Category search results
A little child the Saviour came. William Robertson, of Monzievaird* (1820-1864).
This hymn for Holy Baptism with its attractive first line was published in the Church of Scotland's Hymns for Public Worship (1861), and subsequently in the Scottish Hymnal (1870). It was also used by the Presbyterian Church of England, and is found in Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and in Church Praise (1884). In JJ, p. 2, it was reported that it had become more popular in America than in Britain,...
Again the Lord of life and light. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
First published in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), where it was entitled 'For Easter-Sunday'. It appeared in Barbauld's Poems (1773), as 'Hymn III', with the same title. It had eleven stanzas.
Many different selections from the eleven stanzas have been made, beginning with William Bengo...
ACKLEY, Alfred Henry. b. Spring Hill, Pennsylvania, 21 January 1887; d. Whittier, California, 3 July 1960. Ackley received his early musical training from his father, and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in New York City to become an accomplished cellist. He graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary, Westminster, Maryland, in 1914, and served Presbyterian churches in Wilkes-Barre and Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, and Escondido, California. Ackley claimed he wrote the...
ROBERTSON, Alison Margaret (née Malloch). b. Glasgow, 22 February 1940. She was the younger twin of the Revd. Jack and Nancy Malloch. In 1948 the family moved to the Gold Coast (now Ghana), when her father became a Church of Scotland missionary principal of the Teacher Training College at Akropong. Her mother ran a baby clinic once a week and Alison, at the age of 10, was made responsible for the small wounds part of the clinic, cleaning and dressing fresh and infected wounds sustained by the...
DAVISSON, Ananias. b. Shenandoah County, Virginia, 2 February 1780; d. Rockingham County Virginia, 21 October 1857. Davisson is best known as the compiler of the fasola tunebooks Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia, five editions), and A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia, three editions).
Little is known about Davisson prior to 1816. His successes beginning that year as a printer of tunebooks suggest that he may have been apprenticed to a printer. Only slightly...
LAW, Andrew. b. Milford, Connecticut, 21 March 1749; d. Cheshire, Connecticut, 13 July 1821. Law, a grandson of Jonathan Law (1674-1750), Governor of the Colony of Connecticut (1741-1750), was a tunebook compiler, clergyman, and composer. His Select Harmony: containing in a plain and concise manner, the rules of singing, together with a collection of psalm tunes, hymns and anthems (Cheshire, Connecticut, 1779) became a major influence among many subsequent collections used by singing masters...
BARBAULD, Anna Letitia (née Aikin). b. Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, 20 June 1743; d. Stoke Newington, London, 9 March 1825. At Kibworth her father was a Presbyterian minister teaching at the dissenting academy (her maternal grandfather, John Jennings, had taught Philip Doddridge* there). In 1753 her father moved to the celebrated Warrington Academy, where she thrived in the cultural and intellectual freedom and began to write, publishing (with her brother John) Poems (1773) and...
COUSIN, Anne Ross (née Cundell). b. Hull, Yorkshire, 27 April 1824; d. Edinburgh, 6 December 1906. The daughter of a Scottish army surgeon, she moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, as a small child. In 1847 she married William Cousin, who became the minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Irvine, Ayrshire, and later Free Church minister of Melrose, Roxburghshire. When at Irvine, she wrote her best known hymn, 'The sands of time are sinking'*. She published a collection of poems, Immanuel's Land...
CHARTERIS, Archibald Hamilton. b. Wamphray, Dumfiesshire, Scotland, 13 December 1835; d. Edinburgh, 24 April 1908. He was educated at Wamphray, and at the University of Edinburgh (MA, 1852). He became minister of New Abbey, south of Dumfries, and of the Park Church, Glasgow, built in 1858, and now sadly demolished. In those years he wrote The Life of the Rev. James Robertson, formerly Professor of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1863). He gave speeches and preached...
DUBA, Arlo Dean. b. Platte, Brule County, South Dakota, 12 November 1929; d. Gunnison, Colorado, 27 June 2023. Duba was raised in a Bohemian Presbyterian farming family whose Hussite/Czech forebearers settled in the Dakotas in the 1880s. He attended the University of Dubuque, where he met his wife, Doreen. He majored in music and religion (BA 1952), and Princeton Theological Seminary (BD 1955, PhD 1960). His dissertation title was 'The Principles of Theological Language in the Writings of...
At Thy feet, our God and Father. James Drummond Burns* (1823-1864).
According to JJ, p. 1551, this was first published in The Family Treasury, presumably a Christian periodical, in 1861 (Gordon Bell notes 'July'). It later appeared in the Presbyterian Church of England's Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and in James Hamilton's Memoir and Remains of the Rev James D. Burns (1869). The text in 1869 was entitled 'New Year's Hymn', and was preceded by '“Thou crownest the year with thy...
Awake, my soul! lift up thine eyes. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
First published in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), entitled 'The Conflict'. It had six stanzas:
Awake, my soul, lift up thine eyes;See where thy foes against thee rise,In long array, a numerous host;Awake my soul, or thou art lost.
Here giant danger threat'ning standsMustering his pale terrific...
Behold a Stranger at the door. Joseph Grigg* (ca. 1720-1768).
From Grigg's Four Hymns on Divine Subjects; Wherein the Patience and Love of our divine Saviour is displayed (1765), where it was a hymn of eleven 4-line stanzas:
Behold a Stranger at the door! He gently knocks, has knocked before, Has waited long, is waiting still; You treat no other friend so ill.
But will He prove a friend indeed? He will; the very Friend you need; The Friend of sinners--yes 'tis He, With garments dyed on...
HOWARD, Beverly Ann. b. New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 22 February 1951. A professor in church music, researcher in hymnology, journal editor, member of hymnal committees, church musician, and organist, Howard received degrees from University of Oklahoma in organ performance (BM, 1973, MM, 1974) and the University of North Texas in organ performance, music theory, and harpsichord (DMA, 1986). She served as organist for forty years in two congregations in Riverside, California, First Christian...
Blest is the man whose softening heart. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
This text is taken from the hymn beginning 'Behold, where breathing love divine'*, first published in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), where it was entitled 'Christian Charity'. It had eight stanzas. The present hymn starts at stanza 3. It was published in Barbauld's Poems (1773) as 'Hymn IV'...
LAUFER, Calvin Weiss. b. Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, 6 April 1874; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 September 1938. Calvin Weiss Laufer was a minister, editor, writer of hymn texts and tunes, and a founder of The Hymn Society (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*). The eldest child of Nathan Laufer, a farmer and miller, and Angelina Weiss Laufer, he was baptized at Zion German Reformed Church in Brodheadsville. His parents settled in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood in...
GILLETTE, Carolyn Winfrey. b. Harrisonburg, Virginia, 28 May 1961. Hymn writer and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She was raised, baptized, and confirmed in the United Methodist Church; she earned a bachelor's degree in religion from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania before going on to receive her M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary (1985). She was ordained in 1986. Gillette has served at churches in New Jersey and Delaware, and as a hospital and...
CONVERSE, Charles Crozat. b. Warren, Massachusetts, 7 October 1832; d. Highwood, New Jersey, 18 October 1918. He was educated at Elmira Free Academy, Chemung County, New York State, and showed early promise as a musician. He played the organ at the Broadway Tabernacle Church, and taught languages and music, earning enough to enable him to study music in Leipzig, Germany, from 1855 onwards. There he met Lizst and Spohr before returning to the USA to study law. He graduated from Albany Law...
ROBERTSON, Charles. b. Springburn, Glasgow, 22 October 1940. He was educated at The Orphan Homes of Scotland Primary School (Quarrier's), Bridge of Weir; Camphill Senior Secondary School, Paisley; and New College, University of Edinburgh (MA). After studying divinity at New College, he was licensed to preach on 22 April 1964, and ordained and inducted to Kiltearn Parish Church, near Dingwall, Ross-shire, on 21 October 1965. He married Alison Robertson* in 1965. In June 1978 he was translated...
ROGERS, Charles. b. Dunino, near Anstruther, Fife, 18 April 1825; d. Edinburgh, 18 September 1890. The son of a minister of the Church of Scotland, he was educated at the parish school and the University of St Andrews (1839-1843), followed by training for the ministry. He was licensed to preach in 1846, and served as an assistant minister and as a 'missionary' to churches affected by the Great Schism of 1843 (Dunfermline North, 1849-50, Carnoustie, 1851-52). He moved to Bridge of Allan, near...
ROBINSON, Charles Seymour. b. Bennington, Vermont, 31 March 1829; d. New York, 1 February 1899. The son of General Henry Robinson (1778-1854) and Martha P. Haynes (1800-1857), Robinson studied theology at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Union Seminary, New York City, and graduated from Princeton Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. Following his ordination in 1855, he served as pastor of Park Presbyterian Church, Troy, New York. In 1858 he married Harriet Read Church (1835-1895),...
Christ is coming! Let creation. John Ross Macduff* (1818-1895).
Based on Revelation 22: 20, this Advent hymn is from Macduff's Altar Stones (1853), published when he was minister of St Madoes, Perthshire (Barkley, 1979, p. 141). It became Macduff's best known hymn. It had four stanzas:
Christ is coming! Let creation From her groans and travail cease; Let the glorious proclamation Hope restore and faith increase: Christ is coming! Come, Thou blessèd Prince of Peace.
Earth can now but...
Christ is our light! The bright and morning star. Leith Fisher* (1941-2009).
This hymn was written for the first Sunday after the Epiphany, which also marks the Baptism of Christ. It was written while Fisher was minister of the Old Parish Church of Falkirk (1979-90). On being invited back to Falkirk from his new parish of Wellington in Glasgow (1990-2006) to conduct a wedding, the author added a third stanza, based on the wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11). The first stanza refers to 'the bright...
McAFEE, Cleland Boyd. b. Ashley, Missouri, 25 September 1866; d. Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 4 February 1944. Educated at Park College in Parkville, Missouri (founded in 1875 by his father) (BA, 1884; MA, 1888) and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (dipl. 1888), Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri (PhD, 1892). McAfee returned to Park College, served the campus church as Presbyterian preacher and led its choir while he taught philosophy there (1888-1901). Later, he was pastor of First...
IVERSON, Daniel. b. Brunswick, Georgia, 26 September 1890; d. Asheville, North Carolina, 3 January 1977. Iverson studied at the University of Georgia, the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Columbia Theological Seminary in New York City, and the University of South Carolina. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1914, he initially served congregations in Georgia and North and South Carolina, and then founded and pastored the Shenandoah Presbyterian Church in Miami, Florida (1927-51). An...
EICHER, David Eugene. b. Harrisonburg, Virginia; 11 June 1954. An organist, church musician, music educator, denominational administrator, and hymnal editor, David Eicher's ecclesial roots were in the Church of the Brethren. He was born to the Rev. William C. Eicher (1923–2008) and Elsie Williard Eicher (1927–2011), the second of two children. His father served churches in Southern Virginia until he was called to Springfield, Ohio when Eicher entered the tenth grade.
Showing a great interest...
GAMBRELL, David. b. Raleigh, North Carolina; 4 December 1972. David Patrick Gambrell is ordained to ministry in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a liturgical scholar, and a hymn writer. His love for hymn singing was cultivated at a young age in the Presbyterian congregations where he was raised.In addition to singing in church choirs, he sang in coffee houses most weekends, reflecting the influence of folk music by Pete Seeger, 'whose passion for music, pursuit of justice, and care for...
JENKINS, David. b. Trecastle, Breconshire, 30 December 1848; d. Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, 10 December 1915. He began life as an apprentice to a tailor. His talent for music enabled him to study under Joseph Parry* at Aberystwyth, 1874-78, and he became (from 1882) successively instructor, lecturer, and finally Professor of Music at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. He was precentor of the English Presbyterian Church in Aberystwyth, and noted as a choral conductor. With David Emlyn...
McCORMICK, David Wilfred. b. Lehighton, Pennsylvania, 6 May 1928; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 September 2019. The son of a printer and volunteer church organist, he received his bachelor's degree (1949) and his master's degree (1950) from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He began his church ministry at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas where he established a life-long friendship with composer Jane Manton Marshall*. His service at Highland Park was...
GALBRAITH, David Douglas. b. Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, 22 June 1940. Douglas Galbraith was educated at the High School of Dundee: he was organist in his local church while still at school. He went on to the University of St Andrews (MA 1961, BD 1964). As a student he had the opportunity of being seasonal musician at Iona Abbey, which was a formative experience in terms both of liturgy and music. He became a member of the Iona Community* in 1964. Following ordination as a minister in...
BUCHANAN, Dugald (Dughall Bochanan). b. Ardoch, Balquhidder, Perthshire, 1716; d. Ardoch, 2 July 1768. His diarydescribed his early manhood as a period of recklessness and ungodliness, profanity and vice (it is possible that he took the outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor (d. 1734), who lived at Balquhidder, as an example). He had some education in Stirling and Edinburgh, and worked for a time as an itinerant carpenter. During the 1740s he is believed to have spent some time at Glasgow at the Divinity...
Elias Collection, Cambridge, UK
The Elias Library of Hymnology consists of just over 3,500 volumes on hymnology, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but with some dating back to the 16th century. It is held at Westminster College, Cambridge.
The Library is primarily the collection of Edward Alfred Elias. Born in Liverpool in 1875, he lived in West Kirby in the Wirral throughout his life; and though little more is known about him, he was a lifelong collector of hymnological works and...
HEWITT, Eliza Edmunds. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 June 1851; d. Philadelphia, 24 April 1920. Eliza Hewitt spent her entire life in the city of her birth. She taught school there, after being educated at the Girls' Normal School, until she was incapacitated by a spinal injury for some time. Initially active in Olivet Presbyterian Church, Hewitt worked at the Northern Home for Friendless Children, and later as a Sunday-school superintendent at Calvin Presbyterian Church. Publishing various...
PRENTISS, Elizabeth (née Payson). b. Portland, Maine, 26 October 1818; d. Dorset, Vermont, 13 August 1878. She became a teacher before marrying (1845) George Lewis Prentiss (1816-1903), a Congregational (later Presbyterian) minister and well known author. They lived at New Bedford, Massachusetts (1845-51) and then in New York, with a period in Europe (1858-60). Her husband became Professor of Pastoral Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York. She died at their summer residence at...
SCOTT, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Scott Williams Smith). b. Hitchin, Hertfordshire, 17 October 1708; d. Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony, 13 June 1776. She was the writer of several hymns that were widely published in England and New England during the 18th and 19th centuries, all of which are included in a manuscript volume identified by a label on its binding (but not inside) by the words 'Hymns and Poems by Elizabeth Scott', preserved in the Beinecke Library of Yale University. It contains 90...
DARE, Elkanah Kelsay. b. Salem, Salem County, New Jersey, 15 January 1782; d. Colerain Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 26 August 1826. Dare is best known for his contributions to John Wyeth*'s shape-note Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music*, Part Second. Dare married Mary Shallcross Phillips (1785-1841) in 1804. A list of their ten children with dates and places of birth, along with other records, indicates that Dare had moved to Wilmington, Delaware before the end of 1809, and to...
MERRINGTON, Ernest Northcroft. b. Newcastle, New South Wales, 27 August 1876; d. 26 March 1953. He was educated at Sydney Boys' School and the University of Sydney (MA in Philosophy, 1903, by which time he had completed his theological training and had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister, 1902). After a period in Edinburgh, he undertook further study at Harvard (PhD, 1905).
He held parish appointments in New South Wales and Queensland, while lecturing in philosophy at the University of...
CHRISTIERSON, Frank von.
See 'Von Christerson, Frank'*
KNIGHT, George Litch. b. Rockford, Illinois, 2 January 1925; d. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 6 October 1995. Hymnologist, historian and clergyman, Knight attended Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, the University of Chicago, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky (BA, 1947), and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD, 1951).
Ordained by the Freeport Presbytery (Illinois) in 1951, Knight served the West Side Presbyterian Church of Englewood, New Jersey, first as assistant minister (1951-1956),...
WILLIAMS, Helen Maria. b. London, 17 June 1759; d. Paris, 15 December 1827. Her father, Charles Williams, died in 1762, and her widowed mother brought up Helen Maria and two other children in Berwick upon Tweed, on the Scottish border. The family returned to London in 1781, where Helen Maria began to make a name for herself as a young poet, encouraged by Andrew Kippis*, her Presbyterian/Unitarian minister. Her Poems were published in 1786, containing the two hymns noted in JJ (see below). She...
MILLS, Henry. b. Morriston, New Jersey, 12 March 1786; d. Auburn, New York, 10 June 1867. He was educated at the College of New Jersey, Princeton, graduating in 1802. According to the Revd. F. M. Bird in JJ, p. 736, he held the degree of DD, which he presumably acquired in the years that followed, when he was also a teacher. In 1816 he was ordained Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Woodbridge, New Jersey. In 1821 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Oriental Languages at Auburn...
McFADYEN, Henry Richard. b. Bladen County, near Elizabethtown, North Carolina, 1 February 1877; d. High Point, North Carolina, 22 June 1964. The son of Rev. Archibald McFadyen (1836–1911) and Miriam Eliza McFadyen (née Cromartie; 1844–1907), he was one of eight children. He married Myrtle Louise Angle (1884–1976) in 1907, and they had two children. Henry's father was a Lieutenant in the North Carolina Cavalry for the Confederate cause in the Civil War, studying for the ministry while a...
VAN DYKE, Henry Jackson. b. Germantown, Pennsylvania, 10 November 1852; d. Princeton, New Jersey, 10 April 1933. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he was at school at Brooklyn, New York before studying at Princeton University (BA 1873, MA 1876). After a further period of study at Princeton Theological Seminary (1876-77) and in Berlin, he was ordained to the ministry, serving at a Congregational Church at Newport, Rhode Island (1878-82) and Brick Presbyterian Church, New York (1882-99). During...
How few receive with cordial faith. William Robertson, d. 1745*.
According to James Mearns* in JJ, p. 536, this paraphrase of Isaiah 53 ('Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?') was identified by the daughter of William Cameron* as having been written by William Robertson for the unpublished Translations and Paraphrases of 1745, and amended by John Logan* for the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases in Verse of 1781. Mearns noted that it was 'still in C.U....
BLAIR, Hugh. b. Edinburgh, 7 April 1718; d. Edinburgh, 27 September 1800. According to James Mearns* (JJ, pp. 144-5), he was educated at the University of Edinburgh from 1730 (when he was twelve years of age), graduating MA in 1739 (Mearns gives his death date as 27 December 1800). He was licensed to preach in October 1741, and became minister of Collessie, Fife, in 1742. He moved as second minister to the Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, in 1743, and to Lady Yester's Kirk (see William Robertson, d....
KERR, Hugh Thomson. b. Elora, Ontario, Canada, 11 February 1871; d. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 27 June 1950. Kerr was educated at the University of Toronto, and at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. After being ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1897, he was pastor of congregations in Kansas and Illinois before having a distinguished and lengthy ministry through two world wars at Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh (1913-46). He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the...
Hush'd was the evening hymn. James Drummond Burns* (1823-1864).
This hymn of five stanzas on 1 Samuel 3: 3-10 was entitled 'The Child Samuel', and published in The Evening Hymn (1857). This book, published by Nelsons of London, consisted of an original hymn and prayer for every evening in the month. In 1869, when James Hamilton's Memoir and Remains of the Late Rev. James D. Drummond was posthumously published, Hamilton had included a section 'Selected by his desire from ''The Evening Hymn,''...
I waited for the Lord my God. Scottish Psalter, 1650.
This metrical version of Psalm 40 has 17 stanzas in The Psalms of David in Metre of 1781 and The Scottish Psalter, 1929, but the text that is customarily used in worship is from stanzas 1-4:
I waited for the Lord my God, and patiently did bear; At length to me he did incline My voice and cry to hear.
He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay, And on a rock he set my feet, establishing my way.
He put a new song in my...
JONES, Jacque Browning. b. Texas City, Texas, 20 October 1950. A hymnwriter with a varied career in business and government service, she attended Baylor University (1968-1970) and The University of Texas at Austin (1970-1973) (BFA in Theater, with an emphasis in directing and choreography). Raised a Presbyterian, Jones has been a member of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, since 1987. Her career included working for the government, for an accounting firm, and for a bank in data processing...
LYON, James. b. Newark, New Jersey, 1 July 1735; d. Machias, Maine, 12 October 1794. Lyon was a Presbyterian minister, patriot, tunebook compiler, and composer. He is known primarily for compiling the tunebook Urania.
Lyon was the son of Zopher Lyon (1717-1744) and Mary Wood Lyon (1716-1746). Little is known of his childhood and musical training. He attended the College of New Jersey, then known as Nassau Hall, a large building completed in 1756 (now Princeton University). The 1759...
SYDNOR, James Rawlings. b. Floyd County, Georgia, 8 March 1911; d. Richmond, Virginia, 28 November 1999. Sydnor was one of five children born into the marriage of Presbyterian minister, G. G. Snyder (b. 1864), whose family name was changed to Sydnor in a census of 1900, and Evelyn Aiken Sackett (1875-1939). Sydnor was educated at Hampton-Sydney College, Hampton-Sydney, Virginia (1929-1931), Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey (BM 1935, MM 1938), Rutgers University, New Brunswick,...
ALEXANDER, James Waddell. b. Hopewell Estate, Louisa County, Virginia, 15 March 1804; d. Red Sweetsprings, Virginia, 31 July 1859. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) and Janetta (née Waddell) Alexander (1782-1832) he was educated at schools in Philadelphia, where his father was briefly a minister, and then at Princeton, where his father had been appointed as the first professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary (1812). James Waddell Alexander went to the...
HUBER, Jane McAfee Parker (née Parker). b. Jinan, China, 24 October 1926; d. Hanover, Indiana, 15 November 2008. Born to Presbyterian missionary parents, Jane Parker spent her youth in Hanover, Indiana. She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, married William A. Huber in 1947, and graduated from Hanover College (BA, 1948). An active Presbyterian, Huber emphasized peacemaking, justice, and inclusiveness in her ministry and her hymn texts. For many years she ran a feature, 'Ask Jane', in...
STEELE, Jean Woodward. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 February 1910; d. 1 September 1984. Jean Steele received a BA degree from Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (1932). Four years later she joined the music publishing arm of Westminster Press, of the United Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, remaining there until her retirement in 1975. Working with two music editors, Calvin Weiss Laufer* (1874-1938) and W. Lawrence Curry (1906-1966), Steele collaborated on a number of...
Jesus, Lord, Redeemer. Patrick Miller Kirkland* (1857-1943).
This moving Easter hymn was first published in the English Presbyterian hymnbook, Church Praise (revised edition, 1907). It is unusual in hymnody because it includes the story of the road to Emmaus and the ten disciples (without Judas and Thomas) in hiding on the first Easter day:
Faithful ones, communing, Towards the close of day, Desolate and weary, Met Thee in the way...
In the upper chamber, Where the ten, in fear,...
DALLES, John Allan. b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 13 September 1954. Dalles graduated from Penn State University (BS, 1976) and Lancaster Seminary in Pennsylvania (MDiv, 1982). He served as associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church, South Bend, Indiana (1982-86) before becoming associate pastor of Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh (1986-97). Dalles received the DMin. degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1994. Since 1997 he has served as senior pastor of the Wekiva...
BOKWE, John Knox. b. 15 March 1855; d. 21 July 1922. Bokwe studied with William Kolbe Ntsikana, grandson of Ntsikana Gaga* (or 'Gaba'), and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in Scotland (1906). He was a member of the Ngqika Mbamba clan (Xhosa), born at Ntselamanzi near Lovedale, the Presbyterian mission. Bokwe was the first to adapt John Curwen's Tonic Sol-fa* system to Xhosa music. Bokwe's transcriptions of Ntsikana's songs, published in 1878, conveyed in notation aspects of the oral...
POLLOCK, John. b. Glasgow, Scotland, 27 October 1852; d. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 4 January 1935. The son of Janet, née Riddell, and Alexander Pollock, a grocer and tea merchant, John was baptized into the Free Church of Scotland, where his father was an Elder of the Kirk. His lively grasp of ideas and propensity for instructing others were in evidence at an early stage: he became a Sunday School teacher at the age of twelve.
At first attracted to a career in business, he entered the Arts...
CHAPMAN, John Wilbur. b. Richmond, Indiana, 17 June 1859; d. Long Island, New York, 25 December 1918. Chapman was educated at Lake Forest University in Illinois (BA, 1879), and Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1881: his first pastorate was a two-point charge to neighbouring churches in Liberty, Indiana, and College Corner, Ohio. In 1883 he became the minister of the Old Saratoga Dutch Reformed Church in Schuylerville, New York; in...
SPALDING, Joshua. b. Killingly, Connecticut, 14 December 1760; d. Newburgh, New York State, 26 September 1825. According to the Douglas Family Records (see below) Spalding, whose name is sometimes spelt 'Spaulding', studied theology with the Rev Mr Bradford, of Rowley, Massachusetts. In 1785 he was ordained 'over the church and society' of the Tabernacle church, Salem, Massachusetts, where he was remembered as 'an energetic pastor', so that 'the drooping interests of the church and society...
Lead, Holy Shepherd, lead us. Hamilton Montgomerie MacGill* (1807-1880).
This translation was included in the hymnbook of the United Presbyterian Church, The Presbyterian Hymnal (1877). The Church had been formed in 1847 through a union between the United Secession Church and the Synod of Relief (see 'Synod of Relief hymns'*). MacGill was one of the compilers of the 1877 hymnbook.
It was a translation of a hymn by Clement of Alexandria* (Titus Flavius Clemens, ca. 150- ca. 215), entitled 'Hymn...
FISHER, (Malcolm) Leith. b. Greenock, Renfrewshire 7 April 1941, d. Glasgow, 13 March 2009. Educated at Greenock Academy, he studied Arts and Divinity at the University of Glasgow 1959-65 (MA, BD), and received a Diploma in Pastoral Studies from Birmingham University (1965-66). He was licensed by the Presbytery of Greenock, May 1965. On 18 January 1967 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Glasgow while assistant minister (1966-68) at Govan Old Parish Church, the church from which in 1938 George...
Let Christian faith and hope dispel. John Logan* (1748-1788).
This was paraphrase 48 in Translations and Paraphrases (1781), part of the material for worship, together with the Scottish Psalter*, that dominated services in the Church of Scotland until recent times. The full title was Translations and Paraphrases, in verse, of several passages of Sacred Scripture. Collected and Prepared by a Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in order to be sung in...
Let not your hearts with anxious thoughts. William Robertson, d. 1745*.
This is one of two paraphrases of chapter 14 of St John's Gospel. The first begins as above, and paraphrases verses 1-7; its companion-piece, 'You now must hear my voice no more', paraphrases verses 25-28. According to James Mearns* in JJ (p. 672), Robertson wrote them both for the draft of the never-published Translations and Paraphrases of 1745; they were identified as the work of Robertson by the daughter of William...
McKim, LindaJo K. (née Horton). b. Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 9 June 1946. Pastor, teacher and hymnal editor, McKim attended high school in Uniontown, Pennsylvania; West Virginia University, Morgantown (BM, 1968); Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1977); and the University of Dubuque [Iowa] Theological Seminary (DMin, 1984). An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, USA, she has pastored churches, and served as adjunct faculty at the University of Dubuque Theological...
KROEHLER, Lois Clara. b. Saint Louis, Missouri, 9 September 1927; d. Bremerton, Washington, 3 August 2019. Missionary, translator, music teacher, hymn writer, and hymnal editor, Lois Kroehler lived in Belleville, Illinois, Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Lyman, Nebraska during her childhood. She graduated from the University of Nebraska (1949) with a major in Spanish and went immediately to Cuba upon graduation to serve as an English language secretary for the Cuban Director of Presbyterian Schools...
Lord of might, and Lord of glory. John Stuart Blackie* (1809-1895).
In Blackie's Songs of Religion and Life (Edinburgh and New York, 1876) this hymn was entitled 'Prayer for Direction':
Lord of might, and Lord of glory, On my knees I bow before Thee, With my whole heart I adore Thee, Great Lord! Listen to my cry, O Lord!
Passions proud and fierce have ruled me, Fancies light and vain have fooled me, But Thy training stern hath schooled me; Now, Lord, Take me for Thy child, O Lord.
...
BENSON, Louis Fitzgerald. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 July 1855; d. Philadelphia, 10 October 1930. Benson was educated in law at the University of Pennsylvania and admitted to the bar (1877). After more studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (1884-86), he was ordained and served the Church of the Redeemer [Presbyterian] in Germantown, Pennsylvania (1886-92). He resigned his pastorate to take up editorial work at Philadelphia in the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School...
BRINGLE, Mary Louise ('Mel'). b. Ripley, Tennessee, 31 July 1953. Bringle grew up in a family active in the Presbyterian Church US: her father served as a deacon and ruling elder, and her mother taught two-year-olds in Sunday school. She sang in children's and youth choirs at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. She majored in French and religious studies at Guilford College, Greensboro (BA 1975); received a Fribourg Foundation grant to study at the Institut de Science...
LITTLEFIELD, Milton Smith, Jr. b. New York, New York, 21 August 1864; d. New York, 11 June 1934. His parents were Anna Elizabeth Schull (1836–1904) and Milton Smith Littlefield Sr. (1830–1899). His father was an ally of Abraham Lincoln, superintendent of recruitment of Black troops in the South for the Union during the Civil War, and an opportunistic businessman in North Carolina during Reconstruction.
Littlefield graduated from Johns Hopkins University (BA, 1889) and Union Theological...
Missionary College Hymns (Scotland, 1914)
This compilation for the Free Church Women's Missionary Training Institute in Edinburgh was remarkable in including hymns from traditions other than the Christian: Vedic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Syrian, African, Islamic – one of the latter being the Muezzin's call to prayer. They were set to tunes appropriate to their provenance, many Indian, but also melodies from Japan, Syria, Africa, China, Persia and Egypt, with instructions regarding...
Conferences on music have been held at The Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Conference Center in Hunt, Texas, beginning with the 1974 Mo-Ranch Music Conference, renamed the Mo-Ranch Worship & Music Conference. In 2009 the Mo-Ranch and PAM West conference merged and were renamed the Mo-Ranch/PAM Conference on Worship & Music. These annual conferences include ensembles, seminars, and educational and recreational activities for all ages, and its worship is informed by reformed principles, and the...
My God, all nature owns Thy sway. Helen Maria Williams* (1759-1827). This is one of four 'Paraphrases from Scripture' from Williams's Poems (1786). This one is on Psalm 74: 16, 17. It was described in JJ as being 'in C.U.' ('Common Use'), and as found in Hymns for the Christian Church and Home (1840), compiled by James Martineau*. It is no longer used in Britain, and its time in the USA seems to be over also:
PSALM lxxiv. 16, 17.
My God! all nature owns Thy sway,Thou giv'st the night, and...
Not now, but in the coming years. Maxwell N. Cornelius* (1842-1893)
According to Sankey* (1906) the stanzas of this hymn, dated 1891, were published 'in a Western newspaper' (pp. 222-3). This would have been during the years that Cornelius was a Presbyterian pastor in California (1885-91). They were found in the newspaper by Daniel Webster Whittle*, who (according to Sankey) added the refrain:
Then trust in God thro' all the days; Fear not, for he doth hold thy hand; Though dark thy way, still...
Not what these hands have done. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
From Bonar's Hymns of Faith and Hope, Second Series (1861), where it had twelve stanzas. It was entitled 'Salvation through Christ alone' in 1861 but not in the edition of 1871, where its first line was used as a title:
Not what these hands have done Can save this guilty soul;Not what this toiling flesh has borne Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do Can give me peace with God;Not all my prayers, and sighs, and tears, ...
Now Israel. William Whittingham* (ca. 1525/1530- 1579).
This is one of the two metrical versions of Psalm 124 of 1551: the other begins 'Had not the Lord been on our side'. According to Millar Patrick*, the metrical version of 'Now Israel' in French and the tune are by Théodore de Bèze*, in Pseaumes octante trois de David, mise en rime francoise. A savoir quarante neuf par Clement Marot. et trente quatre par Theodore de Besze (Geneva, 1551). The first stanza of this, the better known version...
O send thy light forth and thy truth. Scottish Psalter*.
These well known stanzas paraphrase verses 3-5 of Psalm 43. In the Scottish Psalter of 1650, The Psalmes of David in Meeter, the text was as follows:
O send thy light forth, and thy truth: let them be guides to me, And bring me to thine holy Hill, ev'n where thy dwellings be.
Then will I to Gods altar go, to God my chiefest joy: Yea, God, my God, thy Name to praise my harp I will employ.
Why art thou then cast down, my soul? what...
PARK, Chai-hoon (Jai-hoon) 박재훈. b. Gimwha County, Gangwon Province, Korea (now North Korea), 14 November 1922; d. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 2 August 2021. Park was a composer and the foremost Korean hymnodist. His music-making and life influenced and shaped the development of Korean church music. He grew up in a Christian family, a rarity in that era, the youngest of the four sons from nine siblings. All four brothers became ministers later, a pledge that his mother had made to God. An...
Huh, Paul Junggap. b. Seoul, South Korea, 20 March 1962. Paul Junggap Huh is a fourth- generation Presbyterian. His maternal grandfather was the first Christian in the family living in North Korea. Rev. Kyung-Chik Han was the family pastor at Second Shineujoo Presbyterian Church; the church members fled to Seoul and started Young Nak Presbyterian Church in 1945.
When he was 14, his family immigrated to United States and was baptized in 1976 by his uncle, Rev. Henry Inho Koh, who was the pastor...
The Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM) was founded in 1970 in the wake of the announcement the previous year that the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) would not longer sponsor the Presbyterian Conference on Church Music (see Montreat Conferences on Worship and Music*). An ad hoc group of leaders, Jerry Black, chair (1938-), David W. McCormick* (1928-2019), James R. Sydnor*, Richard Peek (1927-2005), Herbert Archer (1922-2005), William...
Presbyterian Church of England Hymnody
History
Presbyterianism traces its origins back to the Reformation, when one element in the Protestant tradition was the dislike of human authority in religious matters, and the preference for government by 'presbyters' (from the Greek 'presbuteros', or 'elder') rather than bishops or priests. In Scotland the Reformation was guided by the powerful John Knox (1505-1572), who had studied under Jean Calvin* in Geneva; in both Scotland and England...
Presbyterian hymnody and hymnals, USA
The Calvinist settlers who came from Scotland, and the Scots who came by way of Ireland (Scotch-Irish) in the 17th and early 18th centuries were firstly Puritans who leaned toward either the Presbyterian or the Congregational form of church organization. New England Puritans tended more toward the Congregational model, those in Pennsylvania and New York toward the Presbyterian. Doctrinally, however, the differences were not sufficient to keep Presbyterian...
Presbyterian hymnody, Canadian
Canadian Presbyterian congregations for the most part have adopted hymnals sanctioned by their General Assemblies for congregational singing of hymns: Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada was issued in 1880 (full music edition in 1881), and The Book of Praise in 1897, 1918, 1972 and 1997.
Two seminal figures in the hymnody of the early Presbyterian Church in Canada were Daniel James Macdonnell (1843-1896), whose career within the church is extensively...
GUITIÉRREZ-ACHÓN, Raquel. b. Preston (now Puerto Guatemala), Province of Oriente, Cuba; 5 May 1927; d. Los Angeles, California, 5 January 2013. Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón was a church musician, pianist, choral conductor, hymnal editor, and promoter of Spanish-language hymns in the United States and Latin America. She studied music at the Instituto Santiago and the Conservatorio Provincial (Santiago de Cuba), Matin College (Pulaski, Tennessee), George Peabody College for Teachers (Nashville,...
McALL, Reginald Ley. b. Bocking, Essex, England, 20 August 1878; d. Meredith, New Hampshire, 9 July 1954. McAll was an organist, administrator, and humanitarian. His parents were Robert McAll (1837–1890), a Congregational minister, and Elizabeth Lonsdale McCall (1844–1932). After immigrating to New York in 1897, he earned the BA degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1900 and studied at the Peabody Conservatory. McAll became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1923.
Following brief...
AVERY, Richard Kinsey. b. Visalis, California, 26 August 1934; d. Santa Fe, New Mexico, 15 March 2020. Avery attended the University of Redlands, California (BA 1956), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (MDiv 1960), and was an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church USA. His forty-year pastorate at First Presbyterian Church, Port Jervis, New York, included three decades shared with his life partner, Donald S. Marsh*, the church's choirmaster and director of arts.
Richard Avery was the...
OCCOM, Samson. b. Mohegan Nation, near New London, Connecticut, 1723; d. Brothertown, New York, 14 July 1792. Occom was converted to Christianity in 1741 by the preaching and singing of James Davenport (1716-1757), a Connecticut 'New light' preacher. He attended Eleazar Wheelock's (1711-1779) school for four years and learned English, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Occom was ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery on Long Island, New York, in 1759, and served as a teacher and minister and in a variety of...
DAVIES, Samuel. b. New Castle, Delaware, 3 November 1723; d. Princeton, New Jersey, 4 February 1761. Born at the Welsh tract, Pencader Hundred, he was given money for his education by William Robinson, a Presbyterian minister of New Brunswick, and was educated at Fagg's Manor, Pennsylvania, by one of the best teachers in the USA, Samuel Blair. He was licensed as a probationer by the Presbytery of New Castle in 1746, and became a very successful evangelist in Virginia in 1747, later settling in...
Savior, I follow on. Charles S. Robinson* (1829-1899).
This hymn of discipleship bears the inscription fom Isaiah 42: 16: 'And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them'(KJV). Written from the perspective of first person singular, the four stanzas are composed in 6.4.6.4.6.6.6.4 (or 10.10.12.10). The second...
Says Jesus, 'Come and gather round'. Leith Fisher* (1941-2009).
Leith Fisher began writing hymns while minister of the Old Parish Church at Falkirk (1979-90). This continued when he was appointed as minister of Wellington Church, Glasgow (1990-2006). During the latter period, he was writing commentaries on the synoptic gospels, based on his preaching, and this work sometimes emerged in the form of hymns. This hymn derives from the incidents recorded in, for example, Matthew 18: 1–5 (Jesus...
The King shall come when morning dawns. Greek, translated by John Brownlie* (1857-1925).
The author of the Greek text of this hymn is unknown (Stulken 1981, p. 133). The English text was from Brownlie's Hymns from the East, Being Centos and Suggestions from the Service Books of the Holy Eastern Church (Paisley, 1907). It is possible that it was by Brownlie himself, using a 'suggestion': The Companion to LSB (2019) describes it as 'an original text by Brownlie' (Volume 1, p. 46, note to Hymn...
TROEGER, Thomas Henry. b. Suffern, New York State, 30 January 1945; d. Falmouth, Maine, 3 April 2022. Troeger was educated at Yale University (BA 1967) and Colgate-Rochester Divinity School (BD 1970). He was associate minister of New Hartford Presbyterian Church, New York (1970-77). He then taught homiletics at the Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozier Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York (1977-91); he was Norma E. Peck Professor of Preaching and Communication at Iliff School of Theology,...
SOGA, Tiyo. b. 1829; d. 12 August 1871. Soga was born in Gwali, Tyumie Valley, South Africa and died in Tutura, South Africa. JJ noted that 'The Rev. Tiyo Soga, a gifted Kafir missionary educated by the United Presbyterian Church, and early removed by death, compiled a book of hymns, which was printed in Scotland' (p.757). A more recent account by J. A. Millard indicates that Soga was the first Xhosa ordained in the United Presbyterian Church. Though his training at the Lovedale Mission was...
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...
While Thee I seek, protecting Power. Helen Maria Williams* (1759-1827).
This was from Williams's Poems (1786), in which it was entitled 'Hymn':
While thee I seek, protecting Power! Be my vain wishes still'd; And may this consecrated hour With better hopes be fill'd. Thy love the powers of thought bestow'd, To thee my thoughts would soar; Thy mercy o'er my life has flow'd- That mercy I adore. In each event of life, how clear, Thy ruling hand I see; Each blessing to my soul more dear, Because...
ENFIELD, William. b. Sudbury, Suffolk, 29 March 1741; d. Norwich, 3 November 1797. Enfield came from a poor family, but was encouraged and taught by the local minister, William Hextal (or Hextall), who secured his entry to a Dissenting Academy at Daventry. He became pastor of a Presbyterian chapel at Liverpool (1763-70), and then at Warrington (1770-85), where he taught belles-lettres at the celebrated Warrington Academy. He was minister of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich (then still Presbyterian,...
ROBERTSON, William. b. date unknown, ca. 1688; d. 16 November 1745. He was the son of David Robertson of Brunton, Fife (James Mearns* in JJ, p. 968, the source of much of the information that follows). He was licensed to preach in 1711. He was assistant minister in the Presbyterian Church at London Wall, but returned to Scotland in 1714 as minister of Borthwick, Midlothian. In 1733 he became minister of Lady Yester's Kirk, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, at that time one of the most prestigious...