Maker, Upholder, Ruler

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 >

Maker, Upholder, Ruler! Thee. J. Montgomery. [Doxology.] Written for the Sheffield Sunday School Union, Whitsuntide gathering, April, 1830, and first printed on a fly-sheet for the occasion, [M. MSS.] In 1836 it was included in the Congregational Hymn Book, No. 104, and again in Montgomery's Original Hymns, 1853, No. 353, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)