Henry Melville King › Texts

King, Henry Melville, D.D., an American Baptist minister, born at Oxford, Maine, Sept. 3, 1838; educated at Bowdoin College, (1859) and Newton Theo. Institution (1862), and entered the ministry in 1862. He was from 1863 to 1882 Pastor of Dudley Street Bap. Church, Roxbury, Mass., and since of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Albany, N.Y. Besides several prose productions, he is the author of the following hymns in common use:—
1. Christ, our Shepherd, leads us still. [Christ the Divine Leader] Dated 1886.
2. Holy Babe, Mary's Son, Calm the night, &c. [Christmas.] Dated 1886, and revised 1891.
3. O Thou, with Whom a thousand years Are but as yesterday. [For Anniversaries]. Dated 1871.
These hymns were included in Sursum Corda, 1898. [Rev. L. F. Benson, D.D.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

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King, Henry Melville. (Oxford, Maine, September 3, 1838--June 16, 1919, Providence, Rhode Island). Baptist. Bowdoin College, 1859 with highest honors; Newton Theological Institution, 1862; Honorary D.Div. from Colby Univeristy, 1877. Pastorates long, few, and conspicuous: 1863-1882, Boston, Massachusetts; 1882-1891, Albany, New York; 1891-1906, at the historic First Baptist Church, Providence, R.I. where he continued as pastor-emeritus until his death. Served as President of the Board of Managers of American Baptist Missionary Union, 1884-1887, and served four years as President of the Rhode Island Baptist Convention.

King, an eighth-generation descendant of John Alden of Plymouth and of Francis Eaton, also of the Mayflower group, loved his native New England. With a great interest in history and biographies, he authored a number of historical papers, pamphlets, sermons, and discourses and was a frequent contributor to denominational journals and reviews, including a history of the First Baptist Church of Providence, R.I.

King wrote a number of occasional hymns, several of which were published by Pond and Co. of New York. These include an Easter hymn, "Sing, O Heavens and Earth Rejoice" and a Christmas hymn, "Angels Sand the Natal Day." The Sursum Corda (1898) included three hymns by king: "Christ, our Shepherd, Leads Us Still" (1886); "Holy Babe, Mary's Son, Calm the Night" (1886) and "O Thou, with Whom a Thousand Years Are But as Yesterday" (1871).

King was also the pastor of another Baptist hymn writer, John M. Hewes.

--Donald A. Spencer, DNAH Archives