There is a calm for those who weep

There is a calm for those who weep. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).   This hymn was first published in a newspaper, the Sheffield Iris (of which Montgomery was then the editor), on 20 June 1805, in 30 stanzas, signed ‘Aleæus’(JJ, p. 1160). It was then included in Montgomery’s The Wanderer of Switzerland and Other Poems (London and Sheffield, 1806). It had thirty 4-line stanzas. It was entitled ‘The Grave’. It began: There is a calm for those who weep,  A rest for weary Pilgrims found,  They softly lie and sweetly sleep      Low in the ground. The storm that wrecks the winter sky, No more disturbs their deep repose, Than summer evening’s latest sigh     That shuts the rose. Most hymnals...