Author: John Reynell Wreford

Wreford, John Reynell, an English Unitarian minister, was born December 12, 1800, at Barnstaple; educated at Manchester College, and in 1826 became pastor of a Church in Birmingham. In 1831, on account of the failure of his voice, he withdrew from the active work of the ministry and, in conjunction with Rev. Hugh Hutton, established a school at Edgbaston. He wrote a History of Presbyterian Nonconformity in Birmingham, 1832, and Lays of Loyalty, 1837. He contributed fifty-five hymns to Rev. J. R. Beard's Collection, 1837. His most popular and valuable hymn is the one given in this book. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at Bristol, where he died in 1891. —Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles Nutter… Go to person page >

When my love to Christ [God] grows cold [weak]. J. B. Wreford. [Passiontide.] Contributed to J. K. Beard's Unitarian Collection of Hymns, 1837, No. 140, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "Christ's Agony and Crucifixion." In the American Unitarian Book of Hymns, 1848, No. 144, it was given in a rewritten form of 5 stanzas. The alterations were made by S. Longfellow, one of the editors. This text has passed into several hymn-books in Great Britain, as in Thring's Collection, 1882 with a doxology. Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1884, &c.; and as "When my love to God grows weak," in Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)