Lucy E. Akerman › Texts

Akerman, Lucy Evelina, née Metcalf. An American Unitarian writer, daughter of Thomas Metcalf, born at Wrentham, Mass., Feb. 21, 1816, married to Charles Akerman, of Portsmouth, N.H, resided at Providence, R.I., and died there Feb. 21,1874. Mrs. Akerman is known as a hymn writer through her:—
Nothing but leaves, the Spirit grieves, which was suggested by a sermon by M. D. Conway, and first published in the N. Y. Christian Observer, cir. 1858. In the Scottish Family Treasury, 1859, p. 136, it is given without name or signature, and was thus introduced into Great Britain. In America it is chiefly in use amongst the Baptists. Its popularity in Great Britain arose out of its incorporation by Mr. Sankey, in his Sacred Songs & Solos, No. 34, and his rendering of it in the evangelistic services of Mr. Moody. The air to which it is sung is by an American composer, S. J. Vail.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)