T. Bowman Stephenson

Stephenson, Thomas Bowman, D.D., LL.D., son of the Rev. John Stephenson, was born at Newcastle on Dec. 22, 1839, and educated at Wesley College, Sheffield, subsequently graduating at the University of London. In 1860 he entered the Wesleyan Ministry, and has since laboured in Norwich, Manchester, Bolton, and London. The great work of his life has been the establishment and maintenance of The Children's Home at Victoria Park, London, and its branches at Bolton, Birmingham, and the Isle of Man, and in Canada. Dr. Stephenson has written for Magazines and Reviews, and published a small work on Sisterhoods, and a Memorial Sketch of the late James Barlow. He has written several hymns, of which the following are most widely known:—
1. Fading like a lifetime ends another day. Evening. Written circa 1873, and published in The Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book, 1879, No. 487, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines.
2. Hear us, Saviour, bowed before Thee. Children's Hymn. Written for a Festival at the Children's Home, circa 1879.
3. 0 Father, Whose spontaneous love. Easter, or Missions. Appeared in The General Hymnary for Missions, &c, 1889, No. 266, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines.
4. Onward, o'er Time's great ocean. Life a Voyage. Written during a voyage across the South Sea.
5. Sweetly dawns the Sabbath morning. Sunday Morning. Written circa 1875, and published in The Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book, 1879, No. 504, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines.
6. This is the glorious gospel word. Jesus saves. Called forth by a religious Convention at Brighton, and published in The Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book, 1879, No. 314, in 5 st. of 8 1., and in The General Hymnary, 1889, No. 431, with an additional stanza (st. iv.).

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

================

Stephenson, T. B. , p. 1092, ii. Dr. Stephenson was President of the Wesleyan Conference in 1891, and became warden of the Wesley Deaconess Institute in 1903. His hymn,"Lord, grant us like the watching five," is in The Methodist Hymn Book, 1904.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)