People of the living God. J. Montgomery. [On Turning to God.] In Hatfield's Poets of the Church, N.Y., 1884, p. 440, the author says, “At the close of 1814, he[Montgomery] was publicly recognised, at Fulneck, as a brother in the Lord, and a member of the [Moravian] Society. It was in all probability on this occasion that he wrote his beautiful and popular hymn beginning with ‘People of the living God.'" This uncertainty in Hatfield's work becomes certainty in S. W. Duffield's English Hymns, N. Y., 1886, p. 455, where he says, "This hymn describes Montgomery's feelings at the prospect of being readmitted to the Moravian communion at Fulneck, November 4th, 1814." In Holland's Memoirs of Montgomery, published in 1854, the full details of Montgomery's application to the Moravian community at Fulneck, the consent of the authorities there, and his admission in Dec., 1814, are given, but neither there nor elsewhere in the Memoir is any reference made to this hymn. The original manuscript is not amongst the M. MSS., nor is there anything at our command which can fix the date of its appearance until 1819, when it was included in Cotterill’s Selections as No. 160, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed, “Choosing the portion of God's heritage." Although therefore we cannot say positively, with Duffield, that it was written at the period when Montgomery joined the Moravians at Fulneck, in Dec, 1814, yet we are prepared to admit with Hatfield that it was in all probability written at that time. The text was repeated from Cotterill’s Selections in Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 466, and in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 51. The use of this hymn is extensive.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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 >
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