John M. Sloan

Sloan, John Morrison, M.A., eldest son of John Sloan, farmer of Stairaird, near Mauchline, Ayrshire was born at Stairaird, May 19, 1835. He studied at the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Erlangen, and graduated M.A. at Edinburgh in 1859. In 1864 he became collegiate tminister of the Free Church, Dalkeith; in 1868 minister of the South Free Church, Aberdeen; in 1878 collegiate minister of Anderston Free Church, Glasgow; and is now (1890) minister of the Grange Free Church, Edinburgh. He contributed 8 translations from the German to the Rev. J. H. Wilson's Service of Praise, 1865, 2 of which have since appeared in Mr. Wilson's Songs of Zion, 1877, and 1 in the Free Church Hymn Book1882. The best known of these is his translation of "Wie herrlich strahlt der Morgenstern". He also contributed a hymn beginning "O Shepherd, good and gracious " (The Good Shepherd) in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, as No. 126 to Wayside Songs for Young Travellers Zionward (Paisley: n.d. 1881) a hymnal compiled by the Rev. Dr. J. J. Black of Inverness primarily for his own Sunday School. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)