Eternity! Eternity

Author: James Montgomery

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 missio… Go to person page >

Eternity, Eternity, That boundless, &c. J. Montgomery. [Eternity.] In the M.MSS. this hymn is dated, "The Mount, December 20,1836" (the "Mount" was his Sheffield residence), but it did not appear in print, so far as has been traced, until his Original Hymns, 1853, where it is given as No. 238 in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed with a line of one of his most popular hymns, "Forever with the Lord."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)