James Joyce › Texts

Joyce, James, M.A., was born at Frome, Somersetshire, Nov. 2, 1781, and was for some years Vicar of Dorking, and died there Oct. 9, 1850. He published A Treatise on Love to God, &c, 1822, The Lays of Truth, a Poem, 1825; and Hymns with Notes, 1849. This last is a small work which he compiled for his parishioners. It is composed of passages of Holy Scripture, Meditations, and 20 Hymns. Of his hymns, the following are in common use:—
1. Disown'd of Heav'n, by man opprest. [On behalf of the Jews.] Tlds appeared in the Christian Observer, Nov., 1809, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, headed, "Hymn applicable to the present condition of the Jews," and signed "J. J." The form in which it is known to modern collections is, "O why should Israel's sons, once bless'd." This appeared in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833, and is widely used. The cento, "Lord, visit Thy forsaken race—vine," in use in America, is Bickersteth's (1833) somewhat altered.
2. High on the bending willows hung. [On behalf of the Jews.] This hymn was given in the December number of the Christian Observer, 1809, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, as "A second hymn applicable to the present condition of the Jews," and signed “J. J."
3. Israel bewails her freedom gone. [On behalf of the Jews.] This is his “Third Hymn applicable to the present condition of the Jews,” and was given in the Christian Observer, Dec. 1809, with No. 2. It is in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and signed “J. J.”

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)