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WIDDOP, Accepted. b. Ovenden, West Yorkshire, 1750 (baptized 21 October); d. 9 March, 1801. Widdop was an amateur musician and composer strongly associated with Methodism in the Halifax area of West Yorkshire; he was baptised at Ovenden. Lightwood describes him as 'a cloth worker by trade, and an amateur musician of considerable fame in his day' (1938, p. 59). He seems to have spent his life around Halifax, principally in the small villages of Illingworth and Ovenden.
Many of his tunes are...
DALE, Alan Taylor. b. Baddeley Green, near Stoke-on-Trent, 9 April 1902; d. Dartmouth, Devon, 31 January 1979. He was educated at Hanley School, Stoke. He trained as a teacher, and taught for two years before entering Victoria Park College, Manchester, to train for the United Methodist Church ministry. Ordained in 1928, he was a missionary in China (1929-35), followed by Methodist circuits at Skipton, Blackpool North, Sheffield North-East, and Bath. His final post was as a lecturer in religious...
CLARK, Alexander. b. near Steubenville, Ohio, 10 March 1834; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 6 July 1879. Clark was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister. He was at some time at Union Chapel, Cincinnati, Ohio. He is referred to as 'DD' in Sacred Songs and Solos, in which two of his hymns appeared:
Heavenly Father, bless me now*
Make room for Jesus! room, sad heart!
He edited The Methodist Reporter, published in Pittsburgh, from 1870 to 1879. Among his several books were The Old Log School House;...
HAAS, Alfred Burton. b. Shamokin, Pennsylvania, 21 July 1911; d. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 19 July 1987. Haas attended Bucknell University, Lycoming, Pennsylvania (BA, 1933), and Drew Theological School, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1936; MA 1946 ). In 1938 he was ordained elder in the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Church: he served parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City. Haas taught hymnody and worship at Drew from 1941-1968, attaining the rank of Associate...
All, yes, all I give to Jesus. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
First published in Triumphant Songs No. 2 (Chicago: the Edwin O. Excell Co., 1889), with a tune by Edwin O. Excell* named ESCONDIDO. It was headed 'Dedicated to the “Deaconesses” of America' (Deaconesses were active in several churches and hospitals in the 1880s and 1890s). It had four stanzas:
All, yes, all I give to Jesus, It belongs to Him; All my heart I give to Jesus It belongs to Him; Evermore to be His dwelling,...
And am I born to die. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns for Children (1763), where it had six DCM stanzas. All were reprinted, with minor changes, by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in spite of (or because of) their uncompromising severity (they are found in the section entitled 'Describing Death', the first of the four Advent themes, Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell). This may be seen in the first three stanzas:
And am I born...
And am I only born to die. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn is closely related to 'And am I born to die'* in Charles Wesley's Hymns for Children (Bristol, 1763). It is found immediately after it in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780). Much of what is said about that hymn and its suitability for children applies also to the present one.
It had six 6-line stanzas. The child is encouraged to think about life after death, and the possibility...
PRATT, Andrew Edward. b. Paignton, Devon, 28 December 1948. He was educated at Barking Regional College of Technology, London, where he read Zoology, and the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he obtained an M.Sc. in Marine Biology. He became a teacher, but then decided to train for the Methodist ministry, studying at Queen's College, Birmingham. (1979-82). He has served as a Methodist minister in circuits in Cheshire and Lancashire (Northwich; Nantwich; Leigh and Hindley; Orrell...
GRIFFITHS, Ann. B. Llanfihangel, Montgomeryshire, April 1776; d. Llanfihangel, August 1805. Ann Thomas was brought up on the farm of Dolwar Fach, Llanfihangel, the daughter of the devout Thomas family who worshipped at the local parish church and who prayed regularly together. She took a full part in local life, and is said to have been frivolous in her youth, much enamoured of dancing, and ready to mock the Methodists. She was only 18 when her mother died and she took over the running of the...
NEWMAN, Augustus Sherman. b. Putnam County [?], New York, 21 July 1848; d. New York City, 11 December 1928. Augustus Sherman Newman was a businessman, avocational musician, collector of hymnals and hymnological materials, and a founder in 1922 of The Hymn Society (now the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*).
The eldest child of Allen G. and Sarah Church Tompkins Newman, Augustus completed his basic education in New York. He then toured Europe with his younger brother, Allen,...
Away with our fears/ Our troubles and tears. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father. By the Reverend Mr. John and Charles Wesley (Bristol, 1746), where it was Hymn XXXII, the last in the book. It had five 8-line stanzas:
Away with our Fears, Our Troubles and Tears! The Spirit is come, The Witness of Jesus Return'd to hs Home: The Pledge of our Lord To his Heaven restor'd, Is sent from the Sky, And tells us our...
Away with our sorrow and fear. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
Funeral Hymns (1744), a small book of 24 pages, contained 16 hymns. It was dated by JJ, p. 1259, as 1744, but by the modern editors of A Collection of Hymns (1780) as 1746 (Hildebrandt and Beckerlegge, 1983; no copy dated 1744 has been found). The text in 1746 was as follows:
Away with our Sorrow and Fear! We soon shall recover our Home; The City of Saints shall appear, The Day of Eternity come; From Earth we shall quickly...
Beams of heaven as I go ('Some Day'). Charles Albert Tindley* (1851-1933).
'Some Day' is an evocative and emotional title which connects with other hymns, such as 'We shall overcome'* of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s (a development of Tindley's 'I shall overcome someday'), and with many 'By and by'* hymns, including Tindley's 'We'll understand it better by and by'*. Early printings, such as the one in Soul Echoes (Philadelphia, 1909) mark the hymn as 'copyright, 1906'. The title is...
Before the world's foundation. Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926- ).
This hymn was written in 1998. Like many of Dudley-Smith's hymns, it was his response to a commission. The Methodist Publishing House, which traced its history back to the time of John Wesley*, had moved from London to Peterborough in 1988. Its Chief Executive, Brian Thornton, planned a Service of Thanksgiving to mark ten years since the move, and Dudley-Smith responded to a request for a hymn to be sung to mark the occasion (2003,...
CRAWFORD, Benjamin Franklin. b. Madison County, Ohio, 12 May 1881; d. Delaware, Ohio, 20 June 1976. Christened after the great American philosopher, Crawford taught school before attending Ohio Wesleyan University (BA, 1906); Boston University (STB, 1909); Dennison University (1917-18); and the University of Pittsburgh (PhD, 1937). Crawford's dissertation, 'Changing Conceptions and Motivations of Religion as Revealed in One Hundred Years of Methodist Hymnology, 1836-1935', was a study of the...
RHODES, Benjamin. b. Mexborough, Yorkshire, 1743, date unknown; d. Margate, Kent, 13 October 1815. He was the son of a schoolmaster, who gave him a good education. At the age of 11 he was much influenced by hearing George Whitefield* preach, and in 1766 he became one of 'Mr Wesley's preachers', serving until his death at Margate. In the obituary in the Minutes of the Methodist Conference he was described as 'a man of great simplicity and integrity of mind; he was warmly and invariably attached...
Blest be the dear uniting love. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in eight stanzas in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), where it was entitled 'At Parting':
Blest be the dear, Uniting Love That will not let us part:Our Bodies may far off remove, We still are join'd in heart.
Join'd in One Spirit to our Head, Where He appoints we go,And still in Jesu's Footsteps tread, And do His Work below.
O let us ever walk in Him, And Nothing know beside,Nothing desire, Nothing esteem But...
WIANT, Bliss Mitchell. b. Dalton, Ohio, 1 February 1895; d. Delaware, Ohio, 1 October 1975. Wiant [Chinese name Fan Tian-xian] was a Methodist Episcopal Church [MEC] missionary from 1923 to 1951. He was an authority on Chinese music, a choral director, composer and arranger, hymnal editor, pastor, and teacher. His widely acclaimed settings of newly written indigenous Chinese Christian hymns to traditional Chinese melodies are an abiding contribution to 20th-century contextualized Chinese...
Break, day of God, O break. Henry Burton* (1840-1930).
According to Telford, annotating the 1904 Wesleyan Methodist Hymn Book, this was written on Christmas Eve 1900 at Blundellsands, near Liverpool: stanza 1 was written on a railway bridge, the remainder at Burton's home (Telford, 1906, p. 165). It was later printed in Burton's Songs of the Highway (1924). It had four stanzas:
Break, day of God, O break, Sweet light of heavenly skies! I all for thee forsake, And from my dead self rise: O...
HOARE, Brian Richard. b. Upminster, Essex, 9 December 1935. Hoare was educated at Southwell Minster Grammar School, at Westminster College, London, and at Richmond College, University of London. After teaching Religious Education at Calverton, Nottinghamshire, he became Secretary of the Colleges of Education Christian Union (Inter-Varsity Fellowship) in London (1962-68). He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1971, and was chaplain at Hunmanby Hall School, Filey, Yorkshire. He then served...
PRICE, Carl Fowler. b. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 16 May 1881; d. New York City, 12 April 1948. Pioneering hymnologist, historian, author, prominent layperson in The Methodist Episcopal Church, Price attended Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (BA music, 1902; MA, 1932), and worked as a general insurance broker in New York City from 1902 to 1946. He served as secretary of The National Board of the Epworth League, and historian of the Methodist Historical Society.
Price was a founder...
YOUNG, Carlton Raymond ('Sam'). b. Hamilton, Ohio, 25 April 1926; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 21 May 2023. He was the son of J. Otis Young , a pastor, and Mary Leibrook, an elementary school teacher. Following his mother's death he was raised by maternal grand parents, who started his piano lessons at age six. He attended Fairfield High School in Butler County, Ohio, where music was a requirement not an elective, and where he played brass instruments and string bass. He studied at Cincinnati...
PARKIN, Charles. b. Felling on Tyne, England, 25 December 1884; d. Portland, Maine, 3 March 1981. Charles Parkin studied at Oxford University and served in the British Army during World War I. Following the War, he was secretary of the British Poetry Society. In 1922, Parkin moved to the United States and was ordained a minister in the Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From 1950 to 1952, Parkin was the superintendent of the Portland District of the Maine Conference, and then...
NUTTER, Charles Sumner. b. Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, 19 September 1842; d. Melrose, Massachusetts, 2 August 1928. Charles Nutter and Wilber Fisk Tillett* (1854-1936) wrote The Hymns and Hymn Writers of The Church, an Annotated Edition of The Methodist Hymnal (New York and Cincinnati: The Methodist Book Concern, 1911). Nutter was an avid collector of hymnological materials, and his collection together with that of Frank Metcalf (1765-1945) total more than 2500 volumes, comprising the core of...
WESLEY, Charles. b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, 18 December 1707; d. London, 29 March 1788. He was youngest son and 16th/17th child (though calculations vary) of Samuel Wesley (I)* and the redoubtable Susanna, and younger brother to John*. From Westminster School (1716-26), first as King's Scholar and finally Captain of the school, he gained a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1730, MA 1733). He became leader (in John's absence as their father's curate) of a small group known as the 'Holy...
Children of Jerusalem. John Henley* (1800-1842).
This Palm Sunday hymn for children has appeared in many forms. The text that is found in the Memorials compiled by his widow is presumably the one that Henley approved before his untimely death. It was printed as follows:
“HOSANNA! BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!”
1.Children of JerusalemSang the praise of Jesu's name;Children, too, of modern daysJoin to sing the Saviour's praise.
CHORUS: - Hark! while...
'Christ the Lord is risen today'. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), entitled 'Hymn for Easter-Day', in eleven 4-line stanzas. It was not included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), the scheme of which precluded seasonal hymns, but six stanzas found their way into the 1831 Supplement to the Collection among the additional hymns. Its use has become and remained widespread since then, though in...
Come Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,/ To whom we for our children cry. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was headed 'At the Opening of a School at Kingswood', referring to the school founded by John Wesley*. It was opened in 1739 for the children of the local colliers near Bath, and reopened as an enlarged school for the children of Wesley's preachers and others in 1748 (Hildebrandt and Beckerlegge, 1983, p. 643). It is not known which of these events is signified in the title: probably the 1748...
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost/ Honour the means... Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is No. 182 from Volume II of Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book published under his own name with John Wesley*'s approval. This hymn was headed 'At the Baptism of Adults'. It had six stanzas:
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Honour the Means Injoin'd by Thee, Make good our Apostolic Boast And own thy Glorious Ministry.
We now thy Promis'd Presence claim, Sent to disciple All...
Come all whoe'er have set. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788)
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the two volumes issued by Charles Wesley in his own name, though with his brother's approval. This was headed 'Another'; it was one of three poems entitled 'On a Journey'. The first prays for guidance, but the other two are confident expressions of a progress towards the promised land, 'the New Jerusalem above,/ The seat of everlasting love' (stanza 2 lines 5-6).
The hymn had five 6-line stanzas, marking...
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,/ One God in persons three. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
Charles Wesley wrote at least three hymns with this first line. One continued
Come Father, Son, and Holy Ghost/ Honour the means...*.
Another began
Come Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,/ To whom we for our children cry...*.
Another was the hymn above. It was printed in the 'Numbers' section of Volume I of Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762). It began with No. 200, headed...
Come, Holy Ghost, all quickening fire/ Come, and in me. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
One of Charles Wesley's most beautiful hymns, this was first printed in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), where it was entitled 'Hymn to the Holy Ghost'. It had six stanzas, all of which were used, with minor alterations, by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), where it was in the section entitled 'For Believers Groaning for full Redemption'. Later Wesleyan...
Come, Holy Ghost, all quickening fire/Come, and my hallowed heart inspire. Charles Wesley* (1707-88).
This companion hymn to 'Come, Holy Ghost, all-quickening fire/Come and in me'* [delight to rest'] was published one year later than that hymn. It was in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), where it was entitled 'Hymn to God the Sanctifier'. It was a longer hymn of eight stanzas, with (like the earlier hymn) the first stanza repeated as the last, with one principal alteration, in which line 2 of the...
HAMBLY, Cyril Grey. b. Cardiff, 6 January 1931; d. Shrewsbury, 4 December 1999. He was educated at the University of Wales (where he studied music), and trained for the Methodist ministry at Hartley Victoria College, Manchester. He was ordained in 1954, and held appointments in a number of circuits, principally in Wales and East Anglia. He was a contributor to Partners in Praise (1979) and published A Hymn for the Lectionary (1981), a collection of 70 hymns written by him to accompany the...
DAMON, Daniel Charles. b. Rapid City, South Dakota, 2 July 1955. Damon was educated at Greenville College in Illinois and at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. After serving parishes in Sutter, Meridian, Modesto, and Richmond, all in California, he is currently retired as an Elder in the United Methodist Church in 2020. He also teaches church music at the Pacific School of Religion on an adjunct basis, plays in jazz clubs, and leads jazz vespers for the students at the...
MANSFIELD, Daniel Hale. b. probably Bangor, Maine, 23 June 1810; d. probably Augusta, Maine, 25 February 1855. Mansfield is primarily known as the compiler of a popular oblong tunebook, The American Vocalist (Boston, 1848, Rev. 1849). His ancestors, arriving in the American colony of Massachusetts around 1638, reflected seven generations of English Puritan heritage. They prospered as farmers and were gentlemen and owners of enslaved people in the New World. During the second half of the 18th...
NILES, Daniel Thambyrajah. b. Jaffna, north Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) 4 May 1908; d. 17 July 1970. He was born into a Tamil Christian family: his grandfather was a Methodist minister, and his father was a lawyer. He studied law, but then chose to become a Methodist minister; he was ordained in 1936. As a young district evangelist, he was a delegate to the International Missionary Council Tambaram Conference of 1938; he then became YMCA evangelism secretary in Geneva (1939-40), before returning to...
TERRY, Darley. b. Brighouse, Yorkshire, 19 January 1847; d. Prestatyn, North Wales, 21 January 1933. Terry was a printer at Dewsbury, Yorkshire and a Sunday-school superintendent. He represented Yorkshire on the council of the National Sunday School Union. He was an active member of the Methodist New Connexion, serving on its Sunday schools committee from 1877 to 1899, and on its Young People's and Temperance Department. He is said to have published Poems and Hymns (1904, 1914, second series,...
CREAMER, David. b. Baltimore, Maryland, 20 November 1812; d. Baltimore, 8 April 1887. David Creamer was one of eleven children born to Joshua Creamer (nda) and Margaret Smith (nda). Creamer was educated in private schools in Baltimore until the age of 17. He was a partner in his father's lumber business until 1858 and served in several small government positions after that time. He was a devout Methodist who developed a strong interest in the hymnody of the church, and who became the first...
David's Companion (1808). James Evans*, a British Methodist who arrived in New York City in 1806, compiled and published David's Companion Being a Choice Selection of Hymn and Psalm tunes being adapted to the words and measures of the Methodist Pocket Hymn-Book containing a variety of tunes to all the metres that are now in use in the different churches: with many new tunes principally from Dr. Miller, Leach and other composers (New York, 1808). The title page dedicates the volume to 'the Rev....
MONAHAN, (Carl) Dermott. b. Ikkada, South India, 1 January 1906; d. Lambeth, London, 23 May 1957. He was the son of a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, educated at Kingswood School, Bath, the school founded by John Wesley* for the sons of ministers. From there he went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA 1927); after a year (1927-28) as a Colonial Administrator in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), he studied at Handsworth College, Birmingham. He served in educational work in India in the Hyderabad District...
HUNTINGTON, DeWitt Clinton. b. Townshend, Windham, Vermont, 27 April 1830; d. Lincoln, Nebraska, 8 February 1912. One of a family of nine children, he was the son of Ebenezer Huntington (1780-1866) and Lydia Peck (1786-1857). He was educated at Syracuse University, New York, after which he was ordained as a Methodist Episcopal Church minister in 1853. He was the pastor of churches in New York State and Pennsylvania: Rochester (1861-71); Syracuse (1873-76); Rochester again (1876-79); Bradford,...
SALIERS, Don E. b. Fostoria, Ohio, 11 August, 1937. Don Saliers is an eminent ecumenical liturgical scholar, author, teacher, composer and keyboardist, and ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He grew up in Ohio where he began the study of piano at age eight, played clarinet and violin, and sang in many high school ensembles. His father, Harold A. ('Red') Saliers, (1898 – 1981), was a classical violinist who also played jazz in New York and later formed a dance band in Ohio. Other...
HUGHES, Donald Wynn. b. Southport, Lancashire, 25 March 1911; d. Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, 12 August 1967. The son of a Methodist minister, Hughes was educated at the Perse School, Cambridge, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He took First Class Honours in the English Tripos, after which he taught at the Leys School, a Methodist foundation in Cambridge (1935-46). He was a distinguished cricketer, playing first-class cricket as an amateur for Glamorgan, for whom he took part in a...
MARLATT, Earl Bowman. b. Columbus, Indiana, 24 May 1892; d. Winchester, Indiana, 13 June 1976. His father was a Methodist Episcopal minister. He and his twin brother, Ernest F. Marlatt, were the youngest of eight brothers and sisters, all of whom graduated from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana (a Methodist foundation, originally Indiana Asbury University). Earl Bowman graduated in 1912 and then studied at Harvard and Boston Universities, and at Oxford and Berlin. He taught school in...
HARPER, Earl Enyeart. b. Coffey, Missouri, 28 March 1895; d. St Petersburg, Florida, 1 March 1967. Pastor, hymnist, educator, author, director of hymn festivals, arts curator, Harper attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska (BA, 1918) and Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts (STB, 1921), with additional study at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Harper began his professional career as the pastor of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Auburndale,...
Easter people, raise your voices. William Marcus James* (1915-2013).
Following in the tradition of many pastors who write hymns, James wrote 'Easter people, raise your voices' for his congregation at Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in New York City in 1979. In 2005 James told the present writer 'I wrote hymns for my congregation whenever I needed one. “Easter People” is not the greatest hymn I have, but it took better than the others. Most of my hymns have themes around the...
TOURJÉE, Eben. b. Warwick, Rhode Island, 1 June 1834; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 April 1891. Tourjée was an influential music educator, teacher, organist, hymnal editor, and entrepreneur. He worked in cotton mills while attending school at the East Greenwich Seminary, Providence, Rhode Island. He trained as an organist and taught music in public schools. By the age of 20 Tourjée had opened a music school based on the European conservatory model of the conservatory in Fall River,...
STITES, Edgar Page. b. Cape May, New Jersey, 22 March 1836; d. Cape May, 9 January 1921. Stites lived in Cape May for most of his life, apart from a period in Philadelphia during the Civil War, where he worked in the provisions department of the Union army, and another period when he was a missionary in Dakota. He was a pilot on the Delaware River and a lifelong Methodist, a member of the Cape May chapel for sixty years. He was the cousin of Eliza E. Hewitt* of Pennsylvania, whom he would have...
BRAILSFORD, Edward John. b. Birmingham, 8 March 1841; d. Ilfracombe, Devon, 30 November 1921. He was educated in Ireland at the Wesleyan Connexional School, Dublin, and trained for the Wesleyan Methodist ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester. He was ordained in 1863, and served in various circuits, including Bangor and Caernarvon, Liverpool, London, Bolton, and Ilkley, Yorkshire, where some of his hymns were written. He served as Chairman of the District in no fewer than five districts,...
PERRONET, Edward. b. probably at Sundridge, Kent, 1721; d. Canterbury, 2 January 1792. He was the son of an Anglican vicar from a Swiss Huguenot family, Vincent Perronet (1693-1785), curate of Sundridge and later (1728) vicar of Shoreham, Kent. Vincent Perronet was initially concerned about Methodist activity within the Church of England, but was convinced by a long letter from John Wesley* of 1748, later published as A Plain Account of the People called Methodists (1749). He became a strong...
ESLINGER, Elise Shoemaker (née Matheny). b. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2 December 1942. Elise Matheny's musical education began in early childhood with her aunt and continued with piano lessons at age 5 and organ lessons at age 14. Following graduation from high school in Meridian, Mississippi (1960), she pursued her undergraduate education at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi (BA in Organ, Minor in English, Magna cum laude, 1963). She continued graduate studies in music literature at the...
EMURIAN, Ernest K. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 February 1912; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 23 January 2004. A hymn writer, author, hymn enthusiast, and a fourth-generation preacher, Emurian was the son of a composer, hymn writer, and publisher. He earned a BA (1931) from Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, a BD from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree...
Lauluraamat Piiskoplikule Metodistikirikule Eestis (Tallinn, 1926; The Estonian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal). The Estonian Methodist Episcopal hymnal (cited as ESMEH 1926), like its Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts (see 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'* and 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*), was strongly dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten Kirche in Deutschland und der Schweiz ('Hymnbook of the German and Swiss Methodist Episcopal Church', Bremen, 1896, cited as GBMK 1896). It...
Eternal beam of light divine. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739). It was entitled 'In Affliction'. It had six stanzas:
Eternal Beam of Light Divine,
Fountain of unexhausted Love,
In whom the Father's Glories shine,
Thro' Earth beneath, and Heaven above!
Jesu! The weary Wand'rer's Rest;
Give me thy easy Yoke to bear,
With stedfast Patience arm my Breast,
With spotless Love, and holy Fear.
Thankful I take the Cup from Thee,
Prepar'd and mingled...
Eternal, spotless Lamb of God. John Wesley* (1703-1791).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), as stanzas 7-9 of a long hymn (nine 8-line verses) entitled 'The Lord's Prayer Paraphrased'. See 'Father of all, whose powerful voice'* and 'Eternal Son, eternal Love'*. The whole hymn was appended by John Wesley to his sixth sermon on the Sermon on the Mount (see The Works of John Wesley. Vol I, Sermons 1-33, ed. Albert C. Outler, Nashville, Tennessee, 1984). In the 1780 Collection of...
Expand thy wings, celestial Dove. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn is made up of five stanzas taken from Charles Wesley's Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762). Two are from Genesis 1 and three from II Chronicles 6. They are reproduced here from the 1762 text to show the 'select passage' in each case:
Genesis: 'The Spirit of GOD moved upon the face of the waters. - i. 2.'
Expand thy wings, celestial Dove, And brooding o'er my nature's night, Call...
HAMILTON, Fayette Montgomery ('F.M.'). b. Washington, Arkansas, 3 September 1858; d. Sparta, Georgia, 10 November 1912. The life of this hymnodist, composer, arranger, and editor is most accurately told within the context of the early history of the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church (in 1954 the name was changed to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church). It was first organized on 16 December 1870 as The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, an ecclesial body of mostly African...
Father of everlasting grace/ Be mindful. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
Charles Wesley sometimes used and re-used lines that he found graceful or appropriate. This hymn has the same opening as the better known 'Father of everlasting grace'*, found in many Methodist (and some other) books, published in Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father (Bristol, 1746).
The present hymn, which has been used in a few books in the USA and Canada (see below), is from Volume I of Short...
Father of lights, from whom proceeds. John Wesley* (1703-1791) or Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is from Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), the first hymnbook published by John and Charles Wesley after their 'conversion' in 1738. It was entitled 'A Prayer under Convictions', that is 'under the conviction of sin'. The hymn had eight stanzas:
Father of Light, from whom proceeds Whate'er thy Ev'ry Creature needs, Whose Goodness providently nigh Feeds the young Ravens when they cry; To Thee I...
Father, in whom we live. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747), where it was entitled 'To the Trinity'. It was not included by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but it was added in an early supplement of 1796. The original text began:
Father, in whom we live, In whom we are, and move, The Glory, Power, and Praise receive Of thy...
PAGURA, Federico José. b. Arroyo Secco, Santa Fe, Argentina, 9 February, 1923; d. Rosario, Santa Fe, 6 June 2016.
Life and Ministry
In the second half of the 20th century Federico Pagura was among the most notable leaders of the church in South America and one of the leading authors and translators of congregational hymnody from this continent. Not only was he a pillar of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina; he was also a resilient and compelling voice for human rights (derechos...
The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts (now the Fellowship of Worship Artists)
The Fellowship is in part the successor to the National Fellowship of Methodist Musicians (NaFOMM), whose founding in the mid 1950s was prompted by that denomination's educational leaders' and curriculum editors' articulation of the theological discrepancies and inadequacies, the pedagogical practices of children's choir directors, and the texts of songs in the denomination's Sunday school...
CLARK, Francis Albert. b. Brooklyn, New York, 1867; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 27 February 1948. Widely known as 'Professor Clark', he was a celebrated Philadelphia organist, pianist, choir director and arranger, and director of music in a number of leading churches, including, the Wesley African American Episcopal Zion Church (ca. 1919) and the Wesley Methodist Church on 15th and Lombard Streets. Clark was the Celebration Chorus musical director for the controversial, but successful,...
BOTTOME, Francis ('Frank'). b. Belper, Derbyshire, 26 May 1823; d. Tavistock, Devon, 29 June 1894. As a young man he was greatly influenced by the Methodists in his native town, and was called upon to preach to them. After training under Thomas Jackson and obtaining a local preacher's license, serving the Belper Circuit, he went to Guelph, Canada, as a missionary to the Native Americans. His health broke down, and he went to New York en route for England. In New York he recovered in the hands...
WESTBROOK, Francis Brotherton. b. Thornton Heath, Norbury, Surrey, 16 June 1903; d. Harpenden, Hertfordshire, 19 September 1975. He was educated at Whitgift Middle School, Croydon, and Didsbury (Wesleyan) Theological College, Manchester. He was ordained at the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1930, and served as a Methodist minister, before 1932 as a Wesleyan. His first church was at Tipton, near Birmingham, and he took the opportunity ot study with Granville Bantock, Professor of Music at the...
BAKER, Frank. b. Kingston upon Hull, UK, 15 April 1910; d. Durham, North Carolina, 11 October 1999. In a fine tribute by John E. Vickers in the Second Edition of Baker's John Wesley and the Church of England (Peterborough, 2000), we read that Frank gave his life to Jesus Christ during the 'Humberside Crusade' in the winter of 1924. This led to his becoming a local preacher and then answering the call to full-time ministry in the Primitive Methodist Church. Because of what seems today to have...
NORTH, Frank Mason. b. New York City, 3 December 1850; d. Madison, New Jersey, 17 December 1935. North received BA and MA degrees from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1872. A minister in several churches in Florida, New York, and Connecticut (1872-92), he also held administrative positions in Methodist missionary organizations (1892-1924), and was an early leader of ecumenical causes and an advocate for women's rights, child...
GEALY, Frederick Daniel. b. Oil City, Pennsylvania, 13 May 1894; d. University Park, Texas, 15 December 1976. Distinguished New Testament scholar, teacher, hymnist, and church musician, Gealy attended Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, (BA, 1916); Boston University (STB 1919; PhD 1929), with additional study at Universität Basel, Switzerland; Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Berlin, Germany; Union Theological Seminary New York City (Dodge Mission Fellow, MTh, 1929); and the University...
GREEN, Fred(erick) Pratt. b. Roby, near Liverpool, 2 September 1903; d. Norwich, 22 October 2000. He was educated at Huyton High School, Wallasey Grammar School and Rydal School, before training for the Methodist ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester. It was here that he wrote Farley Goes Out, a missionary play performed widely, and the forerunner of twelve further plays both secular and religious. Ordained in 1928, Pratt Green wrote his first hymn, 'God lit a flame in Bethlehem' and a...
WISEMAN, (Frederick) Luke. b. York, 29 January 1858; d. Wandsworth, London, 16 January 1944. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, Luke Hoult Wiseman (1822-1875, President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1872), he trained for the ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester, after working in a bank. He was tutor in Hebrew at Didsbury College (1881-87), Superintendent Minister of the Birmingham Mission (1887-1913), and President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1912-13. He became...
Full Salvation! Full Salvation! Francis Bottome* (1823-1894).
According to JJ, p. 164, this hymn was first published in 'a collection by Dr Cullis of Boston, 1873', but this has not been verified. JJ was referring to Charles Cullis (1833-1892), a physician who specialized in faith healing. Cullis's Faith Hymns appeared in a number of editions published by the Willard Tract Repository, Boston, from 1870 onwards (Bottome's hymn was not in the 1870 edition, but was certainly in one of 1887;...
HILL, Gareth. b. Pontypool, 1956. Educated in Pontypool and Cwmbran, Gareth Hill worked for many years as a journalist and teacher of journalism. He became a local preacher in the Methodist Church of Great Britain aged seventeen, and was ordained as to the presbyteral ministry in 2001, subsequently serving in several appointments in Cornwall.
He cites the influence of both the congregational hymn-singing tradition of his native Wales and the popular music of his teenage years on his work in...
AINGER, Geoffrey Jackson. b. Mistley, near Manningtree, Essex, 28 October 1925; d. 25 January 2013. He was educated at Bracondale School, Norwich (1935-42). After service with the Church Army in East Anglia and north-west Europe, he trained for the Methodist ministry at Richmond College, London (1946-52). He served in the Southampton circuit (1952-56), and was ordained in 1953. In 1956 he went to New York, where he worked with an ecumenical Team Ministry at East Harlem, and gained a Master's...
LOCKWOOD, George Frank. b. Tacoma, Washington, 3 April 1946. George Lockwood is the son of George F. Lockwood, a Methodist minister, and Mable Lockwood (née Perkins), an accomplished musician. At four years of age, the family moved to the Chicago area where his father had been raised; his mother, who had received her bachelor's degree in organ from Boston University, encouraged George and his brothers to study piano at an early age. He sang in choirs, including some under his mother's...
ROWE, George Stringer. b. Margate, Kent, 1 February 1830; d. Bromley, Kent, 18 August 1913. He trained for the Wesleyan Methodist ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester. He served in Wesleyan Methodist circuits, until he was appointed Professor of Pastoral Theology at Headingley College, Leeds, in 1888. He was a member of the committee that produced 'Wesley's Hymns' (1876), the major revision by the Wesleyan Methodists of John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called...
WHITEFIELD, George. b. Gloucester, 16 December 1714; d. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 30 September 1770. He was the son of an innkeeper, who died when he was two years old. His mother remarried, unhappily, and the inn was mismanaged by his step-father. Whitefield's childhood cannot have been a settled one, although he was educated at Gloucester Cathedral School and the Crypt School. In 1732 he matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, as a 'Servitor', performing menial tasks in order to pay for...
Give to the winds thy fears. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
This is a free translation of part of Gerhardt's 'Befiehl du deine Wege'*, beginning at stanza 9 of Wesley's text. It is a companion piece to 'Commit thou all thy griefs'*. The two hymns are sometimes printed separately, and sometimes as two parts of the same hymn, as in HP. They were not included in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but appeared in the...
Heavenly Father, bless me now. Alexander Clark* (1834-1879).
This hymn was popular in the 19th century, and is found in a number of books, including two from the Methodist meetings for Sunday-school teachers at Lake Chautauqua, The Chautauqua Collection (1875) and Chautauqua Carols (1878). It is found in Sacred Songs and Solos, in a more intense and urgent evangelical form, with a tune by Robert Lowry*, given a refrain: 'Bless me now! bless me now! Heavenly Father, bless me now!' In view of...
BURTON, Henry. b. Swannington, Leicestershire, 26 November 1840; d. West Kirby, Hoylake, Cheshire, 27 April 1930. As a young man Burton went with his family when they emigrated to the USA in 1856. They settled in Wisconsin, and Henry studied at Beloit College, then fairly new (founded 1846). He became a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was in charge of a church at Monroe, Wisconsin, for a short time. He then returned to Britain: he was ordained into the Wesleyan Methodist...
HILES, Henry. b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 31 December 1826; d. Worthing, Sussex, 20 October 1904. Hiles was a self-taught organist with the assistance of his brother John (1810-1882), and he was playing in local churches at an early age. At the age of 18 he became organist of the large parish church at Bury, Lancashire, moving to Bishopwearmouth, County Durham, where he was organist from 1847 to 1852. He travelled widely from 1852 to 1859, visiting Australia and other countries. On his return he...
Holy Ghost, we bid thee welcome. Lelia Morris* (1862-1929).
First published in Songs of Redemption (Boston, Massachusetts, 1899), edited by Joshua Gill, Geo. A. McLaughlin, William J. Kirkpatrick*, and H.L. Gilmour. It had four stanzas which began:
'Holy Ghost, we bid thee welcome'
'Here, like empty earthen vessels'
'Come like dew from heaven falling'
'Hearts are open to receive thee'.
In some books there is a refrain:
Welcome, welcome, welcome, Holy Ghost, we welcome thee; Come in power and...
SHERLOCK, Hugh Braham. b. Portland, Jamaica, 21 March 1905; d. 19 April 1998. Educated at Beckford and Smith School (now St Jago High School) and Calabar High School, Sherlock worked as a civil servant before attending Caenwood Methodist Theological College. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1932, and served as a missionary in the Turks and Caicos Islands, before returning to Kingston, Jamaica, in 1940. At Kingston he did remarkable work under the name of 'Operation Friendship' in a...
Hymns and Psalms (HP) (1983). The British Methodist Hymns and Psalms was sub-titled 'A Methodist and Ecumenical Hymn Book' reflecting the initial hope that this might be a hymn book project in which the United Reformed Church, the Churches of Christ, and the Wesleyan Reform Union would join. It was also a reflection of the ecumenical mood of the time, in spite of the rejection by the Church of England of possible Anglican-Methodist union in the early 1970s.
The Methodist Conference of 1979...
Hymns and Songs (1969). Hymns and Songs (1969) was a British Methodist Supplement to MHB. It contained 99 hymns and songs, five canticles and psalms, and 26 'Supplementary Tunes' to hymns in MHB. Some of the contents were traditional, because the opportunity was taken to include some omissions from MHB (such as James Montgomery*'s 'Songs of praise the angels sang'*). Others were (in the words of the preface) 'in an idiom and style which answer the demand for more contemporary expressions and...
Hymns of the City (1989). This is the title of a collection edited by John J. Vincent, a Methodist minister, and published by the Urban Theology Unit at Sheffield (1989, revised 1998). It is a collection of 31 texts (32 in the second edition), attempting to give voice to Christians living in cities, providing hymns for and from small congregations in inner city and housing estate churches. The preface claims that such hymns are about people's real experience and not 'the endless praise for no...
I have read of a beautiful city. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
This is dated in JJ (p. 89) ca. 1874 or 1875, and published in an 'early edition' of Gospel Hymns (according to Hymnary.org it was Gospel Hymns No. 3 (New York and Cincinnati, 1878):
I have read of a beautiful city, Far away in the kingdom of God; I have read how its walls are of jasper, How its streets are all golden and broad; In the midst of the street is life's river, Clear as crystal and pure to behold; But not half...
In the shadow of His wings. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
First published in Salvation Echoes: For Sabbath School, Gospel, Prayer and Praise Meetings (Alliance, Ohio, 1882), based on Psalm 63: 7: 'because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.' It had three stanzas and a refrain:
In the shadow of His wings There is rest, sweet rest; There is rest from care and labor, There is rest for friend and neighbor; In the shadow of His wings There is...
WHITE, James Floyd. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 23 January, 1932; d. South Bend, Indiana, 31 October 2004. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts (graduated 1949), Harvard University (AB, 1953), and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD 1956). After a Fulbright Fellowship to study liturgy at Cambridge University, UK (1956-1957), he completed graduate studies at Duke University (PhD, 1960) with a dissertation, 'The Medieval Revival in the Church of England in the...
LAWSON, James. b. Elston, Nottinghamshire, England, 17 March 1847; d. Ottawa, Canada, 1 May 1926. Lawson has been difficult to identify, if only because his best-known hymn, 'I will follow thee, my Savior'*, has, in some books, been incorrectly attributed to 'James L., Elginburg'. In his 1989 Companion to the Song Book of the Salvation Army of 1986, Gordon Taylor suggested that 'it seems likely that his name was James Lawson, and that Elginburg was not a surname but was possibly a place with...
LEACH, James. b. Townhead, near Rochdale, Lancashire, 1761 (baptized 25 December); d. Blackley, near Manchester, 8 February 1798. He was a handloom weaver by trade, and a Wesleyan Methodist. His talent as a singer and composer soon earned him a great reputation in Lancashire, and like many of his class and region, he was passionately committed to the singing of psalmody, and to more ambitious choral performances at local musical festivals. He is said to have sung as an alto in the Handel...
BLACK, James Milton. b. South Hill, New York, 19 August 1856; d. Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 21 December 1938. Black was an enthusiastic promoter of Gospel hymnody, compiling volume after volume, often with sub-titles such as 'for use in Sunday schools, prayer meetings, revivals, young people's meetings, and on special occasions'. His Songs of the Soul (1894) was very successful, selling, it is believed, 400,000 copies. He was extremely active at the turn of the century, publishing a series of...
MARSHALL, Jane Anne Manton. b. Dallas, Texas, 5 December 1924; d. Dallas, 29 May 2019. Jane Marshall attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas (BM 1945, MM 1968), where she later taught English in the University College; she taught choral arranging, music theory, and conducting in the Music Division, Meadows School of The Arts, and at Perkins School of Theology. In the latter she directed the Church Music Summer School, 1975-2010. Her honors include the distinguished alumnae award from...
CENNICK, John. b. Reading, Berkshire, 12 December 1718; d. London, 4 July 1755. On one side of the family his grandparents had been Quakers, persecuted for their beliefs, but his parents were members of the Church of England. He was educated at Reading, and brought up strictly, 'kept constant to daily Prayers'. As a young man he subsequently went through a period of depression. He was trained as a shoemaker.
He had an experience of salvation in 7 September 1737, and sought out the Methodists in...
LAMPE, John Frederick. b. perhaps Braunschweig/Brunswick, 1702/3; d. Edinburgh, 25 July 1751. Lampe was a German-born composer and performer, who was described as coming from Brunswick in the records of the University of Helmstedt, where he studied law from 1718 to 1720. He settled in Britain from 1725/6, establishing himself as a harpsichordist and bassoonist, performing under Handel*'s direction, and also as a composer of operatic music. In the mid-1740s, he came into contact with John* and...
THORNBURG, John. b. Southampton, New York, 28 July 1954. He was educated in classical studies and music at DePauw University (AB, 1976) and in theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University (MDiv, 1981). Ordained in the United Methodist Church in 1981, his parish appointments included Christ United Methodist Church, Farmers Branch, Texas (1979-1981); the Council on Ministries of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church (1981-84); Greenland Hills United...
WESLEY, John. b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, 17 June 1703; d. London, 2 March 1791. He was the son of Samuel Wesley (I)*, rector of Epworth, the younger brother of Samuel Wesley (II)* and the older brother of Charles Wesley*. As a child of five John was saved from a dangerous fire at the rectory, 'a brand plucked from the burning'. He was educated at home under his remarkable mother, Susanna, 'the mother of Methodism', and then at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1724, MA 1727). He...
A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (CPH, 1737) was the first Anglican hymnal published in Colonial America for use in private and public worship (Evans, no. 4207). It was compiled and published in 1737 at Charles-town [now Charleston], South Carolina, by the missionary-priest, John Wesley*, for use in his ministry to English settlers and others who attended his religious societies in Savannah and Frederica, in the Georgia colony.
The Collection is patterned after resources used by Anglican...
ATCHINSON, Jonathan Burtch. b. Wilson, Niagara County, New York State, 17 February 1840; d. Midland City, Ohio, 15 July 1882. The son of Henry M. Atchinson (1807-1889) and Annah Burtch (1805-1884), he served in the Union army during the Civil War, was licensed to preach (1869), and became a ministerial member of in the Genesee Conference [Western New York] (1870). He transferred his membership to the Detroit [Michigan] Conference in 1873. According to the Detroit Conference Journal (1882, p....
COOK, Joseph Simpson. b. County Durham, England, 4 December 1859; d. Toronto, Ontario, 27 May 1933. He emigrated to Georgetown, Ontario, entering the Methodist ministry as a probationer with London Conference in 1880, serving Bayfield Mission on the eastern shore of Lake Huron from 1881 until 1883. He enrolled in a combined course in Arts and Theology at McGill University and Wesleyan Theological College, being ordained in 1885. He earned an MA from Illinois Wesleyan University (1892), a BD...
CLEVELAND, Judge Jefferson. b. Elberton, Elbert County, Georgia, 21 September 1937; d. Washington, DC, 20 June 1986. Pianist, vocalist, composer, and prominent scholar and editor/arranger of AfricanAmerican congregational song, Cleveland was salutatorian at Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia (BA in music, 1958); he then attended Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois (MME, 1959), and Boston University (DMA, 1972). He taught at three historically black Christian colleges: Claflin...
VAN DE VENTER, Judson Wheeler. b. near Dundee, Michigan, 5 December 1855; d. Tampa, Florida, 17 July 1939. Educated at Hillsdale College, Michigan, he was a student of drawing and painting, with ambitions to be a great artist. He studied painting in Europe in 1885, before becoming a teacher of art. He supported himself financially by teaching at Sharon High School, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, becoming supervisor of art in the public schools of the city, and then in Bradford, Pennsylvania. He...
HARRINGTON, Karl Pomeroy. b. Great Falls (now Somersworth), New Hampshire, 13 June 1861; d. Berkeley, California, 14 November 1953. A professor of Latin at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, Harrington was a music editor of The Methodist Hymnal (New York, 1905) [MH 1905] and composer of hymn tunes. The best known of these is CHRISTMAS SONG, for the poem 'There's a song in the air' (see below).
Until the age of twelve, Harrington was home-schooled. His mother, Eliza Cynthia...
ROWE, Kenneth E. b. Coaldale, Pennsylvania, 15 April 1937. Rowe, the premier bibliographer of American Methodism, received degrees from Drew University (BA 1959; PhD 1969); Yale University (BD 1962), and Rutgers University (MLS 1970). He was Professor of Church History and Methodist Librarian at Drew University from 1970 until his retirement from the library in 2002 and from the faculty in 2005. He was instrumental in bringing the National Archives of the United Methodist Church to Drew and in...
Dseesmu Grahmata Biskapu Metodistu baznizai Latwija (Rigâ, 1924) [The Latvian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal].
The Latvian Methodist Episcopal hymnal (cited as LAMEH 1924) has some similarities with that of the Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal (cited as LIMEH 1923, see 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'*). Both hymnals included a preface by George Albert Simons*, the Methodist Episcopal Superintendent of the Baltic States; both were heavily dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten...
Lim, Swee Hong (林瑞峰).b. Singapore; 11 June 1963.
Lim, Swee Hong is a Singaporean church musician, composer, and educator. Born into a Chinese Christian family, Lim inherited the faith of his maternal heritage as a fourth-generation Christian. His father (Baptist) and mother (Presbyterian) instilled the value of service to God. Along with his siblings, Lim was encouraged by his mother to serve the church through music-making. Lim began to learn musical instruments at an early age, planting the...
Lietuviška Giesmių Knyga (Kaunas, 1923) [The Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal]. This hymnbook (cited as LIMEH 1923) was published in 1923 with Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal pastors Karlas Metas and Jonas Tautoraitis as editors. Like the other Methodist hymnbooks of the Baltic states (see 'Estonian Methodist hymnody'*and 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*) it was heavily dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten Kirche in Deutschland und der Schweiz ('Hymnbook of the German...
STEAD, Louisa M.R. b. Dover, England, 1 February 1846; d. Penkridge (now Mutare), near Umtali, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 18 January 1917. Louisa immigrated to the United States as a young woman, ca. 1871, where she resided with friends in Cincinnati, Ohio. At a camp meeting revival in Urbana, Ohio, Louisa committed herself to missionary service, but was unable to fulfill her vow owing to poor health. After marrying George Stead in 1873, she gave birth to their only child, Louise...
MILLER, Mark Andrew. b. Burlington, Vermont, 7 January 1967. Mark Miller is a pianist, organist, singer, composer, choral conductor, church musician, educator, and active lay person in the United Methodist Church. He is currently an Associate Professor of Church Music, Director of the Chapel, and Composer-In-Residence at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, and since 2006, a Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music in the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. Miller also...
British Methodist Hymnody
During the time of John Wesley
John Wesley* and Charles Wesley* sang hymns in the Holy Club which Charles had founded at Oxford in 1729, of which John became the acknowledged leader on his return there later in the same year. They would have used traditional English psalm tunes (see Leaver, 1996, p. 31). However, their interest in the potential of hymns as important aids to worship and spirituality developed strongly on the ship that took them to America in 1735-36....
Methodist Hymnody, USA
Hymns were used within the Methodist movement for teaching of doctrine, for evangelism (of the unsaved and to revive those who faith was lagging), for praise and confession. Important doctrines for the Wesleyan movement are Arminianism, the understanding that Christ died for everyone, not just the elect; the Christian journey as the way of salvation, on a continuum of God's prevenient grace (which comes before one is awakened to God's call), justifying and...
Methodist Sunday-school hymnals and songbooks, USA
A list of collections with or without music published by or for the Methodist Episcopal Church (1784-1939), the Methodist Protestant Church (1830-1939), the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1845-1939) and the Methodist Church (1939-1968). Many collections were issued for general use, e.g. The Cokesbury Hymnal (MEC,S 1923+), The Abingdon Hymnal (MEC 1928+), Abingdon Song Book (MEC 1938+) and Upper Room Hymns (MC 1942+).
Methodist Episcopal...
Mille voix pour Te chanter/ A Thousand Tongues to Sing to You (2006)
This hymnal was the first French-language hymnal for United Methodists in Europe and Africa. It was edited by S T Kimbrough Jr.*, with Carlton R. Young* as music editor. They were assisted by Jane-Marie Nussbaumer, Claire-Lise Meissner-Schmidt, Abraham Arpellet, Nkemba Ndjungu, and Wesley Macgruder. It was published in the USA by the General Board of Global Ministries, New York, and in France in La Bégarde de Mazenc,...
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine. William Ralph Featherston* (1846-1873).
This Gospel hymn is normally attributed to Featherston (but see below). After that the information is uncertain. It was said by Ira D. Sankey* (1906, pp. 165-6) to have been published without an author's name in The London Hymn Book of 1862. The usually reliable James Mearns* gives 1864 as the date, and the author as anonymous (JJ, p. 1676). Sankey's title probably refers to The London Hymn Book, containing...
O'er the gloomy hills of darkness. William Williams* (1717-1791).
From Williams's Gloria in Excelsis (Carmarthen, 1772), where it was Hymn XXXVII. A correspondent to the Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 suggests that the diction and imagery may have been inspired by the Black Mountain range in Carmarthenshire which may be seen from Williams's home (Polack, 1958, p. 352).
The customary text is one of three (or sometimes four) stanzas, selected from the original seven. It was included in...
OLUDE, (A. T.) Olajida. b. 16 July 1908; d. c. 1986. A Nigerian Methodist minister, Olude was educated at Wesley College, Ibadan, and at the Mindola training school. He was awarded the Order of Niger and, from the University of Nigeria, the Mus.D. degree (Young, 808).
A.M. Jones describes Olude as 'profoundly upset by the way European-type hymns murdered his language' (Jones, 1976). Jones also notes that Olude built up a collection of at least 77 hymns whose melodies followed precisely the...
SOSA, Pablo. b. in Chivilcoy, a province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 16 December 1933; d. Buenos Aires, 11 January 2020. Sosa was a composer, church musician and a local minister of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina. He was emeritus professor of Liturgy and Hymnology at the Instituto Universitario ISEDET (Buenos Aires), and Choir Conducting at the National State Conservatory in Buenos Aires (1975-2005). He also established the musical group 'Música para Todos' in 1972, directing and...
Partners in Praise (1979). This is the title of a collection published in 1979 by Stainer and Bell Ltd, in conjunction with the Division of Education and Youth of the British Methodist Church. An edition appeared in the USA in 1982 (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press). The explicit aim was to provide material that could be used in worship by adults and children together (the 'partners' of the title), and to use contemporary hymns and tunes. The editors were Fred Pratt Green* and Bernard...
Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
The School of Theology (now known as Perkins School of Theology) [PST], was one of the three original schools of Southern Methodist University (SMU), founded in 1911 as a nonsectarian institution of higher education by what is now the United Methodist Church in partnership with Dallas civic leaders. After large gifts from Joe L. and Lois Craddock Perkins of Wichita Falls, Texas, beginning in 1945, the name of the School of Theology was...
JARVIS, Peter George. b. London, 2 August 1925. He was educated at the King's School, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1934-42), followed by a period working for the Inland Revenue (1942-49). After a year as a pre-collegiate probationer, he studied for the Methodist ministry at Handsworth College (1950-54). He was ordained in 1954, and served in Methodist circuits at Dudley (1954-57), Leighton Buzzard (1957-61), Harrow (1961-67), Reading (1967-72), Tooting Mission (1972-78), Wantage and Abingdon...
PHILLIPS, Philip. b. Chautauqua County, New York, 13 August, 1834; d. Delaware, Ohio, 25 June 1895. Phillips, widely known as the 'Singing Pilgrim' was an evangelistic singer, song-writer, compiler of hymnals, and owner of a music company. According to the Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chautauqua County, New York (Philadelphia, 1891) the paternal grandfather of Philip Phillips, who was also named Philip Phillips, moved to Cassadaga, Chautauqua County, in 1816. His son, Sawyer...
WATTERS, Philip Sidney. b. Dobbs Ferry, New York, 4 February 1890; d. Hackettstown, New Jersey, 23 September 1972. He was a Methodist minister and administrator, the son of Philip Melancthon Watters (1860–1926), also a Methodist minister, and Hyla Ada Stowell Watters (1862–1932), a teacher. His father was president of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta from 1915 to 1924; his elder sister, Florence Ada Watters Schultz (1888–1980), was a missionary to India and Pakistan; and his younger...
Pocket Hymn Book (1787)
The history of A Pocket Hymn Book begins with a production by Robert Spence, a bookseller in York. In 1781 Spence had earlier, to John Wesley*'s disapproval, printed a much shortened version of the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists. The 1780 book was expensive, and Spence saw an opportunity. He added 'about fifty hymns by other authors popular in evangelical circles', reduced it in size, and printed it as A Pocket Hymn Book, designed...
MARTINEZ, Raquel Mora (née Mora). b. Allende, Coahuila, Mexico, 17 January 1940. Composer, teacher, church musician, and hymnal editor. Her father, Josué Mora, was a Methodist minister, and her mother, Amada Mora, a homemaker, devoted all her time to church service. Endowed with a beautiful voice, 'Amadita', as Raquel was called, became the choir soloist: she would sing for all special occasions. She received her education from the Lydia Patterson Institute, El Paso, Texas (1957-1960),...
McCUTCHAN, Robert Guy. b. Mt. Ayr, Iowa, 13 September 1877, d. Claremont, California, 15 May 1958. McCutchan was a distinguished hymnologist, editor, teacher and church musician who played a major role in shaping Methodist hymnody, music and performance practice during the first half of the 20th century. His career as a church musician and educator was characterized by a deep love and concern for local congregations, and a strong desire for typical worshipers to experience the joy of singing...
See 'Zimbabwean hymnody#Robert Kauffman'*
DESCHNER, Roger Neil. b. San Antonio, Texas, 1 December 1927; d. Richardson, Texas, 23 October 1991. Prominent church musician, Wesleyan scholar, and teacher, Deschner attended the University of Texas at Austin, (BA, 1949), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD, 1952), followed by graduate studies at the School of Music, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1955). He was ordained an elder in The United Methodist Church in 1962. Deschner served as minister of music at Epworth...
KIMBROUGH, Jr., S T. b. Athens, Alabama, 17 December 1936. Prominent Wesley scholar, singer, editor, and global hymnologist, Kimbrough attended Birmingham Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama (BA, 1958), The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (BDiv, 1962) and Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey (PhD, 1966). An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, he was pastor of churches in Alabama, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Germany. Kimbrough has...
MacARTHUR, Terry Lee. b. Alpena, Michigan, 8 September 1949. MacArthur attended Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant, Michigan (BS,1971), and The Methodist Theological School In Ohio, Delaware, Ohio (MDiv, 1976). He was a United Methodist pastor in the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church, and served on the conference worship team., Concurrent with his studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York (STM, 1984), he was the organist/choir director at Zion Lutheran Church...
There's a Stranger at the door. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
First published, after Atchinson's death, in The Gospel Choir (New York, 1885), edited by Ira D. Sankey*. It had four stanzas:
There's a Stranger at the door, Let Him in; He has been there oft before, Let Him in; Let Him in, ere He is gone, Let Him in, the Holy One, Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, Let Him in.
Open now to Him your heart, Let Him in; If you wait He will depart, Let Him in; Let Him in, He is your Friend;...
SUMMERS, Thomas Osmond. b. Swanage, Dorset, England, 11 October 1812, d. Nashville, Tennessee, 6 May 1882. An influential and articulate American Methodist theologian, editor, historian, liturgist, teacher, and hymnist, Summers was orphaned at an early age and cared for by his Calvinist grandmother and great-aunt, who apparently encouraged his early interests in reading and self-learning. At age seven, following their deaths, he was placed in the guardianship of three deacons of the...
The Methodist Church Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada and 70% of the Presbyterian Church in Canada united to form The United Church of Canada on 10 June 1925. The first hymnbook of the new church, The Hymnary, was published in Toronto in 1930 by The United Church Publishing House. In 1971 the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada issued a joint hymnal entitled The Hymn Book. It was the only product of a thirty-year dialogue towards church union. Voices United: the...
COPES, Vicar Earle. b. Norfolk, Virginia, 12 August 1921; d. Sarasota, Florida, 20 July 2014. Copes was a distinguished composer, teacher, performer, editor, and elder in the United Methodist Church, an important force in the development of Methodist's professional standards, a champion of Wesleyan and ecumenical hymnody, and leader in the expansion of church music repertory, styles, and performance practices. He was educated at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina (BA, 1942), and Union...
MENDOZA, Vicente Polanco. b. Guadalajara, Mexico, 24 December 1875; d. Mexico City, 14 June 1955. Methodist evangelist, hymn writer, and translator, he was acclaimed by many as the leading evangelist in Mexican Methodism of his generation, and the author of some of the most beloved hymns from this era in the Spanish language. Vicente P. Mendoza should not be confused with two others of his generation with a similar name: Vicente T. Mendoza (1894-1964), a Mexican Methodist musicologist,...
Voices in Praise. This collection, published in 2013, is the authorised hymnal of The Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA). It is a significant milestone in the history of the MCCA, as it is the first time it has issued an authorised hymnal since its foundation in 1967. Its preface indicates Caribbean Methodism's longstanding attachment to the British Methodist Hymn Book (MHB, 1933), and, in describing its long gestation, summarises the diverse influences, cultural...
FEATHERSTON, William Ralph. b. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 23 July 1846; d. Montreal, 20 May 1873. Featherston died at the age of 26, and little is known about his life. He was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church in Montreal. He is normally accepted as the author of the famous Gospel hymn, 'My Jesus I love Thee, I know Thou art mine'*. Information about this hymn is uncertain, but it is believed to have been written at some point between 1858 and 1864, when it was published anonymously in...