James Stephens

Stephens, James, was born at Southsea, March 18, 1847, and ordained to the curacy of Christ Church, Plymouth, 1873. He became Chaplain of Falmouth Roadstead, in 1876, and in 1880 Missioner under the Rev. W. H. M. H. Aitken in connection with the Church Parochial Mission Society. He has published Children's Sermons as Living Water for Little Pitchers, 1882, and Light for Little Lanterns, 1885, &c. His Mission Hymns, originally published in 1883, has been enlarged twice, and now contains 113 hymns. Of these he is the author of about twenty, all of which are marked in the index of first lines. Concerning the hymn "Another page of life Is open unto me," which is attributed to him, Mr. Stephens says: "It was given to me by a lady unknown to me in America, who wrote it, I think, after one of my sermons, or gave it me because it contained the truths I had dwelt upon in my discourses." (June 18, 1895.)

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