Author: W. W. Walford
William W. Walford, a blind preacher of England, is the author of the hymn beginning "Sweet hour of prayer." This hymn first appeared in print in the New York Observer September 13, 1845. The contributor who furnished the hymn says:
"During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory. In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision, and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the r…
Go to person page >Translator: August Johann Berens
Berens, August. (Hamburg, Germany, October 30, 1843--January 12, 1908, Niles Center, Illinois). He attended the Missionhaus at Barmen, Germany, ca. 1859-1862, and then did post-graduate study at Tübingen, ca. 1862-1863. Coming to the United States, he was a missionary pastor for the Evangelical Synod of North America on the western frontier, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He was pastor in Washington, Missouri, 1878-1887, and of St. Peter's Church, Elmhurst, Illinois, 1887-1906. He was the author of Frülingsboten: Gedichte (St. Charles, Illinois, 1889) and Frisch und fromm: Ein Kinderbüchlein mit Gedichten, Liedern, und Sprüchen (St. Louis, n.d.). He became a U.S. citizen in June, 1892.
Berens married a school teacher, Clara R…
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