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Frederick C. Maker

1844 - 1927 Person Name: Frederick C. Maker, 1844-1927 Hymnal Number: 115 Composer of "REST" in Hymns of the Saints Frederick C. Maker (b. Bristol, England, August 6, 1844; d. January 1, 1927) received his early musical training as a chorister at Bristol Cathedral, England. He pursued a career as organist and choirmaster—most of it spent in Methodist and Congregational churches in Bristol. His longest tenure was at Redland Park Congregational Church, where he was organist from 1882-1910. Maker also conducted the Bristol Free Church Choir Association and was a long-time visiting professor of music at Clifton College. He wrote hymn tunes, anthems, and a cantata, Moses in the Bulrushes. Bert Polman

George Frideric Handel

1685 - 1759 Person Name: George F. Handel, 1685-1759 Hymnal Number: 212 Composer of "BRADFORD" in Hymns of the Saints George Frideric Handel (b. Halle, Germany, 1685; d. London, England, 1759) became a musician and composer despite objections from his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Handel studied music with Zachau, organist at the Halle Cathedral, and became an accomplished violinist and keyboard performer. He traveled and studied in Italy for some time and then settled permanently in England in 1713. Although he wrote a large number of instrumental works, he is known mainly for his Italian operas, oratorios (including Messiah, 1741), various anthems for church and royal festivities, and organ concertos, which he interpolated into his oratorio performances. He composed only three hymn tunes, one of which (GOPSAL) still appears in some modern hymnals. A number of hymnal editors, including Lowell Mason, took themes from some of Handel's oratorios and turned them into hymn tunes; ANTIOCH is one example, long associated with “Joy to the World.” Bert Polman

Hubert P. Main

1839 - 1925 Person Name: Hubert P. Main, 1839-1926 Hymnal Number: 381 Arranger of "ELLESDIE" in Hymns of the Saints Hubert Platt Main DD USA 1839-1925. Born at Ridgefield, CT, he attended singing school as a teenager. In 1854 he went to New York City and worked as an errand boy in a wallpaper house. The next year he became an errand boy in the Bristow & Morse Piano Company. He was an organist, choir leader, and compiled books of music. He also helped his father edit the “Lute Songbook” by Isaac Woodbury. In 1866 he married Olphelia Louise Degraff, and they had two sons: Lucius, and Hubert. In 1867 he filled a position at William B Bradbury’s publishing house. After Bradbury’s death in 1868 the Bigelow & Main Publishers were formed as its successor. He also worked with his father until his father’s death in 1873. Contributors to their efforts were Fanny Crosby, Ira Sankey, Wilbur Crafts, and others. In addition to publishing, Main wrote 1000+ pieces of music, including part song, singing school songs, Sunday school music, hymns, anthems, etc. He also arranged music and collected music books. He 1891 he sold his collection of over 3500 volumes to the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL, where they were known as the Main Library. Some of his major publications include: “Book of Praise for the Sunday school” (1875), “Little pilgrim songs” (1884), “Hymns of Praise” (`1884), “Gems of song for the Sunday school” (1901), “Quartettes for men’s voices: Sacred & social selections” (1913). In 1922 Hope Publishing Company acquired Bigelow & Main. He was an editor, author, compiler, and composer, as well as publisher. He died in Newark, NJ. John Perry

Georgia Elma Harkness

1891 - 1974 Person Name: Georgia Harkness, 1891-1974 Hymnal Number: 208 Author of "Hope of the World" in Hymns of the Saints Georgia Elma Harkness (1891-1974), first woman to teach theology in an American seminary, was once a household name, but few today know who she is–and all of her writings are out of print. We need to recover the work of this neglected theologian for the life of the church today. Born 21 April 1891, Harkness was the youngest of four children born to Joseph Warren Harkness and Lillie Merrill Harkness. She was born in Harkness, NY, a town in the Adirondacks named for her grandfather. A Methodist, she was personally converted in a revival as a teenager, and sensed a calling to serve the church. Her family was upper middle class and progressive, thereby giving her opportunities for education beyond what was available to most girls and women of her era. Avoiding the women’s colleges, she earned a B.A. (philosophy) from Cornell University in 1912. In a later age, Harkness would probably have gone straight to a seminary and training for the ministry, but seminaries did not admit women as regular, degree-seeking, students and ordained women were very rare. Harkness intended to volunteer for overseas mission work after her graduation from Cornell, but family problems prevented this. She taught high school for six (6) years, but was restless. She wanted to do more to serve the church and she wanted to pursue studies in theology. So, she went to Boston University (related to the Methodists). Denied entrance because of her sex to BU’s School of Theology, she matriculated in the Department of Religion of the Graduate School and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy of religion in 1923 with a dissertation entitled, ”The Relations Between Philosophy of Religion and Ethics in the Thought of Thomas Hill Green.” (Green (1836-1882), was a liberal British Idealist philosopher and social reformer who died 10 years before Harkness’ birth. ) For the next 15 years, Harkness taught courses in religion and philosophy at Elmira College in Elmira, NY–at the time a women’s college, but now co-educational. During summers and sabbatical leaves, Harkness continued her theological education by attending Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, and Union Theological Seminary (NY) always with the status of “special” (non-degree) student. In 1926, she was ordained by the Methodist Church (later part of the United Methodist Church), but, along with all other women, she was not admitted to any Conference (and, thus, could not function as a minister) until 1956. From 1937 to 1940, Harkness was Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Mount Holyoke College in Massachussetts and from 1940-1949, she was Professor of Applied Theology at Garrett Biblical Institute near Chicago, IL. Garrett Biblical Institute, now known as Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, is a post-baccalaureate Methodist theological seminary whose main mission is the preparation of divinity students for ordained ministry. Harkness was the first woman hired to teach theology at any seminary in the U.S. Today, the Chair of Applied Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary is known as the Georgia Harkness Chair of Applied Theology. Harkness ended her active teaching ministry at The Pacific School of Religion, an ecumenical seminary related to the United Church of Christ outside of San Francisco,CA. She was Professor of Applied Theology at PSR from 1949 until her retirement in 1960. Her early interests in global missions and in global and ecumenical Christianity never left Harkness. Unable to be a missionary herself, Harkness did support work for Methodist global missions, including writing materials for them, especially the Methodist Board of World Peace and and the Board of Social and Economic Relations. After World War II, Harkness also did much to support the global ecumenical work of the World Council of Churches, serving on both the Faith and Order and Church and World Commissions. Her hymn, “The Hope of the World,” was chosen by the Hymn Society of America (now the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada) for the Second global meeting of the World Council of Churches which was held in Evanston, IL in 1954 and had as it’s theme, “Christ, the Hope of the World.” Harkness had previously played key roles in the Life and Work conference at Oxford (1937), and at the first assembly of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, 1948. In the 1957-1958 school year, Harkness served as Visiting Professor at both the International Christian University in Japan and the ecumenical Union Theological Seminary, Manila, the Philippines. This pioneer for women in ministry and early feminist theologian usually was irenic and balanced in her approach to such matters. Living in a very patriarchal and sexist era, she knew the dangers of appearing to male-dominated structures as “shrill,” or “strident,” in her advocacy of equality, and so was quick to praise opening or partial steps even while continuing to push for full gender equality in home, church, and society. Typical of Harkness’ approach on these matters, she advocated equal ordination and ministry for decades, but when the 1956 Methodist meeting in Minneapolis opened the door for full pastoral ministry for women, Harkness let younger female colleagues take the lead in advocating for the motion on the floor. However, her caution did not mean timidity, for at the World Council of Churches in 1948, Harkness openly confronted Karl Barth himself on his theology of female subordination! Though Barth’s influence intimidated many, Harkness refuted him point-by-point in open debate and the great man’s startled reaction showed that he was completely unused to confronting strong, independent women! (A year later, when someone mentioned the event to him, Barth replied, “Remember me not of that woman!”) Harkness wrote over 30 books in her lifetime. She dealt with numerous theological subjects: Christian ethics, social concern in global contexts, equality of the sexes, racial equality and integration (though she was not an active participant in the Civil Rights struggle, she openly supported its goals and there was much personal correspondence between Harkness and African America leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Howard Thurman), the nature of the church, a study from her own Wesleyan Methodist perspective of Calvin’s ethics, prayer and the life of devotion, mysticism, the Holy Spirit, eschatology (partially anticipating themes later made more prominent by Wolfhart Pannenberg and Jürgen Moltmann), the relation of religion to philosophy and to science, secularism (which she saw as more of a challenge than a reason to celebrate, contrasting with the early work of Harvey Cox), and apologetics. Concerned to be understood by a wide audience, Harkness wrote with clarity and a refusal to cloak her thought in academic obscurantism (which led her critics to charge her with a lack of depth or profundity), but always a wide awareness of the history of Christian thought and of current trends on the global scene. She characterized her theological perspective as that of a “chastened liberalism.” She had been raised in the optimism of the late 19th C., been educated in the traditions of Idealism and Borden Parker Bowne’s “Boston Personalism,” as well as the Social Gospel. Even after World War I and into the Great Depression, Harkness could declare her faith in human moral progress, her strong pacifism, and rejoice that belief in Original Sin was disappearing. “The faster it goes, the better,” she remarked to The Christian Century. Yet she interacted with the rise of Neoorthodoxy in the perspectives of Barth, Brunner, Suzanne de Dietrich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Tillich. On the eve of the Second World War, Harkness called on liberal Protestantism to recall the meaning of the cross and the power of the resurrection. Not surrendering her pacifism, she stated that although she remained committed to liberalism, “it was a chastened and deepened liberalism.” Human moral progress was possible, but did not follow an evolutionary certainty, and was dependant always on the grace of God. She still considered traditional formulations of original sin to be problematic, but recognized anew the power of sin in both individuals and social structures. Harkness’ books are entirely out of print and the influence she once had is largely eclipsed, even among contemporary feminist theologians. Yet the Chair of Applied Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary is named for her and so is a scholarship for women ministry students over 30 at Pacific School of Religion. The church historian Rosemary Skinner Keller wrote a secondary study of Harkness, Georgia Harkness: For Such a Time as This (Abingdon Press, 1992) and in the Doctrine volume of his 3-part Systematic Theology, James Wm. McClendon lists Harkness (along with Walter Rauschenbusch, E.Y. Mullins, D.C. MacIntosh, W.T. Conner, and Dale Moody) as among the guiding forerunners of his approach. Rebekah Miles, Professor of Ethics at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, has just edited a reader of Harkness’ early essays, Georgia Harkness: The Remaking of a Liberal Theologian (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2010). Miles had previously written a biographical and theological sketch of Harkness as a chapter in Makers of Christian Theology in America, ed., Mark Toulouse and James Duke (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997). --pilgrimpathways.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/

Dmitri Stepanovich Bortnianski

1751 - 1825 Person Name: Dimitri Bortniansky, 1751-1825 Hymnal Number: 501 Composer of "VESPER HYMN" in Hymns of the Saints Dimitri Stepanovitch Bortniansky (1751-1825) Ukraine 1751-1825 Born in Glukhov, Ukraine, he joined the imperial choir at age 8 and studied with Galuppi, who later took the lad with him to Italy, where he studied for 10 years, becoming a composer, harpsichordist, and conductor. While in Italy he composed several operas and other instrumental music, composing more operas and music later in Russia. In 1779 he returned to Russia, where he was appointed Director to the Imperial Chapel Choir, the first as a native citizen. In 1796 he was appointed music director. With such a great instrument at his disposal, he produced many compositions, 100+ religious works, sacred concertos, cantatas, and hymns. He influenced Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovshy, the latter editing Bortniansky's sacred work, amassing 10 volumnes. He died in St. Petersburg. He was so popular in Russia that a bronze statue was erected in his honor in the Novgorod Kremlin. He composed in different musical styles, including choral works in French, Italian, Latin, German, and Church Slavonic. John Perry

Robert Williams

1782 - 1818 Person Name: Robert Williams, c. 1781-1821 Hymnal Number: 278 Composer of "LLANFAIR" in Hymns of the Saints Robert Williams United Kingdom 1782-1818. Born at Mynydd Ithel, Anglesey, Wales, blind from birth, he became a basket weaver. He had great innate musical ability. Although blind, he could write out a tune after hearing it just once. He sang hymns at public occasions. No information found regarding family. He died at Mynydd Ithel, Anglesey, Wales. John Perry

Frederick Oakeley

1802 - 1880 Person Name: Frederick Oakeley, 1802-1880 Hymnal Number: 238 Translator of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" in Hymns of the Saints Frederic Oakeley graduated M.A. at Oxford, and took Orders in the Church of England. He became Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, preacher at Whitehall, and incumbent of Margaret Chapel, London. He was active in the "Oxford Movement," and in 1845, called attention to his views for the purpose of seeing if he could continue to hold an Oxford degree, with so great a change in his opinions. The question was tried, and he was perpetually suspended unless he retracted. He then resigned his positions in the Church of England, and entered the Church of Rome, in which he became a Priest, and Canon of the diocese of Westminster. His publications are numerous, and some of them have considerable value. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872 ================= Oakeley, Frederick, D.D., youngest son of Sir Charles Oakeley, Bart., sometime Governor of Madras, was born at Shrewsbury, Sept. 5, 1802, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A. 1824). In 1825 he gained a University prize for a Latin Essay; and in 1827 he was elected a Fellow of Balliol. Taking Holy Orders, he was a Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, 1832; Preacher at Whitehall, 1837; and Minister of Margaret Chapel, Margaret Street, London, 1839. In 1845 he resigned all his appointments in the Church of England, and was received into the Roman Communion. Subsequently he became a Canon of the Pro-Cathedral in the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical district of Westminster. He died January 29, 1880. Miller (Singers and Songs of the Church, 1869, p. 497), writing from information supplied to him by Canon Oakeley, says:— ”He traces the beginning of his change of view to the lectures of Dr. Charles Lloyd, Regius Professor, delivered at Oxford about the year 1827, on the 'History and Structure of the Anglican Prayer Book.' About that time a great demand arose at Oxford for Missals and Breviaries, and Canon Oakeley, sympathising with the movement, co-operated with the London booksellers in meeting that demand.....He promoted the [Oxford] movement, and continued to move with it till, in 1845, he thought it right to draw attention to his views, to gee if he could continue to hold an Oxford degree in conjunction with so great a change in opinion. The question having been raised, proceedings were taken against him in the Court of Arches, and a sentence given that he was perpetually suspended unless he retracted. He then resigned his Prebendal stall at Lichfield, and went over to the Church of Rome." Canon Oakeley's poetical works included:— (1) Devotions Commemorative of the Most Adorable Passion of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1842; (2) The Catholic Florist; (3) The Youthful Martyrs of Rome, a Christian Drama, 1856; (4) Lyra Liturgica; Reflections in Verse for Holy Days and Seasons, 1865. Canon Oakeley also published several prose works, including a translation of J. M. Horst's Paradise of the Christian Soul, London, Burns, 1850. He is widely known through his translation of the “Adeste fideles.” Several of his original hymns are also in Roman Catholic collections. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Robert Bridges

1844 - 1930 Person Name: Robert Bridges, 1844-1930 Hymnal Number: 283 Translator of "Come, O Creator Spirit" in Hymns of the Saints Robert S. Bridges (b. Walmer, Kent, England, 1844; d. Boar's Hill, Abingdon, Berkshire, England, 1930) In a modern listing of important poets Bridges' name is often omitted, but in his generation he was considered a great poet and fine scholar. He studied medicine and practiced as a physician until 1881, when he moved to the village of Yattendon. He had already written some poetry, but after 1881 his literary career became a full-time occupation, and in 1913 he was awarded the position of poet laureate in England. Bridges published The Yattendon Hymnal (1899), a collection of one hundred hymns (forty-four written or translated by him with settings mainly from the Genevan psalter, arranged for unaccompanied singing. In addition to volumes of poetry, Bridges also published A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing (1899) and About Hymns (1911). Bert Polman =================== Bridges, Robert Seymour, M.A., son of J. J. Bridges, of Walmer, Kent, was b. Oct. 23, 1844, and educated at Eton and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.A. 1867, M.A. 1874). He took his M.A. in 1874, but retired from practice in 1882, and now (1906) resides at Yattendon, Berks. He is the author of many poems and plays. He edition and contributed to the Yattendon Hymnal, 1899 (originally printed at the Oxford Univ. Press in parts—Nos. 1-25, 1895; 26-50, 1897; 51-75, 1898; 76-100, 1899). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Thomas T. Lynch

1818 - 1871 Person Name: Thomas T. Lynch, 1818-1871 Hymnal Number: 284 Author of "Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me" in Hymns of the Saints Lynch, Thomas Toke, was born at Dunmow, Essex, July 5, 1818, and educated at a school at Islington, in which he was afterwards an usher. For a few months he was a student at the Highbury Independent College; but withdrew, partly on account of failing health, and partly because his spirit was too free to submit to the routine of College life. From 1847 to 1849 he was Minister of a small charge at Highgate, and from 1849 to 1852 of a congregation in Mortimer Street, which subsequently migrated to Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square. From 1856 to 1859 he was laid aside by illness. In 1860 he resumed his ministry with his old congregation, in a room in Gower Street, where he remained until the opening of his new place of worship, in 1862, (Mornington Church), in Hampstead Road, London. He ministered there till his death, on the 9th of May, 1871. The influence of Lynch's ministry was great, and reached far beyond his own congregation (which was never large), since it included many students from the Theological Colleges of London, and thoughtful men from other churches, who were attracted to him by the freshness and spirituality of his preaching. His prose works were numerous, beginning with Thoughts on a Day, 1844, and concluding with The Mornington Lecture, 1870. Several of his works were published after his death. His Memoir, by W. White, was published in 1874. Lynch's hymns were published in:— The Rivulet: a Contribution to Sacred Song, London., Longman, 1855, 2nd ed., 1856. This was enlarged by an addition of 67 hymns in 1868. From the first edition of The Rivulet, 1855, the following hymns have come into common use:— 1. All faded is the glowing light. Second Advent. 2. Be Thy word with power fraught. Before Sermon. 3. Christ in His word draws near. Holy Scripture. 4. Dismiss me not Thy service, Lord. Work for Christ. 5. Gracious Spirit, dwell with me. Holy Spirit's presence desired. 6. How calmly the evening once more is descending. Evening. Sometimes "How calmly once more the night is descending." 7. I give myself to prayer. Prayer in Trouble. 8. Lord, on Thy returning day. Public Worship. 9. Lord, when in silent hours I muse. Resignation. 10. Love me, O Lord, forgivingly. Resignation. 11. Mountains by the darkness hidden. Resignation. 12. Now have we met that we may ask. Public Worship. 13. O, break my heart; but break it as a field. Penitence desired. 14. O Lord, Thou art not fickle. Sympathy. 15. O where is He that trod the sea. Christ Walking on the Sea. 16. Oft when of God we ask. Trust in Trial. 17. Rise, He calleth thee, arise. Blind Bartimaeus. 18. Say not, my soul, from whence. Resignation. 19. Where is thy God, my soul? Resignation and Hope. There are also from the 1856 and 1868 eds. the following:— 20. A thousand years have come and gone. Christmas. 21. Lift up your heads, rejoice; (1856.) Advent. 22. Praying by the river side. Holy Baptism. 23. The Lord is rich and merciful. Have Faith in God. 24. There is purpose in this waste. Easter. Lynch's hymns are marked by intense individuality, gracefulness and felicity of diction, picturesqueness, spiritual freshness, and the sadness of a powerful soul struggling with a weak and emaciated body. Although The Rivulet was published for use by his own congregation as a supplement to Watts, more than one half of the hymns were designed for private use only, but were not so distinguished in the work. Its publication caused one of the most bitter hymnological controversies known in the annals of modern Congregationalism. Time, however, and a criticism, broader and more just, have declared emphatically in favour of his hymns as valuable contributions to cultured sacred song. [Rev. W. Garrett Horder] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Lynch, T. T., p. 705, ii. Other hymns by him in recent books are:— 1. My faith it is an oaken staff. Faith in Christ. In the Rivulet, 1855, p. 78. 2. Together for our country now we pray. National, In the Rivulet, 1868, p. 170. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Love M. Whitcomb Willis

1824 - 1908 Person Name: Love M. Willis, 1824-1908 Hymnal Number: 453 Author of "Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer" in Hymns of the Saints Willis, Love Maria, née Whitcomb, b. June 9, 1824, at Hancock, N.H., and married in 1858, to Frederick L. H. Willis, M.D. She lived for many years at Rochester, N.Y., and now (1907) resides at Glenora, on Seneca Lake, N.Y. Her hymn:— Father, hear the prayer I offer [Aspiration] appeared in Tiffany's Monthly, 1859. In Longfellow & Johnson's Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, No. 558, it was given in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, as "Father, hear the prayer we offer," and as "Anon." The text was in great measure rewritten, probably by S. Longfellow. This 1864 text has come into somewhat extensive use in England and America, the latest to adopt it being The English Hymnal, 1906. For these facts we are mainly indebted to the Rev. W.C. Gannett, Rochester, N.Y. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)