Great and loving God, to listen to us you lean toward us. You turn your head and lean. You “incline your ear toward us” and the very thought that you do this grants us your peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

George Whelpton (b. Redbourne, England, 1847; d. Oxford, OH, 1930) immigrated to the United States with his family in 1851. He enlisted in the Union army at the age of sixteen, serving as an assistant pharmacist during the Civil War. Educated at the Lake Chautauqua School of Music, he was a popular choir director in Buffalo, New York, for some twenty years. Whelpton moved to New York City in 1903 to become an editor for the Century Publishing Company. Among his editorial projects were Hymns of Worship and Service and The Church Hymnal. He joined the editorial staff of the A. Barnes Publishing Company in 1916 and served there until his retirement in 1925.