another St. Augustine, rescued from the "wretchedness of most unclean living" by this flight from the temptations and engrossing cares of official life into the calm seclusion of a wholly devotional leisure. He had probably rather learnt from sad experience the emptiness and vanity for an immortal soul of the surroundings of even the high places of this world. As he himself expresses it:— "Numquid talia proderunt Carnis post obitum vel bona, vel mala, Cum jam, quicquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?" and sought, at the cost of all that the world holds dear, those good things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Beyond the fact of his retirement from the world in this way, and the fruits which it produced in the shape of his voluminous contributions to sacred poetry, we have no further information about our author. To judge from the amount he wrote, his life must have been extended many years after he began his new career, but how long his life was or where he died we are not told. Probably he died circa 413. His works are:— (1) Liber Cathemerinon. "Christian Day, as we may call it" W. S. Lilly, "Chapters in European History," vol. i. p. 208). (2) Liber Peristephanon. "Martyrs' Garlands" (id.). (3) Apotheosis. A work on the Divine Nature, or the Deification of Human Nature in Christ. (4) Hamartigenia. A treatise on the Origin of Sin, directed against the Marcionites. (5) Psychomachia or "The Spiritual Combat"-—an allegorical work. (6) Libri contra Symmachum. A controversial work against the restoration in the Senate House at Rome of the altar of Victory which Gratian had removed. Symmachus had petitioned Valentinian II. for its restoration in 384, but the influence of St. Ambrose had prevailed against him at that time. In 392 the altar was restored, but removed again by Theodosius in 394. After the death of the latter the attempt to restore it was renewed by Arcadius and Honorius, and it was at that time that Prudentius wrote his first book. The second (for there are two) was written in 405. Fague considers that the first may date in 395. (7) The Dittochseon = the double food or double Testament, is a wordy collection of 49 sets of four verses each, on Old and New Testament scenes. Of these different works the most important are the first two, and it is from them that the Liturgical hymns enumerated below have been chiefly compiled. The general character of Prudentius's writings it is not easy fairly to estimate, and to judge by the wholesale laudation he obtains from some of his critics, and the equally unsparing censure of others, his judges have so found it. In venturing upon any opinion upon such a subject, the reader must bear in mind the peculiar position in which the period at which he was writing found the poet. The poetry of classical Rome in all its exact beauty of form had long passed its meridian, and was being replaced by a style which was yet in its infancy, but which burst forth into new life and beauty in the hands of the Mediaeval hymnologists. Prudentius wrote before rhyming Latin verse was thought of, but after attention had ceased to be given to quantities. Under such circumstances it were vain to look for very finished work from him, and such certainly we do not find. But amidst a good deal of what one must confess is tasteless verbiage or clumsy rhetorical ornament-—however varied the metres he employs, numbering some 17—-there are also passages to be found, not unfrequently, of dramatic vigour and noble expression, which may well hold their own with the more musical utterances of a later date. He writes as a man intensely in earnest, and we may gather much from his writings concerning the points of conduct which were deemed the most important in Christian living at a time when a great portion of mankind were still the victims or slaves of a morality which, heathen at the best, was lowered and corrupted the more as the universality of its influence was more and more successfully challenged by the spread of the Gospel of Christ. If, there¬fore, we can scarcely go as far in our author's praise as Barth—-much given to lavish commendation—-who describes him as "Poeta eximius eruditissimus et sanctissimus scriptor; nemo divinius de rebus Christianis unquam scripsit"; or as Bentley—-not given to praise--who calls him the "Horace and Virgil of the Christians," we shall be as loath, considering under what circumstances he wrote, to carp at his style as not being formed on the best ancient models but as confessedly impure; feeling with Archbishop Trench that it is his merit that "whether consciously or unconsciously, he acted on the principle that the new life claimed new forms in which to manifest itself; that he did not shrink from helping forward that great transformation of the Latin language, which it needed to undergo, now that it should be the vehicle of truths which, were all together novel to it." (Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 121.) The reader will find so exhaustive an account of the various writings of Prudentius in the account given of him and them in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, and Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, that it is only necessary in this work to refer very briefly to them as above. The poems have been constantly reprinted and re-edited, till the editor who produced the best edition we have of them, Albert Dressel (Leipsic, 1860), is able to say that his is the sixty-third. The use made of Prudentius's poems in the ancient Breviaries and Hymnaries was very extensive. In the form of centos stanzas and lines wore compiled and used as hymns; and it is mainly from these centos, and not from the original poems, that the translations into English were made. Daniel, i., Nos. 103-115, gives 13 genuine hymns as having been in use for "Morning," "Christmas," "Epiphany," "Lent," "Easter," "Transfiguration," "Burial," &c, in the older Breviaries. ….Many more which were used in like manner have been translated into English. When to these are added the hymns and those which have not been translated into English, we realise the position and power of Prudentius in the hymnody of the Church. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============== Prudentius, A. C, p. 915, ii. Two somewhat full versions of Prudentius are: (1) The Cathemerinon and other Poems of Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in English Verse, Lond., Rivington, 1845; and (2) Translations from Prudentius. By Francis St. John Thackeray, M.A.. F.S.A. Lond., Bell & Sons, 1890. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

H. W. Baker

1821 - 1877 Person Name: Henry W. Baker Translator of "Sweet Flowerets of the Martyr Band" in The Lutheran Hymnal Baker, Sir Henry Williams, Bart., eldest son of Admiral Sir Henry Loraine Baker, born in London, May 27, 1821, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated, B.A. 1844, M.A. 1847. Taking Holy Orders in 1844, he became, in 1851, Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire. This benefice he held to his death, on Monday, Feb. 12, 1877. He succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1851. Sir Henry's name is intimately associated with hymnody. One of his earliest compositions was the very beautiful hymn, "Oh! what if we are Christ's," which he contributed to Murray's Hymnal for the Use of the English Church, 1852. His hymns, including metrical litanies and translations, number in the revised edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 33 in all. These were contributed at various times to Murray's Hymnal, Hymns Ancient & Modern and the London Mission Hymn Book, 1876-7. The last contains his three latest hymns. These are not included in Hymns Ancient & Modern. Of his hymns four only are in the highest strains of jubilation, another four are bright and cheerful, and the remainder are very tender, but exceedingly plaintive, sometimes even to sadness. Even those which at first seem bright and cheerful have an undertone of plaintiveness, and leave a dreamy sadness upon the spirit of the singer. Poetical figures, far-fetched illustrations, and difficult compound words, he entirely eschewed. In his simplicity of language, smoothness of rhythm, and earnestness of utterance, he reminds one forcibly of the saintly Lyte. In common with Lyte also, if a subject presented itself to his mind with striking contrasts of lights and shadows, he almost invariably sought shelter in the shadows. The last audible words which lingered on his dying lips were the third stanza of his exquisite rendering of the 23rd Psalm, "The King of Love, my Shepherd is:"— Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, But yet in love He sought me, And on His Shoulder gently laid, And home, rejoicing, brought me." This tender sadness, brightened by a soft calm peace, was an epitome of his poetical life. Sir Henry's labours as the Editor of Hymns Ancient & Modern were very arduous. The trial copy was distributed amongst a few friends in 1859; first ed. published 1861, and the Appendix, in 1868; the trial copy of the revised ed. was issued in 1874, and the publication followed in 1875. In addition he edited Hymns for the London Mission, 1874, and Hymns for Mission Services, n.d., c. 1876-7. He also published Daily Prayers for those who work hard; a Daily Text Book, &c. In Hymns Ancient & Modern there are also four tunes (33, 211, 254, 472) the melodies of which are by Sir Henry, and the harmonies by Dr. Monk. He died Feb. 12, 1877. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

John Bacchus Dykes

1823 - 1876 Composer of "MELITA" in The Cyber Hymnal As a young child John Bacchus Dykes (b. Kingston-upon-Hull' England, 1823; d. Ticehurst, Sussex, England, 1876) took violin and piano lessons. At the age of ten he became the organist of St. John's in Hull, where his grandfather was vicar. After receiving a classics degree from St. Catherine College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. In 1849 he became the precentor and choir director at Durham Cathedral, where he introduced reforms in the choir by insisting on consistent attendance, increasing rehearsals, and initiating music festivals. He served the parish of St. Oswald in Durham from 1862 until the year of his death. To the chagrin of his bishop, Dykes favored the high church practices associated with the Oxford Movement (choir robes, incense, and the like). A number of his three hundred hymn tunes are still respected as durable examples of Victorian hymnody. Most of his tunes were first published in Chope's Congregational Hymn and Tune Book (1857) and in early editions of the famous British hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern. Bert Polman

Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809 Person Name: Franz Joseph Haydn, 1732-18-09 Composer of "BROWNWELL" in The Cyber Hymnal Franz Joseph Haydn (b. Rohrau, Austria, 1732; d. Vienna, Austria, 1809) Haydn's life was relatively uneventful, but his artistic legacy was truly astounding. He began his musical career as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, spent some years in that city making a precarious living as a music teacher and composer, and then served as music director for the Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790. Haydn became a most productive and widely respected composer of symphonies, chamber music, and piano sonatas. In his retirement years he took two extended tours to England, which resulted in his "London" symphonies and (because of G. F. Handel's influence) in oratorios. Haydn's church music includes six great Masses and a few original hymn tunes. Hymnal editors have also arranged hymn tunes from various themes in Haydn's music. Bert Polman

J. M. Neale

1818 - 1866 Person Name: John Mason Neale, 1818-1866 Translator of "Blessed feasts of blessed Martyrs" in CPWI Hymnal John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackville College in East Grinstead, a retirement home for poor men. There he served the men faithfully and expanded Sackville's ministry to indigent women and orphans. He also founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, which became one of the finest English training orders for nurses. Laboring in relative obscurity, Neale turned out a prodigious number of books and artic1es on liturgy and church history, including A History of the So-Called Jansenist Church of Holland (1858); an account of the Roman Catholic Church of Utrecht and its break from Rome in the 1700s; and his scholarly Essays on Liturgiology and Church History (1863). Neale contributed to church music by writing original hymns, including two volumes of Hymns for Children (1842, 1846), but especially by translating Greek and Latin hymns into English. These translations appeared in Medieval Hymns and Sequences (1851, 1863, 1867), The Hymnal Noted (1852, 1854), Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862), and Hymns Chiefly Medieval (1865). Because a number of Neale's translations were judged unsingable, editors usually amended his work, as evident already in the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern; Neale claimed no rights to his texts and was pleased that his translations could contribute to hymnody as the "common property of Christendom." Bert Polman ======================== Neale, John Mason, D.D., was born in Conduit Street, London, on Jan. 24, 1818. He inherited intellectual power on both sides: his father, the Rev. Cornelius Neale, having been Senior Wrangler, Second Chancellor's Medallist, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and his mother being the daughter of John Mason Good, a man of considerable learning. Both father and mother are said to have been "very pronounced Evangelicals." The father died in 1823, and the boy's early training was entirely under the direction of his mother, his deep attachment for whom is shown by the fact that, not long before his death, he wrote of her as "a mother to whom I owe more than I can express." He was educated at Sherborne Grammar School, and was afterwards a private pupil, first of the Rev. William Russell, Rector of Shepperton, and then of Professor Challis. In 1836 he went up to Cambridge, where he gained a scholarship at Trinity College, and was considered the best man of his year. But he did not inherit his father's mathematical tastes, and had, in fact, the greatest antipathy to the study; and as the strange rule then prevailed that no one might aspire to Classical Honours unless his name had appeared in the Mathematical Tripos, he was forced to be content with an ordinary degree. This he took in 1840; had he been one year later, he might have taken a brilliant degree, for in 1841 the rule mentioned above was rescinded. He gained, however, what distinctions he could, winning the Members' Prize, and being elected Fellow and Tutor of Downing College; while, as a graduate, he won the Seatonian Prize no fewer than eleven times. At Cambridge he identified himself with the Church movement, which was spreading there in a quieter, but no less real, way than in the sister University. He became one of the founders of the Ecclesiological, or, as it was commonly called, the Cambridge Camden Society, in conjunction with Mr. E. J. Boyce, his future brother-in-law, and Mr. Benjamin Webb, afterwards the well-known Vicar of St. Andrew's, Wells Street, and editor of The Church Quarterly Review. In 1842 he married Miss Sarah Norman Webster, the daughter of an evangelical clergyman, and in 1843 he was presented to the small incumbency of Crawley in Sussex. Ill health, however, prevented him from being instituted to the living. His lungs were found to be badly affected; and, as the only chance of saving his life, he was obliged to go to Madeira, where he stayed until the summer of 1844. In 1846 he was presented by Lord Delaware to the Wardenship of Sackville College, East Grinstead. This can hardly be considered as an ecclesiastical preferment, for both his predecessor and his successor were laymen. In fact the only ecclesiastical preferment that ever was offered to him was the Provostship of St. Ninian's, Perth. This was an honourable office, for the Provostship is equivalent to a Deanery in England, but it was not a lucrative one, being worth only £100 a year. He was obliged to decline it, as the climate was thought too cold for his delicate health. In the quiet retreat of East Grinstead, therefore, Dr. Neale spent the remainder of his comparatively short life, dividing his time between literary work, which all tended, directly or indirectly, to the advancement of that great Church revival of which he was so able and courageous a champion, and the unremitting care of that sisterhood of which he was the founder. He commenced a sisterhood at Rotherfield on a very small scale, in conjunction with Miss S. A. Gream, daughter of the rector of the parish; but in 1856 he transferred it to East Grinstead, where, under the name of St. Margaret's, it has attained its present proportions. Various other institutions gradually arose in connection with this Sisterhood of St. Margaret's, viz., an Orphanage, a Middle Class School for girls, and a House at Aldershot for the reformation of fallen women. The blessing which the East Grinstead Sisters have been to thousands of the sick and suffering cannot here be told. But it must be mentioned that Dr. Neale met with many difficulties, and great opposition from the outside, which, on one occasion, if not more, culminated in actual violence. In 1857 he was attending the funeral of one of the Sisters at Lewes, when a report was spread that the deceased had been decoyed into St. Margaret's Home, persuaded to leave all her money to the sisterhood, and then purposely sent to a post in which she might catch the scarlet fever of which she died. To those who knew anything of the scrupulously delicate and honourable character of Dr. Neale, such a charge would seem absurd on the face of it; but mobs are not apt to reflect, and it was very easy to excite a mob against the unpopular practices and sentiments rife at East Grinstead; and Dr. Neale and some Sisters who were attending the funeral were attacked and roughly handled. He also found opponents in higher quarters; he was inhibited by the Bishop of the Diocese for fourteen years, and the Aldershot House was obliged to be abandoned, after having done useful work for some years, in consequence of the prejudice of officials against the religious system pursued. Dr. Neale's character, however, was a happy mixture of gentleness and firmness; he had in the highest degree the courage of his convictions, which were remarkably definite and strong; while at the same time he maintained the greatest charity towards, and forbearance with, others who did not agree with him. It is not surprising, therefore, that he lived all opposition down; and that, while from first to last his relations with the community at East Grinstead were of the happiest description, he was also, after a time, spared any molestation from without. The institution grew upon his hands, and he became anxious to provide it with a permanent and fitting home. His last public act was to lay the foundation of a new convent for the Sisters on St. Margaret's Day (July 20), 1865. He lived long enough to see the building progress, but not to see it completed. In the following spring his health, which had always been delicate, completely broke down, and after five months of acute suffering he passed away on the Feast of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6), 1866, to the bitter regret of the little community at East Grinstead and of numberless friends outside that circle. One trait of his singularly lovable character must not pass unnoticed. His charity, both in the popular and in the truer Christian sense of the word, was unbounded; he was liberal and almost lavish with his money, and his liberality extended to men of all creeds and opinions; while it is pleasing to record that his relations with his ecclesiastical superiors so much improved that he dedicated his volume of Seatonian Poems to the bishop of the diocese. If however success in life depended upon worldly advantages, Dr. Neale's life would have to be pronounced a failure; for, as his old friend, Dr. Littledale, justly complains, "he spent nearly half his life where he died, in the position of warden of an obscure Almshouse on a salary of £27 a year." But, measured by a different standard, his short life assumes very different proportions. Not only did he win the love and gratitude of those with whom he was immediately connected, but he acquired a world-wide reputation as a writer, and he lived to see that Church revival, to promote which was the great object of his whole career, already advancing to the position which it now occupies in the land of his birth. Dr. Neale was an industrious and voluminous writer both in prose and verse; it is of course with the latter class of his writings that this sketch is chiefly concerned; but a few words must first be said about the former. I.— Prose Writings.— His first compositions were in the form of contributions to The Ecclesiologist, and were written during his graduate career at Cambridge. Whilst he was in Madeira he began to write his Commentary on the Psalms, part of which was published in 1860. It was afterwards given to the world, partly written by him and partly by his friend, Dr. Littledale, in 4 vols., in 1874, under the title of A Commentary on the Psalms, from Primitive and Mediaeval Writers. This work has been criticised as pushing the mystical interpretation to an extravagant extent. But Dr. Neale has anticipated and disarmed such criticism by distinctly stating at the commencement that "not one single mystical interpretation throughout the present Commentary is original;" and surely such a collection has a special value as a wholesome correction of the materialistic and rationalistic tendencies of the age. His next great work, written at Sackville College, was The History of the Holy Eastern Church. The General Introduction was published in 1847; then followed part of the History itself, The Patriarchate of Alexandria, in 2 vols.; and after his death another fragment was published, The History of the Patriarchate of Antioch, to which was added, Constantius's Memoirs of the Patriarchs of Antioch, translated from the Greek, edited by the Rev. G. Williams, 1 vol. The whole fragment was published in 5 vols. (1847-1873). The work is spoken very highly of, and constantly referred to, by Dean Stanley in his Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church. Dr. Neale was naturally in strong sympathy with the struggling Episcopal Church of Scotland, and to show that sympathy he published, in 1856, The Life and Times of Patrick Torry, D.D., Bishop of St. Andrews, &c, with an Appendix on the Scottish Liturgy. In the same direction was his History of the so-called Jansenist Church in Holland, 1858. Next followed Essays on Liturgiology and Church History, with an Appendix on Liturgical Quotations from the Isapostolical Fathers by the Rev. G. Moultrie, 1863, a 2nd edition of which, with an interesting Preface by Dr. Littledale, was published in 1867. It would be foreign to the purpose of this article to dwell on his other prose works, such as his published sermons, preached in Sackville College Chapel, his admirable little devotional work, Readings for the Aged, which was a selection from these sermons; the various works he edited, such as the Tetralogia Liturgica, the Sequentiae ex Missalibus Germanicis, Anglicis, Gallicis, aliisque Medii Aevi Collectae; his edition of The Primitive Liturgies of S. Mark, S. Clement, S. James, S. Chrysostom and S. Basil, with a Preface by Dr. Littledale; his Translation of the same; his many stories from Church History, his Voices from the East, translated from the Russ, and his various articles contributed to the Ecclesiologist, The Christian Remembrance, The Morning Chronicle, and The Churchman's Companion. It is time to pass on to that with which we are directly concerned. II. —Poetical Writings.— As a sacred poet, Dr. Neale may be regarded under two aspects, as an original writer and as a translator. i. Original Writer.—Of his original poetry, the first specimen is Hymns for Children, published in 1842, which reached its 10th edition the year after his death. It consists of 33 short hymns, the first 19 for the different days of the week and different parts of the day, the last 14 for the different Church Seasons. This little volume was followed in 1844 by Hymns for the Young, which was intended to be a sequel to the former, its alternative title being A Second Series of Hymns for Children; but it is designed for an older class than the former, for young people rather than for children. The first 7 hymns are "for special occasions," as "on goiug to work," “leaving home” &c.; the next 8 on "Church Duties and Privileges," "Confirmation," "First Holy Communion," &c, the last 13 on "Church Festivals,” which, oddly enough, include the Four Ember Seasons, Rogation Days, and the Sundays in Advent. In both these works the severe and rigid style, copied, no doubt, from the old Latin hymns, is very observable. Perhaps this has prevented them from being such popular favourites as they otherwise might have been; but they are quite free from faults into which a writer of hymns for children is apt to fall. They never degenerate into mere prose in rhyme; and in every case the purity as well as the simplicity of their diction is very remarkable. In the same year (1844) he also published Songs and Ballads for Manufacturers, which were written during his sojourn in Madeira, and the aim of which (he tells us) was "to set forth good and sound principles in metaphors which might, from their familiarity, come home to the hearts of those to whom they were addressed." They are wonderfully spirited both in matter and manner, and their freedom of style is as remarkable as the rigidity of the former works. They were followed eleven years later (1855) by a similar little work entitled Songs and Ballads for the People. This is of a more aggressive and controversial character than the previous ones, dealing boldly with such burning questions as "The Teetotallers," "Why don't you go to Meeting?" &c. Passing over the Seatonian Poems, most of which were of course written before those noticed above, we next come to the Hymns for the Side, which is a fitting companion to the Readings for the Aged, and then to Sequences, Hymns, and other Ecclesiastical Verses, which was published just after the author's death (1866), and may be regarded as a sort of dying legacy to the world. In fact, the writer almost intimates as much in the preface, where he speaks of himself as "one who might soon be called to have done with earthly composition for ever." Many of the verses, indeed, were written earlier, "forty years ago," he says, which is evidently intended for twenty. The preface is dated "In the Octave of S. James, 1866," and within a fortnight, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, “the veil” (to use the touching words of his old friend, Dr. Littledale) "was withdrawn from before his eyes, and the song hushed on earth is now swelling the chorus of Paradise." Was it an accident that these verses dwell so much on death and the life beyond the grave? or did the coming event cast its shadow before? Not that there is any sadness of tone about them; quite the reverse. He contemplates death, but it is with the eye of a Christian from whom the sting of death has been removed. Most of the verses are on subjects connected with the Church Seasons, especially with what are called the "Minor Festivals:" but the first and last poems are on different subjects. The first, the "Prologue," is "in dear memory of John Keble, who departed on Maundy Thursday, 1866, "and is a most touching tribute from one sacred poet to another whom he was about to follow within a few months to the "land that is very far off." The last is a poetical version of the legend of "the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus," and is, the writer thinks, "the first attempt to apply to primitive Christianity that which is, to his mind, the noblest of our measures." That measure is the hexameter, and undoubtedly Dr. Neale employed it, as he did all his measures, with great skill and effect; but it may be doubted whether the English language, in which the quantities of syllables are not so clearly defined as in Latin and Greek, is quite adapted for that measure. Throughout this volume, Dr. Neale rises to a far higher strain than he had ever reached before. ii. Translations.— It is in this species of composition that Dr. Neale's success was pre-eminent, one might almost say unique. He had all the qualifications of a good translator. He was not only an excellent classical scholar in the ordinary sense of the term, but he was also positively steeped in mediaeval Latin. An anecdote given in an appreciative notice by "G. M." [Moultrie] happily illustrates this:— Dr. Neale "was invited by Mr. Keble and the Bishop of Salisbury to assist them with their new hymnal, and for this purpose he paid a visit to Hursley Parsonage." On one occasion Mr. Keble "having to go to another room to find some papers was detained a short time. On his return Dr. Neale said, ‘Why, Keble, I thought you told me that the "Christian Year" was entirely original.' ‘Yes,' he answered, 'it certainly is.' ‘Then how comes this?' and Dr. Neale placed before him the Latin of one of Keble's hymns. Keble professed himself utterly confounded. He protested that he had never seen this 'original,' no, not in all his life. After a few minutes Neale relieved him by owning that he had just turned it into Latin in his absence." Again, Dr. Neale's exquisite ear for melody prevented him from spoiling the rhythm by too servile an imitation of the original; while the spiritedness which is a marked feature of all his poetry preserved that spring and dash which is so often wanting in a translation. (i.) Latin.— Dr. Neale's translations from the Latin include (1.) Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851). He was the, first to introduce to the English reader Sequences, that is, as he himself describes them, " hymns sung between the Epistle and Gospel in the Mass," or, as he explains more definitely, "hymns whose origin is to be looked for in the Alleluia of the Gradual sung between the Epistle and the Gospel." He was quite an enthusiast about this subject:— "It is a magnificent thing,” he says, "to pass along the far-stretching vista of hymns, from the sublime self-containedness of S. Ambrose to the more fervid inspiration of S. Gregory, the exquisite typology of Venantius Fortunatus, the lovely painting of St. Peter Damiani, the crystal-like simplicity of S. Notker, the scriptural calm of Godescalcus, the subjective loveliness of St. Bernard, till all culminate in the full blaze of glory which surrounds Adam of S. Victor, the greatest of them all." Feeling thus what a noble task he had before him, it is no wonder that he spared no pains over it, or that he felt it his duty to adopt "the exact measure and rhyme of the original, at whatever inconvenience and cramping." That he succeeded in his difficult work, the verdict of the public has sufficiently proved. Of all the translations in the English language no one has ever been so popular as that of the Hora Novissima, in this volume, afterwards (1858) published separately, under the title of the Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, Monk of Cluny. Some original hymns may be as well known as "Jerusalem the Golden," "For thee, O dear, dear country," or "Brief life is here our portion,” but it would be hard to find any translations which come near them for extensive use. A second edition of the Mediaeval Hymns, much improved, came out in 1863, and a third, "with very numerous additions and corrections," in 1867. (2.) We next come to the Hymnal Noted, in which 94 out of the 105 hymns are the work of Dr. Neale. These are all translations from the Latin. The first part appeared in 1852, the second in 1854. Dr. Neale has himself given us an interesting account of his connection with this work:— "Some," he writes, "of the happiest and most instructive hours of my life were spent in the Sub-Committee of the Ecclesiological Society, appointed for the purpose of bringing out the Second Part of the Hymnal Noted It was my business to lay before them the translations I had prepared, and theirs to correct. The study which this required drew out the beauties of the original in a way which nothing else could have done, and the friendly collisions of various minds elicited ideas which a single translator would in all probability have missed." Preface, Mediaeval Hymns & Sequences (3.) The last volume of translations from the Latin published by Dr. Neale appeared in 1865, under the title of Hymns, chiefly Mediaeval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise. It was intended to be a companion volume to the Rhythm of Bernard of Cluny. In this work the writer gives the general reader an opportunity of comparing the translation with the original by printing the two together in parallel pages. Before quitting the subject of Dr. Neale's translations from the Latin, it is only fair to notice that while they have been almost universally accepted by the English Church, and some of them adopted by dissenting congregations, they called down upon the translator a storm of indignation from an opposite quarter. The Roman Catholics accused him of deliberate deception because he took no pains to point out that he had either softened down or entirely ignored the Roman doctrines in those hymns. So far, they said, as the originals were concerned, these translations were deliberate misrepresentations. As however the translations were intended for the use of the Anglican Church, it was only to be expected that Neale should omit such hymns or portions of hymns as would be at variance with her doctrines and discipline. (ii.) Greek.— Dr. Neale conferred even a greater boon upon the lovers of hymnology than by his translations from the Latin, when he published, in 1862, his Hymns of the Eastern Church. In his translations from the Latin he did what others had done before; but in his translations from the Greek he was opening entirely new ground. "It is," he says in his preface to the first edition, "a most remarkable fact, and one which shows how very little interest has been hitherto felt in the Eastern Church, that these are literally, I believe, the only English versions of any part of the treasures of Oriental Hymnology." As early as 1853 he had printed a few of his versions in The Ecclesiastic, but it was not till the appearance of the complete volume that the interest of the general public was awakened in them. Then they became wonderfully popular. His translations "Christian, dost thou see them?" "The day is past and over," "'Tis the day of Resurrection," and his Greek-inspired "Art thou weary," and "O happy band of pilgrims," are almost as great favourites as "Jerusalem the golden," and the first in his Hymns of the Eastern Church, "Fierce was the wild billow," deserves to be. Dr. Neale had a far more difficult task before him when he undertook these Greek hymns than he had with the Latin, and he appeals to the reader "not to forget the immense difficulty of an attempt so perfectly new as the present, when I have had no predecessors and therefore could have no master." That difficulty in comparison with the Latin cannot be better stated than in his own words:— "Though the superior terseness and brevity of the Latin hymns renders a translation which shall represent those qualities a work of great labour, yet still the versifier has the help of the same metre; his version may be line for line; and there is a great analogy between the collects and the hymns, most helpful to the translator. Above all, we have examples enough of former translation by which we may take pattern. But in attempting a Greek canon, from the fact of its being in prose (metrical hymns are unknown) one is all at sea. What measure shall we employ? Why this more than that? Might we attempt the rhythmical prose of the original, and design it to be chanted? Again, the great length of the canons renders them un suitable for our churches as wholes. Is it better simply to form centos of the more beautiful passages? or can separate odes, each necessarily imperfect, be employed as separate hymns? . . . My own belief is that the best way to employ Greek hymnology for the uses of the English Church would be by centos." That, in spite of these difficulties, Dr. Neale succeeded, is obvious. His Greek hymns are, indeed, adaptations rather than translations; but, besides their intrinsic beauty, they at any rate give some idea of what the Greek hymn-writers were. In this case, as in his translations from the Latin, he omitted what he held was not good from his Anglican point of view, e.g., the Doxologies to the Blessed Virgin Mary. One point strikes us as very remarkable in these hymns, and indeed in all Dr. Neale's poetry, viz., its thorough manliness of tone. Considering what his surroundings were, one might have expected a feminine tone in his writings. Dr. Littledale, in his most vivid and interesting sketch of Dr. Neale's life, to which the present writer is largely indebted, has remarked the same with regard to his teaching: "Instead of committing the grave error of feminising his sermons and counsels [at St. Margaret's] because he had only women to deal with, he aimed at showing them the masculine side of Christianity also, to teach them its strength as well as its beauty." In conclusion, it may be observed that no one had a higher opinion of the value of Dr. Neale's labours in the field of ancient and mediaeval hymnology than the one man whose competency to speak with authority on such a point Dr. Neale himself would assuredly have rated above that of all others. Over and over again Dr. Neale pays a tribute to the services rendered by Archbishop Trench in this domain; and the present sketch cannot more fitly close than with the testimony which Archbishop Trench has given of his sense of the services rendered by Dr. Neale. The last words of his preface to his Sacred Latin Poetry (ed. 1864) are:—" I will only, therefore, mention that by patient researches in almost all European lands, he [Dr. Neale] has brought to light a multitude of hymns unknown before: in a treatise on sequences, properly so-called, has for the first time explained their essential character; while to him the English reader owes versions of some of the best hymns, such as often successfully overcome the almost insuperable difficulties which many among them present to the translator." [Rev. J. H. Overton, D.D.] Dr. Neale's original hymns and translations appeared in the following works, most of which are referred to in the preceding article, and all of which are grouped together here to facilitate reference:— (1) Hymns for Children. Intended chiefly for Village Schools. London, Masters, 1842. (2) Hymns for the Sick. London, Masters, 1843, improved ed. 1849. (3) Hymns for the Young. A Second Series of Hymns for Children. London, Masters, 1844. (4) Songs and Ballads for Manufacturers. London, Masters, 1844. (5) Hymns for Children. A Third Series. London, Masters, 1846. (6) Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences. London, Masters. 1851; 2nd ed. 1861; 3rd. ed. 1863. (7) Hymnal Noted. London, Masters & Novello, 1852: enlarged 1854. Several of the translations were by other hands. Musical editions edited by the Rev. T. Helmore. It is from this work that a large number of Dr. Neale's translations from the Latin are taken. (8) Carols for Christmas and Eastertide. 1853. (9) Songs and Ballads for the People. 1855. (10) The Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, Monk of Cluny, on the Celestial Country. London, Hayes, 1st ed. 1858: 3rd ed., with revision of text, 1861. It contains both the Latin and the English translation. (11) Hymns of The Eastern Church, Translated with Notes and an Introduction. London, Hayes, 1862: 2nd ed. 1862: 3rd ed. 1866 : 4th ed., with Music and additional notes, edited by The Very Rev. S. G. Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal (Ecumenical Throne. London, Hayes, 1882. Several of these translations and notes appeared in The Ecclesiastic and Theologian, in 1853. (12) Hymns, Chiefly Mediaeval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise. London, Hayes, 1865. This work contains notes on the hymns, and the Latin texts of the older amongst them. (13) Original Sequences, Hymns, and other Ecclesiastical Verses. London, Hayes, 1866. This collection of Original verse was published posthumously by Dr. Littledale. In addition to these works Dr. Neale published collections of Latin verse as:— 1.) Hymni Ecclesiae e Breviariis quibusdam et Missalibus Gallicanis, Germanis, Hispanis, Lusitanis, desumpti. Oxford & Lond. J. H. Parker, 1851: and (2) Sequentiae e Missalibus Germanicis, Anglicis, Gallicis, aliisque Medii Aevi collectae. Oxford & Lond. J. H. Parker, 1852. A few of his translations appeared from time to time in The Ecclesiastic; and a few of his original hymns in The Christian Remembrancer. In the collection compiled for use at St. Margaret's, East Grinstead, St. Margaret's Hymnal, Printed Privately for the use of the Community only, 1875, there are several of his hymns not traceable elsewhere. [Many of his translations and original compositions are not listed here]. Some of the original hymns in common use which remain to be noted are:— i. From Hymns for Children, 1842. 1. No more sadness now, nor fasting. Christmas. 2. 0 Thou, Who through this holy week. Passiontide. 3. The day, 0 Lord, is spent. Evening. 4. The grass so green, the trees so tall. Morning of the Third Day. 5. Thou art gone up, 0 Lord, on high. Evening. 6. Thou, Who earnest from above. Whitsuntide. 7. With Thee, 0 Lord, begins the year. Circumcision, or, the New Year. ii. From Hymns for the Sick, 1843. 8. By no new path untried before. Support in Sickness. 9. Count not, the Lord's Apostle saith. Communion of the Sick. 10. Lord, if he sleepeth, he shall sure do well. Watching. 11. 0 Thou, Who rising long before the day. In a sleepless Night. 12. The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away. Death and Burial. 13. There is a stream, whose waters rise. In dangerous Sickness or Fever. 14. They slumber not nor sleep. Guardian Angels. 15. Thy servants militant below. In Affliction. iii. From Hymns for the Young, 2nd series, 1844. 16. Lord Jesus, Who shalt come with power. Ember Week in Advent. 17. 0 God, in danger and distress. In time of Trouble. 18. 0 God, we raise our hearts to Thee. Ember-Week in Advent. From this, "0 Lord, we come before Thee now” is taken. 19. 0 God, Who lovest to abide. Dedication of a Church. 20. 0 our Father, hear us now. Rogation. The first of three hymns on The Lord's Prayer. 21. 0 Saviour, Who hast call'd away. Death of a Minister. 22. 0 Thou, Who lov'st to send relief. In Sickness. 23. 0 Thou, Who once didst bless the ground. Ember-Week in September. 24. 0 Thou, Who, when Thou hadst begun. On going to Work. 25. Still, 0 Lord of hosts, we share. Rogation. The Second of his hymns on The Lord's Prayer. 26. Strangers and pilgrims here below. On entering a new Dwelling to reside there. 27. They whose course on earth is o'er. Communion of Saints. From this, "Those whom many a land divides," is taken. 2S. Till its holy hours are past. Rogation. The third of his hymns on The Lord's Prayer. iv. Songs and Ballads for Manufacturers, 1844. 29. Work is over; God must speed it. Evening. v. Hymns for Children, 3rd series, 1846. 30. Before Thy Face, 0 God of old. St. John the Baptist. 31. By pain, and weariness, and doubt. St. Stephen. 32. First of the twelvefold band that trod. St. James. 33. Four streams through happy Eden flow'd. St. Mark. 34. Is there one who sets his face. St. Bartholomew. From this "He, for man who suffered woe," is taken. 35. Not a single sight we view. St. Matthias. 36. 0 Great Physician of the soul. St. Luke. 37. 0 Heavenly Wisdom, hear our cry. Christmas. “0 Sapientia." 38. 0 Key of David, hailed by those. Christmas. "0 Clavis David." 39. 0 Root of Jesse, Thou on Whom. Christmas. “O Radix Jesse." 40. 0 Thou, on Whom the nations [Gentiles] wait. Christmas. "0 Rex Gentium." 41. 0 Thou, Who earnest down of old [to call] . Christmas. "0 Adonai." 42. 0 Thou, Whose Name is God with us. Christmas. "0 Emmanuel." 43. 0 Very God of Very God. Christmas. "0 Oriens." 44. Saints of God, whom faith united. SS. Simon and Jude. 45. Since the time that first we came. St. Andrew. From this, "Every bird that upward springs," is taken. 46. That love is mighty love indeed. St. Barnabas. 47. We cannot plead, as others may. St. Matthew. 48. We have not seen, we cannot see. St. Thomas. 49. Would we go when life is o'er? St. Peter. v. Carols for Christmas and Eastertide. 1853. 50. Gabriel's message does away. Christmas. 51. Joy and gladness be to king and peasant. Christmas. 52. Joy to thee, joy to thee, Day of our victory. Easter. 53. Sing Alleluia, all ye lands. Easter. 54. The world itself keeps Easter Day. Easter. From this "There stood three Marys by the tomb," is taken. 55. With Christ we share a mystic grave. Easter or Holy Baptism. vi. From Sequences, Hymns, &c, 1866. 56. Can it, Master, can it be? Maundy Thursday. 57. Need it is we raise our eyes. All Saints. 58. Prostrate fell the Lord of all things. Maundy Thursday. 59. Rear the column, high and stately. All Saints. 60. The Paschal moonlight almost past. Easter. 61. Though the Octave-rainbow sometimes. Low Sunday. 62. When the earth was full of darkness. St. Margaret. 63. Young and old must raise the lay. Christmas Carol. vi. From the St. Margaret's Hymnal, 1875. 64. O gracious God, Who bid'st me now. On Leaving Some. 65. Thou Who came to save Thy people. For a School. 66. Thy praise the holy Infants shewed. Holy Innocents. These 66 hymns now in common use by no means represent Dr. Neale's position in modern hymnody. Many others must be added thereto. Even then, although the total is very large, it but feebly represents and emphasises the enormous influence which Di. Neale has exercised over modern hymnody. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Joseph Barnby

1838 - 1896 Composer of "JOSEPH" in The Cyber Hymnal Joseph Barnby (b. York, England, 1838; d. London, England, 1896) An accomplished and popular choral director in England, Barby showed his musical genius early: he was an organist and choirmaster at the age of twelve. He became organist at St. Andrews, Wells Street, London, where he developed an outstanding choral program (at times nicknamed "the Sunday Opera"). Barnby introduced annual performances of J. S. Bach's St. John Passion in St. Anne's, Soho, and directed the first performance in an English church of the St. Matthew Passion. He was also active in regional music festivals, conducted the Royal Choral Society, and composed and edited music (mainly for Novello and Company). In 1892 he was knighted by Queen Victoria. His compositions include many anthems and service music for the Anglican liturgy, as well as 246 hymn tunes (published posthumously in 1897). He edited four hymnals, including The Hymnary (1872) and The Congregational Sunday School Hymnal (1891), and coedited The Cathedral Psalter (1873). Bert Polman

Michael Forster

b. 1946 Person Name: Michael Forster, b. 1946 Author of "Mary, blessed grieving mother" in Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New

John Ylvisaker

1937 - 2017 Person Name: John C. Ylvisaker Adapter of "Bathed in Glorious Light" in Singing the New Testament

Christopher M. Idle

b. 1938 Person Name: Christopher Idle Author of "When Lawless People Thrive" in Christian Worship Christopher Martin Idle (b. Bromley, Kent, England, 1938) was educated at Elthan College, St. Peter's College, Oxford, and Clifton Theological College in Bristol, and was ordained in the Church of England. He served churches in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; London; and Oakley, Suffolk; and recently returned to London, where he is involved in various hymnal projects. A prolific author of articles on the Christian's public responsibilities, Idle has also published The Lion Book of Favorite Hymns (1980) and at least one hundred of his own hymns and biblical paraphrases. Some of his texts first appeared in hymnals published by the Jubilate Group, with which he is associated. He was also editor of Anglican Praise (1987). In 1998 Hope Publishing released Light Upon the River, a collection of 279 of his psalm and hymn texts, along with suggested tunes, scripture references, and commentary. Bert Polman

John Ireland

1879 - 1962 Person Name: John Ireland, 1879-1962 Composer of "LOVE UNKNOWN" in With One Voice John Ireland (1879-1962) studied at Durham University in England and became a church organist, choirmaster, editor, and lecturer, eventually teaching at the Royal College of Church Music. He was a gifted composer of music for voice, piano, organ, chamber music, and orchestra that were recognized for their excellence during his lifetime; LOVE UNKNOWN was his only hymn tune, found today in numerous hymnals. Emily Brink

Delores Dufner

b. 1939 Person Name: Delores Dufner, b. 1939 Author of "In Labor All Creation Groans" in Sing! A New Creation Delores Dufner is a member of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, with Master's Degrees in Liturgical Music and Liturgical Studies. She is currently a member and a Fellow of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, the National Pastoral Musicians (NPM), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and the Monastic Worship Forum. Delores is a writer of liturgical, scripturally based hymn and song texts which have a broad ecumenical appeal and are contracted or licensed by 34 publishers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and China. She has received more than 50 commissions to write texts for special occasions or needs and has published over 200 hymns, many of which have several different musical settings and appear in several publications. She is the author of three hymn collections: Sing a New Church (1994, Oregon Catholic Press), The Glimmer of Glory in Song (2004, GIA Publications), and And Every Breath, a Song (2011, GIA Publications). Delores, the middle child of five, was born and raised on a farm in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. She attended a one-room country school in which she learned to read music and play the tonette, later studying piano and organ. Delores was a school music teacher, private piano and organ instructor, and parish organist/choir director for twelve years. She served as liturgy coordinator for her religious community of 775 members for six years and as Director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota for fifteen years. She subsequently worked as a liturgical music consultant for the Diocese of Ballarat, Victoria in southeast Australia for fifteen months. At present, she is preparing a fourth hymn collection and assisting with liturgy planning and music leadership at the monastery. Delores Dufner

Richard Redhead

1820 - 1901 Person Name: Richard Redhead, 1820-1901 Composer of "LANGDALE (REDHEAD)" in CPWI Hymnal Richard Redhead (b. Harrow, Middlesex, England, 1820; d. Hellingley, Sussex, England, 1901) was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford. At age nineteen he was invited to become organist at Margaret Chapel (later All Saints Church), London. Greatly influencing the musical tradition of the church, he remained in that position for twenty-five years as organist and an excellent trainer of the boys' choirs. Redhead and the church's rector, Frederick Oakeley, were strongly committed to the Oxford Movement, which favored the introduction of Roman elements into Anglican worship. Together they produced the first Anglican plainsong psalter, Laudes Diurnae (1843). Redhead spent the latter part of his career as organist at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington (1864-1894). Bert Polman

Henry Baker

1835 - 1910 Composer of "HESPERUS" in The Cyber Hymnal Henry Baker, Mus. Bac., son of the Rev. James Baker, Chancellor of the diocese of Durham; born at Nuneham, Oxfordshire; educated at Winchester School; graduated Bachelor in Music at the University of Oxford in 1867. He also worked as a civil engineer. Scottish Church Music, its composers and sources by James Love; William Blackwwod and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1891

James G. Walton

1821 - 1905 Person Name: James G. Walton Arranger of "ST. CATHERINE (Walton)" in The Cyber Hymnal Born: February 19, 1821, Clitheroe, Lancashire, England. Died: September 1, 1905, Bradford, New York. Little is known of Walton’s life. His works include: Plain Song Music for the Holy Communion Office, 1874 (editor) Music: ST. CATHERINE --www.hymntime.com/tch

Chas. H. Gabriel

1856 - 1932 Person Name: Charles H. Gabriel, 1856-1932 Composer of "ASPINWALL" in Psalter Hymnal (Gray) Pseudonyms: C. D. Emerson, Charlotte G. Homer, S. B. Jackson, A. W. Lawrence, Jennie Ree ============= For the first seventeen years of his life Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (b. Wilton, IA, 1856; d. Los Angeles, CA, 1932) lived on an Iowa farm, where friends and neighbors often gathered to sing. Gabriel accompanied them on the family reed organ he had taught himself to play. At the age of sixteen he began teaching singing in schools (following in his father's footsteps) and soon was acclaimed as a fine teacher and composer. He moved to California in 1887 and served as Sunday school music director at the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. After moving to Chicago in 1892, Gabriel edited numerous collections of anthems, cantatas, and a large number of songbooks for the Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell publishing companies. He composed hundreds of tunes and texts, at times using pseudonyms such as Charlotte G. Homer. The total number of his compositions is estimated at about seven thousand. Gabriel's gospel songs became widely circulated through the Billy Sunday-Homer Rodeheaver urban crusades. Bert Polman

Michael Perry

1942 - 1996 Author of "Commit Your Way to God the Lord" in Psalms for All Seasons Initially studying mathematics and physics at Dulwich College, Michael A. Perry (b. Beckenham, Kent, England, 1942; d. England, 1996) was headed for a career in the sciences. However, after one year of study in physics at the University of London, he transferred to Oak Hill College to study theology. He also studied at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and received a M.Phil. from the University of Southhampton in 1973. Ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1966, Perry served the parish of St. Helen's in Liverpool as a youth worker and evangelist. From 1972 to 1981 he was the vicar of Bitterne in Southhampton and from 1981 to 1989, rector of Eversley in Hampshire and chaplain at the Police Staff College. He then became vicar of Tonbridge in Kent, where he remained until his death from a brain tumor in 1996. Perry published widely in the areas of Bible study and worship. He edited Jubilate publications such as Hymns far Today's Church (1982), Carols far Today (1986), Come Rejoice! (1989), and Psalms for Today (1990). Composer of the musical drama Coming Home (1987), he also wrote more than two hundred hymns and Bible versifications. Bert Polman

Phoebe A. Hanaford

1829 - 1921 Author of "I'll be myself again" Hanaford, Phoebe A., née Coffin, daughter of George F. Coffin, was born at Nantucket Island, May 6, 1829. Mrs. Hanaford is an Universalist, and one of their recognized ministers. Her hymn "Cast thy bread upon the waters" (Work and Wait), is in the Laudes Domini, N.Y., 1884, and other American collections. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ================= Born: May 6, 1829, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Died: June 2, 1921, Rochester, New York. Daughter of Quaker ship owner George F. Coffin, Phoebe was cousin to feminist Lucretia Mott. A gifted writer, she was published in the local paper by the time she was a teenager. She studied Latin and mathematics and taught school for a few years, then in 1849 married Dr. Joseph H. Hanaford. The couple lived in Newton and Reading, Massachusetts, and had two children. Phoebe continued her literary efforts, producing poetry, children’s stories, essays, and biographies (her biography of Abraham Lincoln sold 20,000 copies). She also edited a Universalist magazine, and, urged by Rev. Olympia Brown, she eventually became a Universalist minister (the first woman ordained in New England). She served churches in Hingham and Waltham, Massachusetts; New Haven, Connecticut, and Jersey City, New Jersey. Her works include: Life of George Peabody Women of the Century (Boston, Massachusetts: B. B. Russell, 1877) www.hymntime.com/tch

Noel Tredinnick

b. 1949 Person Name: Noël Tredinnick (born 1949) Composer (descant) and Arranger of "LOVE UNKNOWN" in Hymns for Today's Church (2nd ed.) Composer

John David Edwards

1805 - 1885 Person Name: John David Edwards, c.1805 - 85 Composer of "RHOSYMEDRE" in Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America Welsh composer; bardic name Penrhiwceibr. John David Edwards (b. Penderlwyngoch, Cardiganshire, Wales, 1805; d. Llanddoget, Denbighshire, North Wales, 1885) was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, England, and ordained an Anglican priest in 1833. He served parishes in Rhosymedre and Llanddoget and published a collection of hymn tunes, Original Sacred Music (2 vols., 1836, 1843), for use in Anglican churches in Wales. Bert Polman

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