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Horatius Bonar
1808 - 1889 Hymnal Number: d2 Author of "Beyond the smiling and the weeping" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872
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Bonar, Horatius, D.D. Dr. Bonar's family has had representatives among the clergy of the Church of Scotland during two centuries and more. His father, James Bonar, second Solicitor of Excise in Edinburgh, was a man of intellectual power, varied learning, and deop piety.
Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh, Dec. 19th, 1808; and educated at the High School and the University of Edinburgh. After completing his studies, he was "licensed" to preach, and became assistant to the Rev. John Lewis, minister of St. James's, Leith. He was ordained minister of the North Parish, Kelso, on the 30th November, 1837, but left the Established Church at the "Disruption," in May, 1848, remaining in Kelso as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The University of Aberdeen conferred on him the doctorate of divinity in 1853. In 1866 he was translated to the Chalmers Memorial Church, the Grange, Edinburgh; and in 1883 he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly of of the Free Church of Scotland.
Dr. Bonar's hymns and poems were, he tells us, composed amid a great variety of circumstances; in many cases he cannot himself recall these circumstances; they also appeared in several publications, but nearly all have boen published or republished in the following:— (i) Songs for the Wilderness, 1843-4. (2) The Bible Hymn Book, 1845. (3) Hymns, Original and Selected, 1846. (4) Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series, 1857; Second Series, 1861; Third Series, 1866. (5) The Song of the New Creation, 1872. (6) My Old Letters, a long poem, 1877. (7) Hymns of the Nativity, 1879. (8) Communion Hymns, 1881. In addition to numerous prose works, he has also edited The New Jerusalem; a Hymn of the Olden Time, 1852, &c.
Dr. Bonar's poems—-including many beautiful lyrics, several psalm versions, and translations from the Greek and Latin, a large number of hymns, and a long meditative poem—-are very numerous, too numerous, perhaps, for their permanent fame as a whole.
Dr. Bonar's scholarship is thorough and extensive; and his poems display the grace of style and wealth of allusion which are the fruit of ripe culture. Affected very slightly by current literary moods, still less by the influence of other religious poetry, they reveal extreme susceptibility to the emotional power which the phases of natural and of spiritual life exercise; the phases of natural life being recognised chiefly as conveying and fashioning spiritual life, used chiefly for depicting spiritual life, and handled for this purpose with greater delicacy of touch than in the Olney Hymns, and with less conscious purpose than in the Christian Year. As a result of this susceptibility, and from habitual contemplation of the Second Advent as the era of this world's true bliss, his hymns and poems are distinguished by a tone of pensive reflection, which some might call pessimism. But they are more than the record of emotion; another element is supplied by his intellectual and personal grasp of Divine truth, these truths particularly:—The gift of a Substitute, our Blessed Saviour; Divine grace, righteous, yet free and universal in offer; the duty of immediate reliance upon the privilege of immediate assurance through that grace; communion with God, especially in the Lord's Supper, respecting which he insists on the privilege of cherishing the highest conceptions which Scripture warrants; and finally, the Second Advent of our Lord: by his vigorous celebration of these and other truths as the source and strength of spiritual life, his hymns are protected from the blight of unhealthy, sentimental introspection.
To sum up: Dr. Bonar's hymns satisfy the fastidious by their instinctive good taste; they mirror the life of Christ in the soul, partially, perhaps, but with vivid accuracy; they win the heart by their tone of tender sympathy; they sing the truth of God in ringing notes; and although, when taken as a whole, they are not perfect ; although, in reading them, we meet with feeble stanzas, halting rhythm, defective rhyme, meaningless Iteration; yet a singularly large number have been stamped with approval, both in literary circles and by the Church.
In Great Britain and America nearly 100 of Dr. Bonar's hymns are in common use. They are found in almost all modern hymnals from four in Hymns Ancient & Modern to more than twenty in the American Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865-72. The most widely known are, "A few more years shall roll;" "Come, Lord, and tarry not;" "Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face;" "I heard the Voice of Jesus say;" "The Church has waited long;" and "Thy way, not mine, O Lord."
In addition to these and others which are annotated under their respective first lines, the following are also in common use:—
From Songs for the Wilderness, No. 1, 1843.
1. For Thee we long and pray. Sunday Morning.
2. Holy Father, hear my cry. A Child's Prayer.
3. I thought upon my sins and I was sad. Christ our Peace.
4. Peace to the world, our Lord is come. A Millennial Song.
5. Spirit of everlasting grace. The Vision of Dry Bones.
ii. From Songs for the Wilderness, No. 2,1844.
6. Ho, ye thirsty, parched and fainting. Invitation.
7. 0 'tis not what we fancied it. The world renounced.
8. Sing them, my children, sing them still. Children exhorted to Praise.
9. Time's sun is fast setting. Advent.
10. Weep, pilgrim, weep, yet 'tis not for the sorrow. Faith.
11. Yes, for me, for me He careth. Christ the Elder Brother .
iii. From The Bible Hymn Book, 1845.
12. Jesus, my sorrow lies too deep. Jesus, the Great High Priest.
13. There is a Morning Star, my soul. The Morning Star.
14. This is not my place of resting. Pressing towards heaven.
iv. From Hymns, Original and Selected, 1845.
15. Let there be light, Jehovah said. Creation.
v. From Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1st series, 1857.
16. Be brave, my brother. The Fight of Faith.
17. Blessed be God, our God. Good Friday.
18. Everlasting praises. Doxology.
19. Go up, go up, my heart. Heavenly aspirations desired.
20. I close my heavy eye. Evening. Sometimes given as "We close our heavy eyes."
21. I see the crowd in Pilate's hall. Good Friday.
22. Jesus, while this rongh desert soil. Strength by the Way.
23. Jesus, Whom angel-hosts adore. The Word made Flesh. From "The Son of God, in mighty love."
24. Make haste, 0 man, to live. Exhortation to lay hold of Life.
25. No seas again shall sever. Heaven.
26. Oppressed with noonday's scorching heat. Shadow of the Cross.
27. Rest for the toiling hand. Burial. From "Lie down, frail body, here."
28. Shall this life of mine be wasted? Exhortation to Duty.
29. These are the crowns that we shall wear. Heaven.
30. Thy works, not mine, O Christ [Lord]. The Sin-bearer.
31. Where the faded flower shall freshen. Heaven.
vi. From Hymns of Faith and Hope. 2nd series, 1861.
32. Be still, my soul, Jehovah loveth Thee. Rest in the Love of God.
33. Christ has done the mighty work. Good Friday.
34. Come, mighty Spirit, penetrate. Whitsuntide.
35. Deep down beneath the unresting surge. Burial at Sea.
36. Fear not the foe, thou flock of God [thou little flock]. Battle-Song of the Church.
37. For lack of love I languish. Lent.
38. From this bleak hill of storms. Eternal Rest desired.
39. He liveth long who liveth well. The True Life.
40. Here shall death's triumph end: the rock-barred door. Easter. From "The tomb is empty: wouldst thou have it full."
41. Jesus, Sun and Shield art Thou. Jesus the First and Last.
42. Jesus, the Christ of God. Praise to Christ.
43. Light of the world, for ever, ever shining. Christ the Light of the World. From "Why walk in darkness? Has the dear light vanished?"
44. Make use of me, my God. Duty desired.
45. Not what I am, 0 Lord, but what Thou art. The Love of God.
46. 0 Light of Light, shine in. Cry of the Weary.
47. 0 love of God, how strong and true. Love of God.
48. 0 love that casts out fear. Love of God.
49. 0 strong to save and bless. Lent.
50. 0 this soul, how dark and blind. Lent.
51. Safe across the waters. Thanksgiving at end of a journey.
52. Silent, like men in solemn haste. Pressing onwards.
53. Speak, lips of mine. Exhortation to Praise.
54. The Bridegroom comes. Advent.
vii. From Hymns of Faith and Hope. 3rd series, 1866.
55. Bear Thou my burden, Thou Who bar'st my sin. Lent or Passiontide.
56. Done is the work that saves. Easter.
57. Father, our children keep. Prayer on behalf of Children.
58. Fill Thou my life, 0 Lord my God. Life's Praise.
59. Finish Thy work, the time is short. Earnest labour to the end.
60. From the Cross the blood is falling. Good Friday.
61. He called them, and they left. Obedience.
62. Help me, my [0] God to speak. Truth desired.
63. Holy Father, Mighty God. Holy Trinity.
64. How are my troubles multiplied. Ps. iii.
65. How sweetly doth He show His face Flower Service.
66. Light hath arisen, we walk in its brightness. Sustaining power of Faith.
67. Lo, God, our God has come. Christmas.
68. Lord, give me light to do Thy work. Divine guidance desired.
69. No, not despairingly. Lent.
70. Not to ourselves again. Life in Christ, or, Living unto God.
71. Now in parting, Father, bless us. Post Communion.
72. Sounds the trumpet from afar. Battle-Song of the Church.
73. Thee in the loving bloom of morn. God in all.
74. Through good report and evil, Lord. Faithfulness.
75. To Jehovah, God of might. Praise to the Father.
76. To the name of God on high. Doxology.
77. Upward, where the stars are burning. Heavenward Aspirations.
78. We take the peace which He hath won. The Gift of Peace.
79. When the weary, seeking rest. Intercession for all Conditions of Men.
viii. From The Song of the New Creation,1872.
80. For the Bread and for the Wine. Holy Communion.
81. Light of life so softly shining. Light of Life.
82. Yet there is room. The Lamb's bright hall of song. Home Missions.
ix. From Hymns of the Nativity, 1879.
83. Great Ruler of the land and sea. Sailors' Liturgy. From Communion Hymns, 1881.
84. Beloved, let us love. Brotherly Love.
In several instances these hymns are given in an abbreviated form, and sometimes alterations are also introduced. In this latter respect however Dr. Bonar has suffered less than most modern hymn-writers. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Bonar, Horatius, p. 161, i. He died at Edinburgh, July 31, 1889. In 1890 his son published a posthumous volume of his poetical pieces as Until the Day Break and other Hymns and Poems left behind. The following additional hymns are in common use:—
1. Almighty Comforter and Friend. (1866.) Whitsuntide.
2. Father, make use of me. An altered form of No. 44, p. 162, ii.
3. I ask a perfect creed. (1861.) Creed not Opinions. From this is also taken "O True One, give me truth."
4. Long, long deferred, now come at last. Marriage of the Lamb. Part of "Ascend, Beloved, to the joy." (1861.)
5. Nay 'tis not what we fancied it. (1857.) Vanity of the World.
6. No blood, no altar now. (1861.) The Finished Sacrifice.
7. No shadows yonder. (1857.) Heaven Anticipated.
8. Not with the light and vain. (1857.) Godly Companionship.
9. O Love invisible, yet infinite. (1866.) Divine Love.
10. On the great love of God I lean. (1866.) Love of God our Resting-place.
11. On Thee, O Jesus, strongly leaning. (1866.) Fellowship with Christ.
12. Peace upon peace, like wave on wave. (1866.) Divine Peace.
13. Sower divine, sow the good seed in me. (1857.) Heavenly Sowing.
14. Speaketh the sinner's sin within my heart. (1866.) Ps. xxxvi.
15. Still one in life and one in death. (1857.) Communion of Saints. Part of "'Tis thus they press the hand and part."
16. Surely, yon heaven, where angels see God's face. (1857.) Heaven Anticipated.
17. That city with the jewelled crest. (1857.) Heaven. Part of "These are the crowns that we shall wear." Another cento from the same is "Yon city, with the jewelled crest."
18. That clime is not like this dull clime of ours. (1843.) Heaven.
19. The Free One makes you free: He breaks the rod. (1857.) Freedom in Christ. From "Of old they sang the song of liberty."
20. There is a Morning-star, my soul. (1357.) Christ the Morning Star.
21. This is the day of toil. (1866.) Pressing Onwards.
22. Thy thoughts are here, my God. (1866.) Holy Scripture.
23. Till the day dawn. (1857.) Life's Journey.
24. To Him Who spread the skies. (1866.) Creation's Song.
25. Trustingly, trustingly. (1866.) Trust.
26. Unto th' eternal hills. (1866.) Ps. cxxi.
The above dates are: 1843, Songs in the Wilderness; 1857, Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1st Series; 1861, same, 2nd Ser. (not 1864); 1866, same, 3rd Ser. (not 1867), The dates 1857, 1864,1867, were given by Dr. Bonar, but the British Museum copies are 1857, 1861, 1866 respectively.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
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Bonar, H., pp. 161, i.; 1554, i. The Rev. H. N. Bonar, Dr. Bonar's son, published in 1904, Hymns by Horatius Bonar, Selected and Arranged by his Son H. N. Bonar, With a brief History of some of the Hymns, &c. (London: H. Frowde). From this work we must correct the date of his Song of the New Creation to 1872. We have also enriched our pages by additional and expanded notes on several of Dr. Bonar's most widely used hymns. In his biographical notes, Mr. Bonar refers to Dr. Bonar's work as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, begun in 1848, to which he contributed a hymn for each number. We find that the number of hymns contributed thereto is 101.
With Dr. Bonar's poetical productions great difficulty has been encountered by the historian and annotator because of his absolute indifference to dates and details. It was enough for him that he had written, and that the Church of Christ approved and gladly used what, out of the fulness of his heart, he had given her.
--Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
Horatius Bonar
William W. Walford
1772 - 1850 Hymnal Number: d14 Author of "Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. 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 reputation of knowing the whole Bible by heart."
Rev. Thomas Salmon, who was settled as the pastor of the Congregational Church at Coleshill in 1838, remained until 1842, and then removed to the United States, is believed to have been the contributor who says of the hymn: "I rapidly copied the lines with my pencil as he uttered them, and send them for insertion in the Observer if you think them worthy of preservation."
From: Nutter, C. S., & Tillett, W. F. (1911). The hymns and hymn writers of the church, an annotated edition of The Methodist hymnal. New York: Methodist Book Concern.
William W. Walford
J. M. Neale
1818 - 1866 Person Name: John M. Neale Hymnal Number: d8 Author of "Jerusalem, the golden, with milk and honey blest" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly temperament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackville College in East Grinstead, a retirement home for poor men. There he served the men faithfully and expanded Sackville's ministry to indigent women and orphans. He also founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, which became one of the finest English training orders for nurses.
Laboring in relative obscurity, Neale turned out a prodigious number of books and artic1es on liturgy and church history, including A History of the So-Called Jansenist Church of Holland (1858); an account of the Roman Catholic Church of Utrecht and its break from Rome in the 1700s; and his scholarly Essays on Liturgiology and Church History (1863). Neale contributed to church music by writing original hymns, including two volumes of Hymns for Children (1842, 1846), but especially by translating Greek and Latin hymns into English. These translations appeared in Medieval Hymns and Sequences (1851, 1863, 1867), The Hymnal Noted (1852, 1854), Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862), and Hymns Chiefly Medieval (1865). Because a number of Neale's translations were judged unsingable, editors usually amended his work, as evident already in the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern; Neale claimed no rights to his texts and was pleased that his translations could contribute to hymnody as the "common property of Christendom."
Bert Polman
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Neale, John Mason, D.D., was born in Conduit Street, London, on Jan. 24, 1818. He inherited intellectual power on both sides: his father, the Rev. Cornelius Neale, having been Senior Wrangler, Second Chancellor's Medallist, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and his mother being the daughter of John Mason Good, a man of considerable learning. Both father and mother are said to have been "very pronounced Evangelicals." The father died in 1823, and the boy's early training was entirely under the direction of his mother, his deep attachment for whom is shown by the fact that, not long before his death, he wrote of her as "a mother to whom I owe more than I can express." He was educated at Sherborne Grammar School, and was afterwards a private pupil, first of the Rev. William Russell, Rector of Shepperton, and then of Professor Challis. In 1836 he went up to Cambridge, where he gained a scholarship at Trinity College, and was considered the best man of his year. But he did not inherit his father's mathematical tastes, and had, in fact, the greatest antipathy to the study; and as the strange rule then prevailed that no one might aspire to Classical Honours unless his name had appeared in the Mathematical Tripos, he was forced to be content with an ordinary degree. This he took in 1840; had he been one year later, he might have taken a brilliant degree, for in 1841 the rule mentioned above was rescinded. He gained, however, what distinctions he could, winning the Members' Prize, and being elected Fellow and Tutor of Downing College; while, as a graduate, he won the Seatonian Prize no fewer than eleven times. At Cambridge he identified himself with the Church movement, which was spreading there in a quieter, but no less real, way than in the sister University. He became one of the founders of the Ecclesiological, or, as it was commonly called, the Cambridge Camden Society, in conjunction with Mr. E. J. Boyce, his future brother-in-law, and Mr. Benjamin Webb, afterwards the well-known Vicar of St. Andrew's, Wells Street, and editor of The Church Quarterly Review. In 1842 he married Miss Sarah Norman Webster, the daughter of an evangelical clergyman, and in 1843 he was presented to the small incumbency of Crawley in Sussex. Ill health, however, prevented him from being instituted to the living. His lungs were found to be badly affected; and, as the only chance of saving his life, he was obliged to go to Madeira, where he stayed until the summer of 1844. In 1846 he was presented by Lord Delaware to the Wardenship of Sackville College, East Grinstead. This can hardly be considered as an ecclesiastical preferment, for both his predecessor and his successor were laymen. In fact the only ecclesiastical preferment that ever was offered to him was the Provostship of St. Ninian's, Perth. This was an honourable office, for the Provostship is equivalent to a Deanery in England, but it was not a lucrative one, being worth only £100 a year. He was obliged to decline it, as the climate was thought too cold for his delicate health. In the quiet retreat of East Grinstead, therefore, Dr. Neale spent the remainder of his comparatively short life, dividing his time between literary work, which all tended, directly or indirectly, to the advancement of that great Church revival of which he was so able and courageous a champion, and the unremitting care of that sisterhood of which he was the founder. He commenced a sisterhood at Rotherfield on a very small scale, in conjunction with Miss S. A. Gream, daughter of the rector of the parish; but in 1856 he transferred it to East Grinstead, where, under the name of St. Margaret's, it has attained its present proportions. Various other institutions gradually arose in connection with this Sisterhood of St. Margaret's, viz., an Orphanage, a Middle Class School for girls, and a House at Aldershot for the reformation of fallen women. The blessing which the East Grinstead Sisters have been to thousands of the sick and suffering cannot here be told. But it must be mentioned that Dr. Neale met with many difficulties, and great opposition from the outside, which, on one occasion, if not more, culminated in actual violence. In 1857 he was attending the funeral of one of the Sisters at Lewes, when a report was spread that the deceased had been decoyed into St. Margaret's Home, persuaded to leave all her money to the sisterhood, and then purposely sent to a post in which she might catch the scarlet fever of which she died. To those who knew anything of the scrupulously delicate and honourable character of Dr. Neale, such a charge would seem absurd on the face of it; but mobs are not apt to reflect, and it was very easy to excite a mob against the unpopular practices and sentiments rife at East Grinstead; and Dr. Neale and some Sisters who were attending the funeral were attacked and roughly handled. He also found opponents in higher quarters; he was inhibited by the Bishop of the Diocese for fourteen years, and the Aldershot House was obliged to be abandoned, after having done useful work for some years, in consequence of the prejudice of officials against the religious system pursued. Dr. Neale's character, however, was a happy mixture of gentleness and firmness; he had in the highest degree the courage of his convictions, which were remarkably definite and strong; while at the same time he maintained the greatest charity towards, and forbearance with, others who did not agree with him. It is not surprising, therefore, that he lived all opposition down; and that, while from first to last his relations with the community at East Grinstead were of the happiest description, he was also, after a time, spared any molestation from without. The institution grew upon his hands, and he became anxious to provide it with a permanent and fitting home. His last public act was to lay the foundation of a new convent for the Sisters on St. Margaret's Day (July 20), 1865. He lived long enough to see the building progress, but not to see it completed. In the following spring his health, which had always been delicate, completely broke down, and after five months of acute suffering he passed away on the Feast of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6), 1866, to the bitter regret of the little community at East Grinstead and of numberless friends outside that circle. One trait of his singularly lovable character must not pass unnoticed. His charity, both in the popular and in the truer Christian sense of the word, was unbounded; he was liberal and almost lavish with his money, and his liberality extended to men of all creeds and opinions; while it is pleasing to record that his relations with his ecclesiastical superiors so much improved that he dedicated his volume of Seatonian Poems to the bishop of the diocese. If however success in life depended upon worldly advantages, Dr. Neale's life would have to be pronounced a failure; for, as his old friend, Dr. Littledale, justly complains, "he spent nearly half his life where he died, in the position of warden of an obscure Almshouse on a salary of £27 a year." But, measured by a different standard, his short life assumes very different proportions. Not only did he win the love and gratitude of those with whom he was immediately connected, but he acquired a world-wide reputation as a writer, and he lived to see that Church revival, to promote which was the great object of his whole career, already advancing to the position which it now occupies in the land of his birth.
Dr. Neale was an industrious and voluminous writer both in prose and verse; it is of course with the latter class of his writings that this sketch is chiefly concerned; but a few words must first be said about the former.
I.— Prose Writings.— His first compositions were in the form of contributions to The Ecclesiologist, and were written during his graduate career at Cambridge. Whilst he was in Madeira he began to write his Commentary on the Psalms, part of which was published in 1860. It was afterwards given to the world, partly written by him and partly by his friend, Dr. Littledale, in 4 vols., in 1874, under the title of A Commentary on the Psalms, from Primitive and Mediaeval Writers. This work has been criticised as pushing the mystical interpretation to an extravagant extent. But Dr. Neale has anticipated and disarmed such criticism by distinctly stating at the commencement that "not one single mystical interpretation throughout the present Commentary is original;" and surely such a collection has a special value as a wholesome correction of the materialistic and rationalistic tendencies of the age. His next great work, written at Sackville College, was The History of the Holy Eastern Church. The General Introduction was published in 1847; then followed part of the History itself, The Patriarchate of Alexandria, in 2 vols.; and after his death another fragment was published, The History of the Patriarchate of Antioch, to which was added, Constantius's Memoirs of the Patriarchs of Antioch, translated from the Greek, edited by the Rev. G. Williams, 1 vol. The whole fragment was published in 5 vols. (1847-1873). The work is spoken very highly of, and constantly referred to, by Dean Stanley in his Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church. Dr. Neale was naturally in strong sympathy with the struggling Episcopal Church of Scotland, and to show that sympathy he published, in 1856, The Life and Times of Patrick Torry, D.D., Bishop of St. Andrews, &c, with an Appendix on the Scottish Liturgy. In the same direction was his History of the so-called Jansenist Church in Holland, 1858. Next followed Essays on Liturgiology and Church History, with an Appendix on Liturgical Quotations from the Isapostolical Fathers by the Rev. G. Moultrie, 1863, a 2nd edition of which, with an interesting Preface by Dr. Littledale, was published in 1867. It would be foreign to the purpose of this article to dwell on his other prose works, such as his published sermons, preached in Sackville College Chapel, his admirable little devotional work, Readings for the Aged, which was a selection from these sermons; the various works he edited, such as the Tetralogia Liturgica, the Sequentiae ex Missalibus Germanicis, Anglicis, Gallicis, aliisque Medii Aevi Collectae; his edition of The Primitive Liturgies of S. Mark, S. Clement, S. James, S. Chrysostom and S. Basil, with a Preface by Dr. Littledale; his Translation of the same; his many stories from Church History, his Voices from the East, translated from the Russ, and his various articles contributed to the Ecclesiologist, The Christian Remembrance, The Morning Chronicle, and The Churchman's Companion. It is time to pass on to that with which we are directly concerned.
II. —Poetical Writings.— As a sacred poet, Dr. Neale may be regarded under two aspects, as an original writer and as a translator.
i. Original Writer.—Of his original poetry, the first specimen is Hymns for Children, published in 1842, which reached its 10th edition the year after his death. It consists of 33 short hymns, the first 19 for the different days of the week and different parts of the day, the last 14 for the different Church Seasons. This little volume was followed in 1844 by Hymns for the Young, which was intended to be a sequel to the former, its alternative title being A Second Series of Hymns for Children; but it is designed for an older class than the former, for young people rather than for children. The first 7 hymns are "for special occasions," as "on goiug to work," “leaving home” &c.; the next 8 on "Church Duties and Privileges," "Confirmation," "First Holy Communion," &c, the last 13 on "Church Festivals,” which, oddly enough, include the Four Ember Seasons, Rogation Days, and the Sundays in Advent. In both these works the severe and rigid style, copied, no doubt, from the old Latin hymns, is very observable. Perhaps this has prevented them from being such popular favourites as they otherwise might have been; but they are quite free from faults into which a writer of hymns for children is apt to fall. They never degenerate into mere prose in rhyme; and in every case the purity as well as the simplicity of their diction is very remarkable. In the same year (1844) he also published Songs and Ballads for Manufacturers, which were written during his sojourn in Madeira, and the aim of which (he tells us) was "to set forth good and sound principles in metaphors which might, from their familiarity, come home to the hearts of those to whom they were addressed." They are wonderfully spirited both in matter and manner, and their freedom of style is as remarkable as the rigidity of the former works. They were followed eleven years later (1855) by a similar little work entitled Songs and Ballads for the People. This is of a more aggressive and controversial character than the previous ones, dealing boldly with such burning questions as "The Teetotallers," "Why don't you go to Meeting?" &c. Passing over the Seatonian Poems, most of which were of course written before those noticed above, we next come to the Hymns for the Side, which is a fitting companion to the Readings for the Aged, and then to Sequences, Hymns, and other Ecclesiastical Verses, which was published just after the author's death (1866), and may be regarded as a sort of dying legacy to the world. In fact, the writer almost intimates as much in the preface, where he speaks of himself as "one who might soon be called to have done with earthly composition for ever." Many of the verses, indeed, were written earlier, "forty years ago," he says, which is evidently intended for twenty. The preface is dated "In the Octave of S. James, 1866," and within a fortnight, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, “the veil” (to use the touching words of his old friend, Dr. Littledale) "was withdrawn from before his eyes, and the song hushed on earth is now swelling the chorus of Paradise." Was it an accident that these verses dwell so much on death and the life beyond the grave? or did the coming event cast its shadow before? Not that there is any sadness of tone about them; quite the reverse. He contemplates death, but it is with the eye of a Christian from whom the sting of death has been removed. Most of the verses are on subjects connected with the Church Seasons, especially with what are called the "Minor Festivals:" but the first and last poems are on different subjects. The first, the "Prologue," is "in dear memory of John Keble, who departed on Maundy Thursday, 1866, "and is a most touching tribute from one sacred poet to another whom he was about to follow within a few months to the "land that is very far off." The last is a poetical version of the legend of "the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus," and is, the writer thinks, "the first attempt to apply to primitive Christianity that which is, to his mind, the noblest of our measures." That measure is the hexameter, and undoubtedly Dr. Neale employed it, as he did all his measures, with great skill and effect; but it may be doubted whether the English language, in which the quantities of syllables are not so clearly defined as in Latin and Greek, is quite adapted for that measure. Throughout this volume, Dr. Neale rises to a far higher strain than he had ever reached before.
ii. Translations.— It is in this species of composition that Dr. Neale's success was pre-eminent, one might almost say unique. He had all the qualifications of a good translator. He was not only an excellent classical scholar in the ordinary sense of the term, but he was also positively steeped in mediaeval Latin. An anecdote given in an appreciative notice by "G. M." [Moultrie] happily illustrates this:—
Dr. Neale "was invited by Mr. Keble and the Bishop of Salisbury to assist them with their new hymnal, and for this purpose he paid a visit to Hursley Parsonage." On one occasion Mr. Keble "having to go to another room to find some papers was detained a short time. On his return Dr. Neale said, ‘Why, Keble, I thought you told me that the "Christian Year" was entirely original.' ‘Yes,' he answered, 'it certainly is.' ‘Then how comes this?' and Dr. Neale placed before him the Latin of one of Keble's hymns. Keble professed himself utterly confounded. He protested that he had never seen this 'original,' no, not in all his life. After a few minutes Neale relieved him by owning that he had just turned it into Latin in his absence."
Again, Dr. Neale's exquisite ear for melody prevented him from spoiling the rhythm by too servile an imitation of the original; while the spiritedness which is a marked feature of all his poetry preserved that spring and dash which is so often wanting in a translation.
(i.) Latin.— Dr. Neale's translations from the Latin include
(1.) Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851). He was the, first to introduce to the English reader Sequences, that is, as he himself describes them, " hymns sung between the Epistle and Gospel in the Mass," or, as he explains more definitely, "hymns whose origin is to be looked for in the Alleluia of the Gradual sung between the Epistle and the Gospel." He was quite an enthusiast about this subject:—
"It is a magnificent thing,” he says, "to pass along the far-stretching vista of hymns, from the sublime self-containedness of S. Ambrose to the more fervid inspiration of S. Gregory, the exquisite typology of Venantius Fortunatus, the lovely painting of St. Peter Damiani, the crystal-like simplicity of S. Notker, the scriptural calm of Godescalcus, the subjective loveliness of St. Bernard, till all culminate in the full blaze of glory which surrounds Adam of S. Victor, the greatest of them all."
Feeling thus what a noble task he had before him, it is no wonder that he spared no pains over it, or that he felt it his duty to adopt "the exact measure and rhyme of the original, at whatever inconvenience and cramping." That he succeeded in his difficult work, the verdict of the public has sufficiently proved. Of all the translations in the English language no one has ever been so popular as that of the Hora Novissima, in this volume, afterwards (1858) published separately, under the title of the Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, Monk of Cluny. Some original hymns may be as well known as "Jerusalem the Golden," "For thee, O dear, dear country," or "Brief life is here our portion,” but it would be hard to find any translations which come near them for extensive use. A second edition of the Mediaeval Hymns, much improved, came out in 1863, and a third, "with very numerous additions and corrections," in 1867.
(2.) We next come to the Hymnal Noted, in which 94 out of the 105 hymns are the work of Dr. Neale. These are all translations from the Latin. The first part appeared in 1852, the second in 1854. Dr. Neale has himself given us an interesting account of his connection with this work:—
"Some," he writes, "of the happiest and most instructive hours of my life were spent in the Sub-Committee of the Ecclesiological Society, appointed for the purpose of bringing out the Second Part of the Hymnal Noted It was my business to lay before them the translations I had prepared, and theirs to correct. The study which this required drew out the beauties of the original in a way which nothing else could have done, and the friendly collisions of various minds elicited ideas which a single translator would in all probability have missed." Preface, Mediaeval Hymns & Sequences
(3.) The last volume of translations from the Latin published by Dr. Neale appeared in 1865, under the title of Hymns, chiefly Mediaeval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise. It was intended to be a companion volume to the Rhythm of Bernard of Cluny. In this work the writer gives the general reader an opportunity of comparing the translation with the original by printing the two together in parallel pages.
Before quitting the subject of Dr. Neale's translations from the Latin, it is only fair to notice that while they have been almost universally accepted by the English Church, and some of them adopted by dissenting congregations, they called down upon the translator a storm of indignation from an opposite quarter. The Roman Catholics accused him of deliberate deception because he took no pains to point out that he had either softened down or entirely ignored the Roman doctrines in those hymns. So far, they said, as the originals were concerned, these translations were deliberate misrepresentations. As however the translations were intended for the use of the Anglican Church, it was only to be expected that Neale should omit such hymns or portions of hymns as would be at variance with her doctrines and discipline.
(ii.) Greek.— Dr. Neale conferred even a greater boon upon the lovers of hymnology than by his translations from the Latin, when he published, in 1862, his Hymns of the Eastern Church. In his translations from the Latin he did what others had done before; but in his translations from the Greek he was opening entirely new ground. "It is," he says in his preface to the first edition, "a most remarkable fact, and one which shows how very little interest has been hitherto felt in the Eastern Church, that these are literally, I believe, the only English versions of any part of the treasures of Oriental Hymnology." As early as 1853 he had printed a few of his versions in The Ecclesiastic, but it was not till the appearance of the complete volume that the interest of the general public was awakened in them. Then they became wonderfully popular. His translations "Christian, dost thou see them?" "The day is past and over," "'Tis the day of Resurrection," and his Greek-inspired "Art thou weary," and "O happy band of pilgrims," are almost as great favourites as "Jerusalem the golden," and the first in his Hymns of the Eastern Church, "Fierce was the wild billow," deserves to be. Dr. Neale had a far more difficult task before him when he undertook these Greek hymns than he had with the Latin, and he appeals to the reader "not to forget the immense difficulty of an attempt so perfectly new as the present, when I have had no predecessors and therefore could have no master." That difficulty in comparison with the Latin cannot be better stated than in his own words:—
"Though the superior terseness and brevity of the Latin hymns renders a translation which shall represent those qualities a work of great labour, yet still the versifier has the help of the same metre; his version may be line for line; and there is a great analogy between the collects and the hymns, most helpful to the translator. Above all, we have examples enough of former translation by which we may take pattern. But in attempting a Greek canon, from the fact of its being in prose (metrical hymns are unknown) one is all at sea. What measure shall we employ? Why this more than that? Might we attempt the rhythmical prose of the original, and design it to be chanted? Again, the great length of the canons renders them un suitable for our churches as wholes. Is it better simply to form centos of the more beautiful passages? or can separate odes, each necessarily imperfect, be employed as separate hymns? . . . My own belief is that the best way to employ Greek hymnology for the uses of the English Church would be by centos."
That, in spite of these difficulties, Dr. Neale succeeded, is obvious. His Greek hymns are, indeed, adaptations rather than translations; but, besides their intrinsic beauty, they at any rate give some idea of what the Greek hymn-writers were. In this case, as in his translations from the Latin, he omitted what he held was not good from his Anglican point of view, e.g., the Doxologies to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
One point strikes us as very remarkable in these hymns, and indeed in all Dr. Neale's poetry, viz., its thorough manliness of tone. Considering what his surroundings were, one might have expected a feminine tone in his writings. Dr. Littledale, in his most vivid and interesting sketch of Dr. Neale's life, to which the present writer is largely indebted, has remarked the same with regard to his teaching: "Instead of committing the grave error of feminising his sermons and counsels [at St. Margaret's] because he had only women to deal with, he aimed at showing them the masculine side of Christianity also, to teach them its strength as well as its beauty."
In conclusion, it may be observed that no one had a higher opinion of the value of Dr. Neale's labours in the field of ancient and mediaeval hymnology than the one man whose competency to speak with authority on such a point Dr. Neale himself would assuredly have rated above that of all others. Over and over again Dr. Neale pays a tribute to the services rendered by Archbishop Trench in this domain; and the present sketch cannot more fitly close than with the testimony which Archbishop Trench has given of his sense of the services rendered by Dr. Neale. The last words of his preface to his Sacred Latin Poetry (ed. 1864) are:—" I will only, therefore, mention that by patient researches in almost all European lands, he [Dr. Neale] has brought to light a multitude of hymns unknown before: in a treatise on sequences, properly so-called, has for the first time explained their essential character; while to him the English reader owes versions of some of the best hymns, such as often successfully overcome the almost insuperable difficulties which many among them present to the translator." [Rev. J. H. Overton, D.D.]
Dr. Neale's original hymns and translations appeared in the following works, most of which are referred to in the preceding article, and all of which are grouped together here to facilitate reference:—
(1) Hymns for Children. Intended chiefly for Village Schools. London, Masters, 1842. (2) Hymns for the Sick. London, Masters, 1843, improved ed. 1849. (3) Hymns for the Young. A Second Series of Hymns for Children. London, Masters, 1844. (4) Songs and Ballads for Manufacturers. London, Masters, 1844. (5) Hymns for Children. A Third Series. London, Masters, 1846. (6) Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences. London, Masters. 1851; 2nd ed. 1861; 3rd. ed. 1863. (7) Hymnal Noted. London, Masters & Novello, 1852: enlarged 1854. Several of the translations were by other hands. Musical editions edited by the Rev. T. Helmore. It is from this work that a large number of Dr. Neale's translations from the Latin are taken. (8) Carols for Christmas and Eastertide. 1853. (9) Songs and Ballads for the People. 1855. (10) The Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, Monk of Cluny, on the Celestial Country. London, Hayes, 1st ed. 1858: 3rd ed., with revision of text, 1861. It contains both the Latin and the English translation. (11) Hymns of The Eastern Church, Translated with Notes and an Introduction. London, Hayes, 1862: 2nd ed. 1862: 3rd ed. 1866 : 4th ed., with Music and additional notes, edited by The Very Rev. S. G. Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal (Ecumenical Throne. London, Hayes, 1882. Several of these translations and notes appeared in The Ecclesiastic and Theologian, in 1853. (12) Hymns, Chiefly Mediaeval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise. London, Hayes, 1865. This work contains notes on the hymns, and the Latin texts of the older amongst them. (13) Original Sequences, Hymns, and other Ecclesiastical Verses. London, Hayes, 1866. This collection of Original verse was published posthumously by Dr. Littledale.
In addition to these works Dr. Neale published collections of Latin verse as:—
1.) Hymni Ecclesiae e Breviariis quibusdam et Missalibus Gallicanis, Germanis, Hispanis, Lusitanis, desumpti. Oxford & Lond. J. H. Parker, 1851: and (2) Sequentiae e Missalibus Germanicis, Anglicis, Gallicis, aliisque Medii Aevi collectae. Oxford & Lond. J. H. Parker, 1852.
A few of his translations appeared from time to time in The Ecclesiastic; and a few of his original hymns in The Christian Remembrancer. In the collection compiled for use at St. Margaret's, East Grinstead, St. Margaret's Hymnal, Printed Privately for the use of the Community only, 1875, there are several of his hymns not traceable elsewhere. [Many of his translations and original compositions are not listed here].
Some of the original hymns in common use which remain to be noted are:—
i. From Hymns for Children, 1842.
1. No more sadness now, nor fasting. Christmas.
2. 0 Thou, Who through this holy week. Passiontide.
3. The day, 0 Lord, is spent. Evening.
4. The grass so green, the trees so tall. Morning of the Third Day.
5. Thou art gone up, 0 Lord, on high. Evening.
6. Thou, Who earnest from above. Whitsuntide.
7. With Thee, 0 Lord, begins the year. Circumcision, or, the New Year.
ii. From Hymns for the Sick, 1843.
8. By no new path untried before. Support in Sickness.
9. Count not, the Lord's Apostle saith. Communion of the Sick.
10. Lord, if he sleepeth, he shall sure do well. Watching.
11. 0 Thou, Who rising long before the day. In a sleepless Night.
12. The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away. Death and Burial.
13. There is a stream, whose waters rise. In dangerous Sickness or Fever.
14. They slumber not nor sleep. Guardian Angels.
15. Thy servants militant below. In Affliction.
iii. From Hymns for the Young, 2nd series, 1844.
16. Lord Jesus, Who shalt come with power. Ember Week in Advent.
17. 0 God, in danger and distress. In time of Trouble.
18. 0 God, we raise our hearts to Thee. Ember-Week in Advent. From this, "0 Lord, we come before Thee now” is taken.
19. 0 God, Who lovest to abide. Dedication of a Church.
20. 0 our Father, hear us now. Rogation. The first of three hymns on The Lord's Prayer.
21. 0 Saviour, Who hast call'd away. Death of a Minister.
22. 0 Thou, Who lov'st to send relief. In Sickness.
23. 0 Thou, Who once didst bless the ground. Ember-Week in September.
24. 0 Thou, Who, when Thou hadst begun. On going to Work.
25. Still, 0 Lord of hosts, we share. Rogation. The Second of his hymns on The Lord's Prayer.
26. Strangers and pilgrims here below. On entering a new Dwelling to reside there.
27. They whose course on earth is o'er. Communion of Saints. From this, "Those whom many a land divides," is taken.
2S. Till its holy hours are past. Rogation. The third of his hymns on The Lord's Prayer.
iv. Songs and Ballads for Manufacturers, 1844.
29. Work is over; God must speed it. Evening.
v. Hymns for Children, 3rd series, 1846.
30. Before Thy Face, 0 God of old. St. John the Baptist.
31. By pain, and weariness, and doubt. St. Stephen.
32. First of the twelvefold band that trod. St. James.
33. Four streams through happy Eden flow'd. St. Mark.
34. Is there one who sets his face. St. Bartholomew. From this "He, for man who suffered woe," is taken.
35. Not a single sight we view. St. Matthias.
36. 0 Great Physician of the soul. St. Luke.
37. 0 Heavenly Wisdom, hear our cry. Christmas. “0 Sapientia."
38. 0 Key of David, hailed by those. Christmas. "0 Clavis David."
39. 0 Root of Jesse, Thou on Whom. Christmas. “O Radix Jesse."
40. 0 Thou, on Whom the nations [Gentiles] wait. Christmas. "0 Rex Gentium."
41. 0 Thou, Who earnest down of old [to call] . Christmas. "0 Adonai."
42. 0 Thou, Whose Name is God with us. Christmas. "0 Emmanuel."
43. 0 Very God of Very God. Christmas. "0 Oriens."
44. Saints of God, whom faith united. SS. Simon and Jude.
45. Since the time that first we came. St. Andrew. From this, "Every bird that upward springs," is taken.
46. That love is mighty love indeed. St. Barnabas.
47. We cannot plead, as others may. St. Matthew.
48. We have not seen, we cannot see. St. Thomas.
49. Would we go when life is o'er? St. Peter.
v. Carols for Christmas and Eastertide. 1853.
50. Gabriel's message does away. Christmas.
51. Joy and gladness be to king and peasant. Christmas.
52. Joy to thee, joy to thee, Day of our victory. Easter.
53. Sing Alleluia, all ye lands. Easter.
54. The world itself keeps Easter Day. Easter. From this "There stood three Marys by the tomb," is taken.
55. With Christ we share a mystic grave. Easter or Holy Baptism.
vi. From Sequences, Hymns, &c, 1866.
56. Can it, Master, can it be? Maundy Thursday.
57. Need it is we raise our eyes. All Saints.
58. Prostrate fell the Lord of all things. Maundy Thursday.
59. Rear the column, high and stately. All Saints.
60. The Paschal moonlight almost past. Easter.
61. Though the Octave-rainbow sometimes. Low Sunday.
62. When the earth was full of darkness. St. Margaret.
63. Young and old must raise the lay. Christmas Carol.
vi. From the St. Margaret's Hymnal, 1875.
64. O gracious God, Who bid'st me now. On Leaving Some.
65. Thou Who came to save Thy people. For a School.
66. Thy praise the holy Infants shewed. Holy Innocents.
These 66 hymns now in common use by no means represent Dr. Neale's position in modern hymnody. Many others must be added thereto. Even then, although the total is very large, it but feebly represents and emphasises the enormous influence which Di. Neale has exercised over modern hymnody.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
J. M. Neale
Robert Lowry
1826 - 1899 Hymnal Number: d10 Author of "Marching on, marching on, glad as birds" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, March 12, 1826. His fondness for music was exhibited in his earliest years. As a child he amused himself with the various musical instruments that came into his hands. At the age of seventeen he joined the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, and soon became an active worker in the Sunday-school as teacher and chorister.
At the age of twenty-two he gave himself to the work of the ministry, and entered upon a course of study at the University of Lewisburg, Pa. At the age of twenty-eight he was graduated with the highest honors of his class. In the same year of his graduation, he entered upon the work of the ministry. He served as pastor at West Chester, Pa., 1851-1858; in New York City, 1859-1861; in Brooklyn, 1861-1869; in Lewisburg, Pa., 1869-1875. While pastor at Lewisburg, he was also professor of belles lettres in the University, and received the honorary degree of D. D. in 1875.
He then went to Plainfield, N. J., where he became pastor of Park Avenue Church. In each of these fields his work was crowned with marked success.
Dr. Lowry was a man of rare administrative ability, a most excellent preacher, a thorough Bible student, and whether in the pulpit or upon the platform, always a brilliant and interesting speaker. He was of a genial and pleasing disposition, and a high sense of humor was one of his most striking characteristics. Very few men had greater ability in painting pictures from the imagination. He could thrill an audience with his vivid descriptions, inspiring others with the same thoughts that inspired him.
His melodies are sung in every civilized land, and many of his hymns have been translated into foreign tongues. While preaching the Gospel, in which he found great joy, was his life-work, music and hymnology were favorite studies, but were always a side issue, a recreation.
In the year 1880, he took a rest of four years, visiting Europe. In 1885 he felt that he needed more rest, and resigned his pastorate at Plainfield, and visited in the South and West, also spending some time in Mexico. He returned, much improved in health, and again took up his work in Plainfield.
On the death of Wm. B. Bradbury, Messrs. Biglow & Main, successors to Mr. Bradbury in the publishing business, selected Dr. Lowry for editor of their Sunday-school book, Bright Jewels, which was a great success. Subsequently Dr. W. Doane was associated with him in the issue of the Sunday-school song book, Pure Gold, the sales of which exceeded a million copies. Then came Royal Diadem, Welcome Tidings, Brightest and Best, Glad Refrain, Good as Gold, Joyful Lays, Fountain of Song, Bright Array, Temple Anthems, and numerous other volumes. The good quality of their books did much to stimulate the cause of sacred song in this country.
When he saw that the obligations of musical editorship were laid upon him, he began the study of music in earnest, and sought the best musical text-books and works on the highest forms of musical composition. He possessed one of the finest musical libraries in the country. It abounded in works on the philosophy and science of musical sounds. He also had some musical works in his possession that were over one hundred and fifty years old.
One of his labors of love some years ago was an attempt to reduce music to a mathematical basis. On the established fact that Middle C has two hundred and fifty-six vibrations per second, he prepared a scale and went to work on the rule of three. After infinite calculation and repeated experiments, he carried it far enough to discover that it would not work.
A reporter once asked him what was his method of composition — "Do you write the words to fit the music, or the music to fit the words?" His reply was, "I have no method. Sometimes the music comes and the words follow, fitted insensibly to the melody. I watch my moods, and when anything good strikes me, whether words or music, and no matter where I am, at home or on the street, I jot it down. Often the margin of a newspaper or the back of an envelope serves as a notebook. My brain is a sort of spinning machine, I think, for there is music running through it all the time. I do not pick out my music on the keys of an instrument. The tunes of nearly all the hymns I have written have been completed on paper before I tried them on the organ. Frequently the words of the hymn and the music have been written at the same time."
The Doctor frequently said that he regarded "Weeping Will Not Save Me" as the best and most evangelistic hymn he ever wrote. The following are some of his most popular and sweetest gospel melodies: "Shall We Gather at the River?," "One More Day's Work for Jesus," "Where is My Wandering Boy To-night?," "I Need Thee Every Hour," "The Mistakes of My Life," "How Can I Keep from Singing?," "All the Way My Saviour Leads Me," "Saviour, Thy Dying Love," "We're Marching to Zion," etc. "Shall We Gather at the River?" is perhaps, without question, the most widely popular of all his songs. Of this Mr. Lowry said: "It is brass band music, has a march movement, and for that reason has become popular, though for myself I do not think much of it." Yet he tells us how, on several occasions, he had been deeply moved by the singing of that hymn, "Going from Harrisburg to Lewisburg once I got into a car filled with half-drunken lumbermen. Suddenly one of them struck up, "Shall We Gather at the River?" and they sang it over and over again, repeating the chorus in a wild, boisterous way. I did not think so much of the music then as I listened to those singers, but I did think that perhaps the spirit of the hymn, the words so flippantly uttered, might somehow survive and be carried forward into the lives of those careless men, and ultimately lift them upward to the realization of the hope expressed in my hymn." "A different appreciation of it was evinced during the Robert Raikes' Centennial. I was in London, and had gone to meeting in the Old Bailey to see some of the most famous Sunday-school workers in the world. They were present from Europe, Asia, and America. I sat in a rear seat alone. After there had been a number of addresses delivered in various languages, I was preparing to leave, when the chairman of the meeting announced that the author of "Shall We Gather at the River?" was present, and I was requested by name to come forward. Men applauded and women waved their handkerchiefs as I went to the platform. It was a tribute to the hymn; but I felt, when it was over, that, after all, I had perhaps done some little good in the world, and I felt more than ever content to die when God called." On Children's Day in Brooklyn, in 1865, this song was sung by over forty thousand voices.
While Dr. Lowry said, "I would rather preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative, receptive congregation than write a hymn," yet in spite of his preferences, his hymns have gone on and on, translated into many languages, preaching and comforting thousands upon thousands of souls, furnishing them expression for their deepest feelings of praise and gratitude to God for His goodness to the children of men. What he had thought in his inmost soul has become a part of the emotions of the whole Christian world. We are all his debtors.
Rev. Robert Lowry, D. D., died at his residence in Plainfield, K J., November 25, 1899. Dead, yet he lives and his sermons in gospel song are still heard and are doing good. Dr. Lowry was a great and good man, and his life, well spent, is highly worthy of a place among the world's greatest gospel song and hymn writers.
-- Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers
-------
Lowry, Robert, D.D., son of Crozier Lowry, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1826, and educated at Lewisburg University. Having received ordination as a Baptist Minister, his first charge was at West Chester, Pennsylvania. From thence he passed to New York City, and then to Brooklyn, N. Y. In 1876 he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric in his University. On resigning his Professorship he undertook the charge of the 2nd Baptist Church, New Jersey. Dr. Lowry has been associated with some of the most popular Sunday School hymn-books published in the States, including Happy Voices, 1865; Chapel Melodies, 1868; Bright Jewels, 1869; Pure Gold, 1871; Royal Diadem, 1873; Tidal Wave, 1874; Fountain of Song1877; Welcome Tidings, 1877, &c. Of Dr. Lowry's hymns those which have attained the widest circulation are:—
1. Jerusalem, for ever bright. Heaven. Appeared in the American Tract Society's Happy Voices, 1865, with music by the author.
2. Low in the grave He lay. Resurrection of Christ. Written in 1874 and published in Brightest and Best, 1875.
3. Marching on, marching on. Sunday School Battle Song. Appeared, with music by the author, in Happy Voices, 1865.
4. My home is in heaven, my rest is not here. In Happy Voices, 1865, with music by the author.
5. My life flows on in endless song. Joy in God. In Bright Jewels, 1869; the Royal Diadem, 1873, and others in America and Great Britain, with music by the author.
6. One more day's work for Jesus. Work for Christ. Published, with music by the author, in Bright Jewels, 1869.
7. Shall we gather at the river? Mutual recognition in the Hereafter. The origin of this hymn is thus set forth in E. W. Long's Illustrated History of Hymns and their Authors, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 64:—
”On a very hot summer day, in 1864, a pastor was seated in his parlour in Brooklyn, N. Y. It was a time when an epidemic was sweeping through the city, and draping many persons and dwellings in mourning. All around friends and acquaintances were passing away to the spirit land in large numbers. The question began to arise in the heart, with unusual emphasis, ‘Shall we meet again? We are parting at the river of death, shall we meet at the river of life?' ‘Seating myself at the organ,’ says he, ‘simply to give vent to the pent up emotions of the heart, the words and music of the hymn began to flow out, as if by inspiration:—
‘Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod?’"
In 1865 the hymn and music were given in Happy Voices, No. 220, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines and a chorus. The hymn has since passed into a great number of hymnals in Great Britain and America.
8. Take the wings of the morning; speed quickly thy flight. Exhortation to Repentance. Written for, and published with music by the author in, the Royal Diadem, 1873.
9. Weeping will not save me. Salvation through Faith. Published in the Chapel Melodies, 1868.
10. What can wash away my stain? Precious Blood of Jesus. Given in the Welcome Tidings, 1877, with music by the author.
11. Where is my wandering boy tonight! The absent Child. In the Fountain of Song, 1877, together with music by the author.
Most of these hymns are given in Mr. I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos, Pts. i., ii.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Robert Lowry
Charlotte Elliott
1789 - 1871 Hymnal Number: d15 Author of "There is a spot of consecrated ground" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Elliott, Charlotte, daughter of Charles Elliott, of Clapham and Brighton, and granddaughter of the Rev. H. Venn, of Huddersfield, was born March 18, 1789. The first 32 years of her life were spent mostly at Clapham. In 1823 she removed to Brighton, and died there Sept. 22, 1871. To her acquaintance with Dr. C. Malan, of Geneva, is attributed much of the deep spiritual-mindedness which is so prominent in her hymns. Though weak and feeble in body, she possessed a strong imagination, and a well-cultured and intellectual mind. Her love of poetry and music was great, and is reflected in her verse. Her hymns number about 150, a large percentage of which are in common use. The finest and most widely known of these are, "Just as I am” and "My God, my Father, while I stray." Her verse is characterized by tenderness of feeling, plaintive simplicity, deep devotion, and perfect rhythm. For those in sickness and sorrow she has sung as few others have done. Her hymns appeared in her brother's Psalms & Hymns and elsewhere as follows:—
(1) Psalms and Hymns for Public, Private, and Social Worship; selected by the Rev. H. V. Elliott, &c., 1835-48. In this Selection her signature is "C. E." (2) The Christian Remembrancer Pocket Book. This was originally edited by Miss Kiernan, of Dublin. Miss Elliott undertook the editorship in 1834. (3) The Invalid's Hymn Book. This was originally compiled by Miss Kiernan, but before publication was re-arranged by Miss Elliott, who also added 23 hymns in the first edition., 1834. These were increased in the following edition to the sixth in 1854, when her contributions amounted to 112. From that date no change was made in the work. (4) Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted; or, Thoughts in Verse, 1836. (5) Morning and Evening Hymns for a Week, printed privately in 1839 for sale for a benevolent institution in Brighton, and published in 1842. (6) Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects, 1869.
Miss Elliott's Poems were published, with a Memoir by her sister, Mrs. Babington, in 1873, and an additional volume of Leaves from her unpublished Journals and Poems, also appeared in 1870.
In addition to her more important hymns, which are annotated under their respective first lines, there are in common use:—
i. From The Invalid's Hymn-book, 1834-1841:—
1. Clouds and darkness round about thee. (1841.) Resignation.
2. Not willingly dost Thou afflict [reject]. (1841.) Divine Chastisement.
3. O God, may I look up to Thee. (1841.) Teach us to Pray.
4. This is enough; although 'twere sweet. (1834.) On being debarred from Divine Worship.
5. With tearful eyes I look around. (1841.) The Invitation "Come Unto Me."
ii. From H. V. Elliott's Psalms & Hymns, 1835-1839:—
6. Glorious was that primal light. Christmas.
7. Hail, holy day, most blest, most dear. Easter.
8. My only Saviour, when I feel. Jesus His people's Rest.
9. Now let our heavenly plants and flowers. Monday Morning.
10. The Sabbath-day has reached its close. Sunday Evening.
iii. From Miss Elliott's Hours of Sorrow, 1836:—
11. Father, when Thy child is dying. Prayer for a Departing Spirit.
12. Leaning on Thee, my Guide, my Friend. Death Anticipated.
13. My God, is any hour so sweet? The Hour of Prayer.
14. O faint and feeble-hearted. Resignation enforced.
15. There is a holy sacrifice. The Contrite Heart.
iv. From her Hymns for a Week, 1839:—
16. Guard well thy lips; none, none can know. Thursday Morning.
17. There is a spot of consecrated ground. Pt. i.
18. This is the mount where Christ's disciples see. Pt. ii. Monday Evening.
19. This is the day to tune with care. Saturday Morning.
v. From Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects, 1869:—
20. As the new moons of old were given. On a Birthday.
21. I need no other plea. Pt. i.
22. I need no prayers to saints. Pt. ii. Christ, All in All.
23. Jesus, my Saviour, look on me. Christ, All in All.
Several of the earlier of these hymns were repeated in the later works, and are thus sometimes attributed to the wrong work. [Rev. James Davidson, B.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
================
Elliott, Charlotte, p. 328, i. Other hymns are:—
1. O how I long to reach my home. Heaven desired. From the Invalid's Hymn Book, 1834.
2. The dawn approaches, golden streaks. Second Advent. From Thoughts in Verse, &c, 1869.
Of her hymns noted on p. 328, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, and 13, all appeared in the 1st edition of Elliott's Psalms & Hymns, 1835.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
========================
Elliott, Charlotte, pp. 328, i.; 1561, ii. Further research enables us to give amended dates to some of her hymns as follows:—
1. With tearful eyes I look around (No. 5). This is in the 1835 Appendix to The Invalid's Hymn Book.
2. My only Saviour, when I feel (No. 8). Also in the 1835 Appendix.
3. Father, when Thy child is dying (No. 11). In the 1833 Appendix.
4. I want that adorning divine, p. 559, i. In the Christian Remembrancer 1848, p. 22.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
Charlotte Elliott
Fanny Crosby
1820 - 1915 Person Name: Fanny J. Crosby Hymnal Number: d17 Author of "They are waiting for the coming" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Pseudonymns: A.V., Mrs. A. E. Andrews, Mrs. E. A. Andrews, Mrs. E. L. Andrews, James L. Black, Henrietta E. Blair, Charles Bruce, Robert Bruce, Leah Carlton, Eleanor Craddock, Lyman G. Cuyler, D.H.W., Ella Dare, Ellen Dare, Mrs. Ellen Douglass, Lizzie Edwards. Miss Grace Elliot, Grace J. Frances, Victoria Frances, Jennie Garnett, Frank Gould, H. D. K., Frances Hope, Annie L. James, Martha J. Lankton [Langton], Grace Lindsey, Maud Marion, Sallie Martin, Wilson Meade, Alice Monteith, Martha C. Oliver, Mrs. N. D. Plume, Kate Smiley, Sallie Smith, J. L. Sterling, John Sterling, Julia Sterling, Anna C. Storey, Victoria Stuart, Ida Scott Taylor, Mary R. Tilden, Mrs. J. B. Thresher, Hope Tryaway, Grace Tureman, Carrie M. Wilson, W.H.D.
Frances Jane Crosby, the daughter of John and Mercy Crosby, was born in Southeast, Putnam County, N. Y., March 24, 1820. She became blind at the age of six weeks from maltreatment of her eyes during a spell of sickness. When she was eight years old she moved with her parents to Ridgefield, Conn., the family remaining there four years. At the age of fifteen she entered the New York Institution for the Blind, where she received a good education. She became a teacher in the institution in 1847, and continued her work until March 1, 1858. She taught English grammar, rhetoric and American history.
This was the great developing period in her life. During the vacations of 1852 and 1853, spent at North Reading, Mass., she wrote the words to many songs for Dr. Geo. F. Root, then the teacher of music at the blind institution. Among them were, "Hazel Dell,", "The Honeysuckle Glen," "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower," "Music in the Air," "Proud World, Good-bye, I'm Going Home," "All Together", "Never Forget the Dear Ones," and others. Subsequently she wrote the words for the cantatas of The Flower Queen and The Pilgrim Fathers, all of which were very popular in their day, though it was not generally known at the time that she was the author.
While teaching at the institution she met Presidents Van Buren and Tyler, Hon. Henry Clay, Governor Wm. H. Seward, General Winfield Scott, and other distinguished characters of American history. Concerning Mr. Clay, she gives the following: "When Mr. Clay came to the institution during his last visit to New York, I was selected to welcome him with a poem. Six months before he had lost a son at the battle of Monterey, and I had sent him some verses. In my address I carefully avoided any allusion to them, in order not to wound him. When I had finished he drew my arm in his, and, addressing the audience, said through his tears: 'This is not the first poem for which I am indebted to this lady. Six months ago she sent me some lines on the death of my dear son.' Both of us were overcome for a few moments. Soon, by a splendid effort, Mr. Clay recovered himself, but I could not control my tears." In connection with her meeting these notable men, we might add that Miss Fanny Crosby had the honor of being the first woman whose voice was heard publicly in the Senate Chamber at Washington. She read a poem there on one occasion. In addition to the thousands of hymns that she has written (about eight thousand poems in all), many of which have not been set to music, she has published four volumes of verses. The first was issued in 1844 and was entitled The Blind Girl, and Other Poems, a second volume, Monterey, and Other Poems, followed in 1849, and the third, A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers, in 1858. The fourth, Bells at Evening and Other Verses, with a biographical sketch by Rev. Robert Lowry, and a fine half-tone portrait, in 1897, the sales of which have reached a fourth edition. The book is published by The Biglow & Main Co., New York.
Though these show the poetical bent of her mind, they have little to do with her world-wide fame. It is as a writer of Sunday-school songs and gospel hymns that she is known wherever the English language is spoken, and, in fact, wherever any other language is heard.
Fanny was married March 5, 1858, to Alex. Van Alstyne, who was also a scholar in the same institution in which she was educated.
She began to write Sunday-school hymns for Wm. B. Bradbury in 1864. Her first hymn,
"We are going, we are going
To a home beyond the skies",
was written at the Ponton Hotel on Franklin Street, New York City, on February 5th of that year. This hymn was sung at Mr. Bradbury's funeral in January, 1868. Since 1864 she supported herself by writing hymns. She resided in New York City nearly all her life, where, she says, she is "a member of the Old John Street M. E. Church in good standing." She spent regular hours on certain days at the office of The Biglow & Main Co., the firm for which she did most of her writing, and for whom she has composed over four thousand hymns. Her hymns have been in great demand and have been used by many of our most popular composers, among whom may be mentioned Wm. B. Bradbury, Geo. F. Root, W. H. Doane, Rev. Robert Lowry, Ira D. Sankey, J. R. Sweney, W. J. Kirkpatrick, H. P. Main, H. P. Danks, Philip Phillips, B. G. Unseld, and others. She could compose at any time and did not need to wait for any special inspiration, and her best hymns have come on the spur of the moment. She always composed with an open book in her hand, generally a copy of Golden Hymns, held closely over her eyes, bottom side up. She learned to play on the guitar and piano while at the institution, and has a clear soprano voice. She also received a technical training in music, and for this reason she could, and did, compose airs for some of her hymns. One of these is,
"Jesus, dear, I come to Thee,
Thou hast said I may,"
both words and music of which are wonderfully sweet. "Safe in the arms of Jesus", probably one of her best known hymns, was her own favorite. Fanny loved her work, and was happy in it. She was always ready either to sympathize or join in a mirthful conversation, as the case may be. The secret of this contentment dates from her first composition at the age of eight years. "It has been the motto of my life," she says. It is:
"O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be;"
This has continued to be her philosophy. She says that had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education, nor so great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory. She knows a great many portions of the Bible by heart, and had committed to memory the first four books of the Old Testament, and also the four Gospels before she was ten years of age.
Her scope of subjects is wide, embracing everything from a contemplation of heaven, as in "The Bright Forever" and "The Blessed Homeland", to an appeal to the work of this world, as in "To the Work" and "Rescue the Perishing." The most of Fanny's published hymns have appeared under the name of Fanny J. Crosby or Mrs. Yan Alstyne, but quite a large number have appeared under the nom de plumes of Grace J. Frances, Mrs. C. M. Wilson, Lizzie Edwards, Ella Dale, Henrietta E. Blair, Rose Atherton, Maud Marion, Leah Carlton, nearly two hundred different names.
-Biographies of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers (excerpts)
=======================
Van Alstyne, Frances Jane, née Crosby, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at South East, Putnam County, New York, March 24, 1823. When six weeks old she lost her sight. About 1835 she entered the New York City Institution for the Blind. On completing her training she became a teacher therein from 1847 to 1858. In 1858 she was married to Alexander Van Alstyne, a musician, who was also blind. Her first poem was published in 1831; and her first volumes of verse as A Blind Girl, and Other Poems, 1844; Monteresy, and Other Poems, 1849; and A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers, 1858. Her first hymn was "We are going, we are going" (Death and Burial), which was written for Mr. Bradbury and published in the Golden Censer, 1864. From 1853 to 1858 she wrote 20 songs, which were set to music by G. F. Root. Her songs and hymns number some 2,000 or more, and have been published mainly in several of the popular American Sunday school collections, and often under a nom de plume. About 60 have come into common use in Great Britain. The majority of these are taken from the following American collections:—
i. From The Shining Star, 1864.
1. Softly on the breath of evening. Evening.
ii. From Fresh Laurels, 1867.
2. Beautiful Mansions, home of the blest. Heaven.
3. Jesus the Water of Life has given. The Water of Life.
4. Light and Comfort of my soul. In Affliction.
5. There's a cry from Macedonia. Missions.
6. We are marching on with shield and banner bright. Sunday School Anniversary.
iii. From Musical Leaves, 1868.
7. 0 what are you going to do, brother? Youth for God.
iv. From Sabbath Carols, 1868.
8. Dark is the night, and cold the wind is blowing. Affliction anticipated.
9. Lord, at Thy mercy seat, Humbly I fall. Lent.
v. From Silver Spray, 1868.
10. If I come to Jesus, He will make me glad. Peace in Jesus.
11. 'Twill not be long—our journey here. Heaven anticipated.
vi. From Notes of Joy, 1869.
12. Little beams of rosy light. The Divine Father.
13. Press on! press on! a glorious throng. Pressing towards the Prize.
vii. From Bright Jewels, 1869.
14. Christ the Lord is risen today, He is risen indeed. Easter.
15. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord! Sing 0 ye people, &c. Holiness of God.
16. Jesus, keep me near the Cross. Near the Cross of Christ.
17. Saviour, bless a little child. A Child's Prayer. Written Feb. 6, 1869.
viii. From Songs of Devotion, 1870.
18. Pass me not, 0 gentle Saviour. Lent. Written in 1868.
19. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Home Missions.
ix. From Pure Gold, 1871.
20. Great is Jehovah. King of kings. Greatness of God.
21. I would be Thy little lamb. The Good Shepherd.
22. Lead me to Jesus, lead me to Jesus. Desiring Jesus.
23. To the work, to the work, we are servants of God. Home Missions.
24. Why labour for treasures that rust and decay? The Fadeless Crown.
x. From the Royal Diadem, 1873.
25. I am Jesus' little friend. For Infant Schools.
26. Jesus I love Thee. Loving Jesus.
27. Mourner, wheresoe'er thou art. To the Sorrowing and Penitent. Written Oct. 3, 1871.
28. Never be faint or weary. Joy in Jesus.
29. Only a step to Jesus. Invitation.
xi. From Winnowed Hymns, 1873-4.
30. Loving Saviour, hear my cry. Lent.
xii. From Echoes of Zion, 1874.
31. Say, where is thy refuge, my brother? Home Missions.
xiii. From Songs of Grace and Glory, 1874.
32. Thou my everlasting Portion. Christ the Portion of His People.
xiv. From Brightest and Best, 1875.
33. All the way my Saviour leads me. Jesus the Guide.
34. I am Thine, O Lord: I have heard Thy voice. Holiness desired.
35. O come to the Saviour, believe in His name. Invitation. Written, Sep. 7, 1874.
36. O how sweet when we mingle. Communion of Saints. Written in 1866.
37. O my Saviour, hear me. Prayer to Jesus for blessing and love.
38. Only Jesus feels and knows. Jesus the Divine Friend.
39. Revive Thy work, O Lord. Home Missions.
40. Saviour, more than life to me. Jesus All and in All.
41. To God be the glory, great things He hath done. Praise for Redemption.
xv. From Calvary Songs, 1875.
42. Come, O come with thy broken heart. Invitation.
xvi. From Gospel Music, 1876.
43. Here from the world we turn. Divine Worship.
44. When Jesus comes to reward His servants. Watching,
xvii. From Welcome Tidings, 1877.
45. O hear my cry, be gracious now to me. For Pardon and Peace.
xviii. From The Fountain of Song, 1877.
46. Lord, my trust I repose on Thee. Trusting in Jesus.
xix. From Good as Gold, 1880.
47. In Thy cleft, O Rock of Ages. Safety in Jesus.
48. Sound the alarm ! let the watchman cry. Home Missions.
49. Tenderly He leads us. Christ the Leader.
50. 'Tis the blessed hour of prayer. The Hour of Prayer.
In addition to these hymns, all of which are in common use in Great Britain (mainly through I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, the Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book, the Silver Street Sunday Scholars Companion, and other collections for Sunday schools), there are also "A blessing for you, will you take it?" (Pardon through Jesus); "My song shall be of Jesus" (Praise of Jesus); “Now, just a word for Jesus"(Home Missions); "Onward, upward, Christian soldier" (Pressing Heavenward); 44 Sinner, how thy heart is troubled" (Invitation); "'Tis a goodly, pleasant land" (Heaven anticipated); and "When the dewy light was fading" (Death anticipated). All of these are in I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos. Mrs. Van Alstyne's most popular composition is "Safe in the arms of Jesus" (Safety in Jesus). This was written in 1868, at the request of Mr. W. H. Doane, to his well-known melody with which it is inseparably associated, and published in Bright Jewels, 1869. Mrs. Van Alstyne's hymns have sometimes been published anonymously; but the greater part are signed by a bewildering number of initials.
The combined sales of the volumes of songs and hymns named above have amounted in English-speaking countries to millions of copies. Notwithstanding the immense circulation thus given to Mrs. Van Alstyne's hymns, they are, with few exceptions, very weak and poor, their simplicity and earnestness being their redeeming features. Their popularity is largely due to the melodies to which they are wedded.
Since the above was in type we have found that the following are also in common use in Great Britain:—
51. Suppose the little cowslip. Value of Little Things.
52. Sweet hour of prayer. The Hour of Prayer. These are in Bradbury's Golden Chain, 1861.
53. Never lose the golden rule. Love to our Neighbours. In Bradbury's Golden Censer, 1864.
54. I will not be afraid at night. Trust in God. In Bradbury's Fresh Laurels, 1867.
55. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our, &c. Praise of Jesus. In Biglow & Main's Bright Jewels, 1869.
56. More like Jesus would I be. More like Jesus. In Perkins & Taylor's Songs of Salvation, 1870.
57. Behold me standing at the door. Christ at the Door. In Biglow & Main's Christian Songs, 1872.
58. If I come to Jesus. Jesus the Children's Guide.
59. Jesus, Lord, I come to Thee. Trust in Jesus.
60. Let me learn of Jesus. Jesus the Children's Friend.
61. Singing for Jesus, O singing for Jesus. Singing for Jesus.
62. There is a Name divinely sweet Holy Name of Jesus.
Of these hymns Nos. 58-62 we have not been able to trace.
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907
================
Van Alstyne, Frances J., p. 1203, ii. From the American collections of recent date we find that Mrs. Van Alstyne is still actively engaged in hymn-writing. In the Funk and Wagnalls Company Gloria Deo, 1903, there are about 30 of her hymns, most of which are new. They are all signed, and some are dated, but we have not space to quote the first lines and subjects, as this hymnal is not an official collection of any denomination. Another name, "Mrs. S. K. Bourne" is credited in the same hymnal with about 40 new hymns. If this signature is not another pen-name of Mrs. Van Alstyne's (and these pen-names and initials of hers are very numerous), we can only say that she has a very successful understudy in "Mrs. S. K. Bourne."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
Fanny Crosby
Adelaide Anne Procter
1825 - 1864 Hymnal Number: d12 Author of "One by one, the sands are flowing" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Not to be confused with Adelaide A. Pollard.
Adelaide Anne Proctor was born in London, in 1825. Her father, Brian W. Proctor, is well known by his literary nom de guerre of Barry Cornwall. In 1853, Miss Proctor became a contributor to Dickens' "Household Words." Her reputation as a poet was secured by the publication of her first volume of "Legends and Lyrics," in 1858. A second volume was added in 1860. She also published other compositions in poetry and prose. She died in 1864. She was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.
===============
Procter, Adelaide Anne, daughter of Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall), was born in Bedford Square, London, Oct. 30, 1825. In 1851 she entered the Roman communion, and died in London, Feb. 2, 1864. Miss Procter displayed more than usual intellectual powers at an early age. In later years she was skilled in music and languages. Her poetical gifts have been widely appreciated. Her Legends and Lyrics, A Book of Verse, was published in 1858. Of this an enlarged edition was published in 1862. Her hymns in common use from these two editions are:—
1. I do not ask, 0 Lord, that life may be. Resignation. In her Legends, &c., 1862. It is one of the most widely used of Miss Procter's hymns.
2. I thank Thee, 0 my God, Who made. Thankfulness. In her Legends, &c., 1858, p. 207, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. In several collections, including the Hymnal Companion, it begins in an altered form, "My God, I thank Thee, Who hast made;" and in others, "Our God, we thank Thee, Who hast made." Bishop Bickersteth in his note on this hymn in the Hymnal Companion, 1816, says, "This most beautiful hymn by A. A. Procter (1858), touches the chord of thankfulness in trial, as perhaps no other hymn does, and is thus most useful for the visitation of the sick."
3. One by one the sands are going [flowing]. The links of Life. In her Legends, &c., 1858, p. 20, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines.
4. Rise, for the day is passing. Redeem the Time. In her Legends, &c., 1858. Sometimes given as "Arise, for the day is passing," as in Holy Song, 1869.
5. Strive; yet I do not promise. Strive, Wait, Pray. In her Legends, &c., 1858, p. 103, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines.
6. The way is long and dreary. Life a Pilgrimage. In her Legends, &c., 1858, p. 136, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines and a refrain.
7. The shadows of the evening hours. Evening. In her Legends, &c., 1862.
8. We ask for peace, 0 Lord. Peace with God. In her Legends, &c., 1858, p. 214, in 4 stanzas of 9 lines.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Adelaide Anne Procter
Bernard, of Cluny
1100 - 1199 Person Name: Bernard of Cluny Hymnal Number: d8 Author of "Jerusalem, the golden, with milk and honey blest" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Bernard of Morlaix, or of Cluny, for he is equally well known by both titles, was an Englishman by extraction, both his parents being natives of this country. He was b., however, in France very early in the 12th cent, at Morlaix, Bretagne. Little or nothing is known of his life, beyond the fact that he entered the Abbey of Cluny, of which at that time Peter the Venerable, who filled the post from 1122 to 1156, was the head. There, so far as we know, he spent his whole after-life, and there he probably died, though the exact date of his death, as well as of his birth is unrecorded. The Abbey of Cluny was at that period at the zenith of its wealth and fame. Its buildings, especially its church (which was unequalled by any in France); the services therein, renowned for the elaborate order of their ritual; and its community, the most numerous of any like institution, gave it a position and an influence, such as no other monastery, perhaps, ever reached. Everything about it was splendid, almost luxurious. It was amid such surroundings that Bernard of Cluny spent his leisure hours in composing that wondrous satire against the vices and follies of his age, which has supplied—and it is the only satire that ever did so—some of the most widely known and admired hymns to the Church of today. His poem De Contemptu Mundi remains as an imperishable monument of an author of whom we know little besides except his name, and that a name overshadowed in his own day and in ours by his more illustrious contemporary and namesake, the saintly Abbot of Clairvaux.
The poem itself consists of about 3000 lines in a meter which is technically known as Leonini Cristati Trilices Dactylici, or more familiarly—to use Dr. Neale's description in his Mediaeval Hymns, p. 69—" it is a dactylic hexameter, divided into three parts, between which a caesura is inadmissible. The hexameter has a tailed rhyme, and feminine leonine rhyme between the two first clauses, thus :—
" Tune nova gloria, pectora sobria, clarificabit: Solvit enigmata, veraque sabbata, continuabit, Patria luminis, inscia turbinis, inscia litis, Cive replebitur, amplificabitur Israelitis."
The difficulty of writing at all, much more of writing a poem of such length in a metre of this description, will be as apparent to all readers of it, as it was to the writer himself, who attributes his successful accomplishment of his task entirely to the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God. "Non ego arroganter," he says in his preface, "sed omnino humiliter, et ob id audenter affirmaverim, quia nisi spiritus sapicntiae et intellectus mihi affuisset et afftuxisset, tarn difficili metro tarn longum opus con-texere non sustinuissem."
As to the character of the metre, on the other hand, opinions have widely differed, for while Dr. Neale, in his Mediaeval Hymns, speaks of its "majestic sweetness," and in his preface to the Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix on the Celestial Country, says that it seems to him "one of the loveliest of mediaeval measures;" Archbishop Trench in his Sac. Lat. Poetry, 1873. p. 311, says "it must be confessed that" these dactylic hexameters "present as unattractive a garb for poetry to wear as can well be imagined;" and, a few lines further on, notes "the awkwardness and repulsiveness of the metre." The truth perhaps lies between these two very opposite criticisms. Without seeking to claim for the metre all that Dr. Neale is willing to attribute to it, it may be fairly said to be admirably adapted for the purpose to which it has been applied by Bernard, whose awe-stricken self-abasement as he contemplates in the spirit of the publican, “who would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven," the joys and the glory of the celestial country, or sorrowfully reviews the vices of his age, or solemnly denounces God's judgments on the reprobate, it eloquently pourtrays. So much is this the case, that the prevailing sentiment of the poem, that, viz., of an awful apprehension of the joys of heaven, the enormity of sin, and the terrors of hell, seems almost wholly lost in such translations as that of Dr. Neale. Beautiful as they are as hymns, "Brief life is here our portion," "Jerusalem the Golden," and their companion extracts from this great work, are far too jubilant to give any idea of the prevailing tone of the original. (See Hora Novissima.)
In the original poem of Bernard it should be noted that the same fault has been remarked by Archbishop Trench, Dean Stanley, and Dr. Neale, which may be given in the Archbishop's words as excusing at the same time both the want, which still exists, of a very close translation of any part, and of a complete and continuous rendering of the whole poem. "The poet," observes Archbishop Trench, "instead of advancing, eddies round and round his object, recurring again and again to that which he seemed thoroughly to have discussed and dismissed." Sac. Lat. Poetry, 1873, p. 311. On other grounds also, more especially the character of the vices which the author lashes, it is alike impossible to expect, and undesirable to obtain, a literal translation of the whole. We may well be content with what we already owe to it as additions to our stores of church-hymns.
-John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Bernard of Cluny, p. 137, i., is best described thus: his place of origin is quite uncertain. See the Catalogue of the Additional MSS. of the B. M. under No. 35091, where it is said that he was perhaps of Morlas in the Basses-Pyrenees, or of Morval in the Jura, but that there is nothing to connect him with Morlaix in Brittany. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
Bernard, of Cluny
Mrs. Harry Coghill
1836 - 1907 Person Name: Anna Louisa Walker Coghill Hymnal Number: d21 Author of "Work, for the night is coming, work through the morning hours" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. Coghill, Annie Louisa, née Walker, daughter of Robert Walker, was born at Kiddermore, Staffordshire, in 1836, and married Harry Coghill in 1884. During a residence for some time in Canada several of her poetical pieces were printed in the Canadian newspapers. These were gathered together and published c. 1859 in her Leaves from the Backwoods. In addition to novels, plays for children, and magazine work, she edited the Autobiography and Letters of her cousin, Mrs. Oliphant, in 1898. Her popular hymn,"Work, for the night is coming," p. 317, ii., was written in Canada in 1854, and published in a Canadian newspaper, from which it passed, without any acknowledgement of the authorship, into Ira D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos. Authorized text in her Oak and Maple, 1890, p. 17.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
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[See also: http://biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7126]
Mrs. Harry Coghill
Elizabeth Codner
1824 - 1919 Hymnal Number: d9 Author of "Lord, I hear of [that] [the] showers of blessing" in American Sunday School Hymn Book. New ed. CODNER, Elizabeth (née Harris) was born in Dartmouth, Devon in 1823. Croydon, Surrey, 28 March 1919. She was interested in the mission field from an early age, and two of her early publications were entitled The Missionary Ship (1853) and The Missionary Farewell (1854) relating to the Patagonia Mission (later the South American Missionary Society). She married William Pennefather at the Mildmay Protestant Mission in London, and edited the mission’s monthly Woman’s Work in the Great Harvest Field. At age 17, she was editing a magazine for the Patagonia Mission, later the South American Missionary Society. She died in Croydon, Surrey on 28 March 1919.
NN, Hymnary
Elizabeth Codner
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