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Timothy Dwight

1752 - 1817 Hymnal Number: 135 Author of "I love thy kingdom, Lord" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Timothy Dwight (b. Northampton, MA, 1752; d. Philadelphia, PA, 1817) was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards who became a Congregationalist pastor, a Revolutionary War army chaplain, a tutor and professor at Yale College, and president of Yale from 1795 to 1817. As president he continued to teach and serve as chaplain and was instrumental in improving both the academic and the spiritual life of the college. Bert Polman =============== Dwight, Timothy, D.D. This is the most important name in early American hymnology, as it is also one of the most illustrious in American literature and education. He was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, May 14, 1752, and graduated at Yale College, 1769; was a tutor there from 1771 to 1777. He then became for a short time a chaplain in the United States Army, but passed on in 1783 to Fairfield, Connecticut, where he held a pastorate, and taught in an Academy, till his appointment, in 1795, as President of Yale College. His works are well known, and need no enumeration. He died at New Haven, Jan. 11, 1817. In 1797 the General Association of Connecticut, being dissatisfied with Joel Barlow's 1785 revision of Watts, requested Dwight to do the work de novo. This he did liberally, furnishing in some instances several paraphrases of the same psalm, and adding a selection of hymns, mainly from Watts. The book appeared as— "The Psalms of David, &c.... By I. Watts, D.D. A New Edition in which the Psalms omitted by Dr. Watts are versified, local passages are altered, and a number of Psalms are versified anew in proper metres. By Timothy Dwight, D.D., &c….To the Psalms is added a Selection of Hymns," 1800. Dwight's lyrics are all professedly psalms, but they are by no means literal versions. His original compositions number 33. Of these many are still in common use, the most important being:— 1. Blest be the Lord, Who heard my prayer. Psalm xxviii. This is the second part of Psalm xxviii., in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. It is in the English New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859. 2. I Love Thy kingdom, Lord. Psalm cxxxvii. This is version three of Ps. 137, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and is in extensive use at the present time throughout the States. It is also included in many English, Irish, and Scottish collections, sometimes in the original form, as in Alford's Year of Praise, 1867; again as, "I love Thy Church, 0 God," which opens with the second stanza, as in the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878, in 3 stanzas, and "We love Thy kingdom, Lord," in the Irish Church Hymnal, 1873. In Cleveland's Lyra Sacra Americana six stanzas only are given from the original. Next to this in popularity are his 2nd and 3rd renderings of Psalm lxxxviii.:— 3. Shall man, 0 God of life and light. (3rd stanza) 4. While life prolongs its precious light. (2nd stanza) Both of which are in extensive use. From his 4th version of the same Psalm (88), the following hymns have been compiled, each opening with the stanza indicated:— 5. Just o'er the grave I hung. Stanza ii. 6. I saw beyond the tomb. Stanza iv. 7. Ye sinners, fear the Lord. Stanza xii. This last is found in Spurgeon's 0ur Own Hymnbook. The original version consists of 13 stanzas. 8. 0 Thou Whose sceptre earth and seas obey. Psalm lxxii. This is his second version of this Psalm, and was given in the Comprehensive Rippon, 1844. The following, most of which are of a more jubilant character, are well known:— 9. How pleasing is Thy voice. Psalm lxv. 10. In Zion's sacred gates. Psalm cl. 11. Lord of all worlds, incline Thy gracious [bounteous] ear. Psalm llii. 12. Now to Thy sacred house. Psalm xliii., st. 3. 13. Sing to the Lord most high. Psalm c. 14. In barren wilds shall living waters spring. Psalm liii. 15. Lord, in these dark and dismal days. Psalm cxxxvii. No. 9 is found in Lyra Sacra Americana, pp. 101-2, the seven stanzas of the original being abbreviated to five. In addition to the Psalms, Dr. Dwight published three poems, "The Conquest of Canaan," 1785; "Greenfield Hill," 1794; "Triumph of Infidelity," 1788. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] - John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Bernard, of Cluny

1100 - 1199 Person Name: Bernard of Cluny Hymnal Number: 641 Author of "Jerusalem, the golden" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Bernard of Morlaix, or of Cluny, for he is equally well known by both titles, was an Englishman by extraction, both his parents being natives of this country. He was b., however, in France very early in the 12th cent, at Morlaix, Bretagne. Little or nothing is known of his life, beyond the fact that he entered the Abbey of Cluny, of which at that time Peter the Venerable, who filled the post from 1122 to 1156, was the head. There, so far as we know, he spent his whole after-life, and there he probably died, though the exact date of his death, as well as of his birth is unrecorded. The Abbey of Cluny was at that period at the zenith of its wealth and fame. Its buildings, especially its church (which was unequalled by any in France); the services therein, renowned for the elaborate order of their ritual; and its community, the most numerous of any like institution, gave it a position and an influence, such as no other monastery, perhaps, ever reached. Everything about it was splendid, almost luxurious. It was amid such surroundings that Bernard of Cluny spent his leisure hours in composing that wondrous satire against the vices and follies of his age, which has supplied—and it is the only satire that ever did so—some of the most widely known and admired hymns to the Church of today. His poem De Contemptu Mundi remains as an imperishable monument of an author of whom we know little besides except his name, and that a name overshadowed in his own day and in ours by his more illustrious contemporary and namesake, the saintly Abbot of Clairvaux. The poem itself consists of about 3000 lines in a meter which is technically known as Leonini Cristati Trilices Dactylici, or more familiarly—to use Dr. Neale's description in his Mediaeval Hymns, p. 69—" it is a dactylic hexameter, divided into three parts, between which a caesura is inadmissible. The hexameter has a tailed rhyme, and feminine leonine rhyme between the two first clauses, thus :— " Tune nova gloria, pectora sobria, clarificabit: Solvit enigmata, veraque sabbata, continuabit, Patria luminis, inscia turbinis, inscia litis, Cive replebitur, amplificabitur Israelitis." The difficulty of writing at all, much more of writing a poem of such length in a metre of this description, will be as apparent to all readers of it, as it was to the writer himself, who attributes his successful accomplishment of his task entirely to the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God. "Non ego arroganter," he says in his preface, "sed omnino humiliter, et ob id audenter affirmaverim, quia nisi spiritus sapicntiae et intellectus mihi affuisset et afftuxisset, tarn difficili metro tarn longum opus con-texere non sustinuissem." As to the character of the metre, on the other hand, opinions have widely differed, for while Dr. Neale, in his Mediaeval Hymns, speaks of its "majestic sweetness," and in his preface to the Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix on the Celestial Country, says that it seems to him "one of the loveliest of mediaeval measures;" Archbishop Trench in his Sac. Lat. Poetry, 1873. p. 311, says "it must be confessed that" these dactylic hexameters "present as unattractive a garb for poetry to wear as can well be imagined;" and, a few lines further on, notes "the awkwardness and repulsiveness of the metre." The truth perhaps lies between these two very opposite criticisms. Without seeking to claim for the metre all that Dr. Neale is willing to attribute to it, it may be fairly said to be admirably adapted for the purpose to which it has been applied by Bernard, whose awe-stricken self-abasement as he contemplates in the spirit of the publican, “who would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven," the joys and the glory of the celestial country, or sorrowfully reviews the vices of his age, or solemnly denounces God's judgments on the reprobate, it eloquently pourtrays. So much is this the case, that the prevailing sentiment of the poem, that, viz., of an awful apprehension of the joys of heaven, the enormity of sin, and the terrors of hell, seems almost wholly lost in such translations as that of Dr. Neale. Beautiful as they are as hymns, "Brief life is here our portion," "Jerusalem the Golden," and their companion extracts from this great work, are far too jubilant to give any idea of the prevailing tone of the original. (See Hora Novissima.) In the original poem of Bernard it should be noted that the same fault has been remarked by Archbishop Trench, Dean Stanley, and Dr. Neale, which may be given in the Archbishop's words as excusing at the same time both the want, which still exists, of a very close translation of any part, and of a complete and continuous rendering of the whole poem. "The poet," observes Archbishop Trench, "instead of advancing, eddies round and round his object, recurring again and again to that which he seemed thoroughly to have discussed and dismissed." Sac. Lat. Poetry, 1873, p. 311. On other grounds also, more especially the character of the vices which the author lashes, it is alike impossible to expect, and undesirable to obtain, a literal translation of the whole. We may well be content with what we already owe to it as additions to our stores of church-hymns. -John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Bernard of Cluny, p. 137, i., is best described thus: his place of origin is quite uncertain. See the Catalogue of the Additional MSS. of the B. M. under No. 35091, where it is said that he was perhaps of Morlas in the Basses-Pyrenees, or of Morval in the Jura, but that there is nothing to connect him with Morlaix in Brittany. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

William A. Tarbutton

Hymnal Number: 731 Composer of "LORD, TARRY NOT" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal

A. L. DeMund

Hymnal Number: 435 Composer of "WHITTIER" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal

Leonard Marshall

1809 - 1890 Hymnal Number: 589 Composer of "HOPE" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Marshall, Leonard. (Hudson, New Hampshire, May 3, 1809--July 1, 1890, Hudson, N.H.) Baptist. Voice pupil of John Paddon of London and Charles Zenner, harmonist. Tenor soloist of Handel and Haydn Society ca. 1844-1850. Music director at Twelfth Congregational Church, Boston, Massachusetts, 1836-1957; Bowdoin Square Baptist Church, ca.1867-1870; Harvard Street Baptist Church, ca.1870-1875, and other Boston churches. Chorus director at Tremont Temple, 1857-1867. Author of popular songs, "Don't Give Up the Ship" and "The Mountaineer," and of thirteen church music books; published The Sacred Star hymnal, 1861, Boston. Wrote words of Easter hymn commencing, "Jesus Christ, our precious Savior," and hymn "Ever gracious, loving Savior, Come and bless us from on high." --E.F. Quinn, DNAH Archives Note: Typewritten copy of obituary from the Boston Evening Transcript 3 July 1890, is in the DNAH Archives.

James G. Deck

1802 - 1884 Hymnal Number: 13 Author of "Jesus, thy name I love" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Deck, James George, eldest son of John Deck, of Bury St. Edmunds, was born in 1802 and educated for the army, and became an officer in the Indian service. Retiring from the army, and having joined the Plymouth Brethren, he undertook, in 1843, the charge of a congregation of that body, at Wellington, Somerset. In 1852 be went abroad and settled in New Zealand. His hymns were published in Hymns for the Poor of the Flock, 1837-1838; Psalms and Hymns, &c, London, Walther (containing those in the former collection), 1842; the Wellington Hymn Book, 1857; Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1860. Of his hymns now in use outside his own denomination, the greater part appeared in the 1837-1838 book, and are found in his brother-in-law's (Dr. Walker's) Cheltenham Psalms & Hymns, 1855. His compositions are marked by directness of aim, simplicity of language, and great earnestness. The rhythm is good, and an expressive tenderness pervades many of them. Although dealing mainly with the "Second Advent," there are several on other subjects which are of more than average merit. In a collected form they were published in his Hymns and Sacred Poems, Melbourne, H. Seelenmeyer, 1876. The more important of his hymns are annotated under their respective first lines. Of the rest we have:— i. From Hymns for the Poor of the Flock, 1838. 1. Behold yon bright and countless throng. All Saints. Repeated in Maurice's Choral Hymnbook, 1861. 2. How long, O Lord our Saviour. Second Advent desired. In the Parish Hymnbook., 1803 and 1875, this is altered to "How long, O Lord, Beloved." 3. Jesus, spotless Lamb of God. Good Friday. 4. Lord Jesus, are we [we are] one with Thee? One with Christ. In Walker's Psalms and Hymns, 1855-1880, and several American hymn-books. 5. Lord, we are Thine, our God Thou art. One with Christ. Originally in 4 st. of 8 1., it appeared, in a re-written form in 3 st. in Walker's Psalms and Hymns, 1855, as " Lord, we are Thine, in Thee we live." 6. 0 happy day when first we felt. The Day of Peace. 7. 0 Jesus Christ, the Saviour. Jesus All in All. In Walker's Psalms and Hymns, it begins: "0 Jesus Christ, our Saviour." 8. 0 Jesus, gracious Saviour." The Advocate. 9. 0 Lord, when we the path retrace. Christ our Example. 10. 0 Lord, who now art seated. Christ in glory. 11. Saviour, haste; our souls are waiting. Second Advent desired. This is given in Walker's Psalms and Hymns, in a rewritten form as "Saviour, hasten Thine appearing." 12. Soon shall our Master come. Waiting for Christ. 13. There is a place of endless joy. Heaven. 14. We're not of the world that fadeth away. Christ's Sheep. 15. When along life's thorny road. Passiontide. ii. From Appendix, to the 1841 edition of the Hymns for the Poor of the Flock. 16. Lamb of God, our souls adore Thee. Praise to Christ. Sometimes it begins with st. ii.," Lamb of God, Thy Father's bosom." 17. Lamb of God, Thou now art seated. 2nd Part. of No. 10. iii. From Psalms and Hymns, in Two Parts, Lond., D. Waither, 1842. 18. Again we meet in Jesus' name. Divine Worship. 19. Great Captain of Salvation. Burial. In the Irish Church Hymnal, and other collections. 20. Jesus, Thy name indeed is sweet. Hope of the Resurrection. 21. O blessed Jesus, Lamb of God. Praise to Jesus. 22. 0 Lamb of God, still keep me [us]. Christ's Presence desired. This hymn is somewhat popular in America. 23. 0 Lord, in nothing would I boast. Christ All in All. 24. Oft we, alas! forget the love. Holy Communion. 25. The veil is rent! lo, Jesus stands [our souls draw near]. The Intercessor. 26. We bless our Saviour's name. Thanksgiving for Forgiveness. iv. From Psalms and Hymns for Public and Social Worship (Dr. Walker's Collection), 1855. 27. Father, to seek Thy face. Public Worship. 28. Jesus, [I] we rest in [on] Thee. Joy in Forgiveness. 29. 0 Lord, 'tis joy to look above. Joy in the service of Christ. 30. Thou hast stood here, Lord Jesus. Burial. 31. 'Twas Thy love, 0 God, that knew us. Praise to God. 32. When first o'erwhelm ed with sin and shame. Peace with God. All these hymns, except No. 1, are given in Dr. Walker's Collection, 1855-1880, and most of them are also found in other collections. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ====================== Deck, James George, p. 285, ii. He died circa 1884. His hymn, noted on p. 286, No. 28, "Jesus [I] we rest in [on] Thee," should be dated 1842. Additional hymns in common use are:—(1) "Lord Jesus, when I think of Thee," 1856 (Jesus, All and in All); (2) "The day of glory, bearing," 1838 (Passiontide). --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ==================== Deck, J. G., pp. 285, ii.; 1559, ii. Miss M. O. Deck, of Motueka, Nelson, New Zealand, informs us that her father, Mr. J. G. Deck, died at the village of Motueka, near Nelson, N.Z., on the 14th of August, 1884. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907) ==================== James Deck wrote of his youth, "I hoped there were no God," yet his mother's training pursued after him. "She read to me of Jesus, Of all his grace and love." After his conversion, the study of scripture revealed the doctrinal error of his Anglican upbringing. Forsaking all, he set his heart to follow God "at any cost." Later, his son testified this determination was "a trust never disappointed." - Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (2018)

William Gardiner

1770 - 1853 Hymnal Number: 163 Composer of "DEDHAM" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal William Gardiner (b. Leicester, England, 1770; d. Leicester, 1853) The son of an English hosiery manufacturer, Gardiner took up his father's trade in addition to writing about music, composing, and editing. Having met Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven on his business travels, Gardiner then proceeded to help popularize their compositions, especially Beethoven's, in England. He recorded his memories of various musicians in Music and Friends (3 volumes, 1838-1853). In the first two volumes of Sacred Melodies (1812, 1815), Gardiner turned melodies from composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven into hymn tunes in an attempt to rejuvenate the singing of psalms. His work became an important model for American editors like Lowell Mason (see Mason's Boston Handel and Haydn Collection, 1822), and later hymnbook editors often turned to Gardiner as a source of tunes derived from classical music. Bert Polman

Samuel Davies

1723 - 1761 Hymnal Number: 310 Author of "Lord, I am thine, entirely thine" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Davies, Samuel., M.A., born near Summit Ridge, Newcastle, Delaware, America, Nov. 3, 1723, and educated under the Rev. Samuel Blair, of Chester County, Pennsylvania, through the pecuniary assistance of the Rev. William Robinson, a Presbyterian Minister of New Brunswick. In 1745 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Newcastle as a probationer for the ministry, and undertook duty in Virginia, in 1747. After visiting England in 1753, on behalf of the New Jersey College, and having received the degree of M.A., he was appointed President of New Jersey Presbyterian College, Princeton, in succession to Jonathan Edwards. He died Feb. 4, 1761, at the early age of 37. His manuscripts were entrusted to Dr. T. Gibbons, who published therefrom 5 volumes of Sermons. In 1851 the Sermons were republished in 3 volumes, including a Memoir by the Rev. A. Barnes. His hymns, 10 in all, were given by Dr. Gibbons in his Hymns adapted to Divine Worship, 1769. As a hymnwriter he followed the lines laid down by Watts, and his verses are solid, but somewhat dry and heavy. Those of his hymns which are still retained in common use are:— 1. Eternal Spirit, Source of Light. Influences of the Holy Spirit implored. From Dr. Gibbons's Hymns, &c, 1769, Book. ii., No. 29, this passed into several of the older collections. In later works it is more frequently found in the American hymnals than those of Great Britain. It is in 4 stanzas of 6 lines, as in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymnbook, N. Y., 1872, and the Leeds Hymnbook, 1853. 2. Great God of wonders, all Thy ways. The Pardoning God. This is one of the most, if not the most, popular of the author's hymns both in Great Britain and America. It has appeared in more than one hundred hymnbooks in England alone, sometimes in full (5 stanzas of 6 lines), and at other times abbreviated, as in Spurgeon's 0ur Own Hymn Book 1866; the Baptist Hymnal, 1879, &c. Its 1st publication was in Dr. Gibbons's Hymns, &c, 1769, Book i., No. 59. 3. How great, how terrible that God. The Judgment. In Gibbons, No. 37 of Book. i., in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. 4. Jesus, how precious is Thy name. Jesus the Prophet, Priest, and King. Is No. 31 of Bk. ii. in Gibbons, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. It was very popular with the older compilers, as Ash and Evans, Rippon, Bickersteth, and others in Great Britain, and also in America; but in modern collections it is rarely found. It is worthy of notice. 5. Lord, I am Thine, entirely Thine. Holy Communion. In Gibbons this is No. 28 of Book. ii., in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. It is very popular in America, but unknown to most English hymnals. In all editions of Rippon's Selections 1787-1844, it is given in 2 stanzas as "Lord, am I Thine, entirely Thine?" The hymn, "While to Thy table I repair," in the Andover Sabbath Hymnbook , 1858, is compiled from this hymn. 6. What strange perplexities arise. Self-Examination. This hymn is equal to No. 5 in American popularity, and exceeds it in Great Britain. In Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymnbook, N.Y., 1872, it is abbreviated and slightly altered. Full text in 6 stanzas of 4 lines is in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book , 1866. It was first published in Gibbons' Hymns, &c, 1769. 7. While o'er our guilty land, 0 Lord. Fast Day. This hymn, besides appearing in its original form in some collections, and with abbreviations in others, is also the source of "On Thee, our Guardian God, we call," stanza iv. of the original given in a few American collections; and of the same arrangement of stanzas, "On Thee we call, 0 Lord, our God," in the Andover Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858, and others. The original in Gibbons is Book i., No. 56, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines. The remaining hymns by Davies have failed to attain a position in the hymnbooks either of Great Britain or America. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Isaac Watts

1674 - 1748 Hymnal Number: 1 Author of "From all that dwell below the skies" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary labours. He did not retire from ministerial duties, but preached as often as his delicate health would permit. The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His "Horae Lyricae" was published in December, 1705. His "Hymns" appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is "Behold the glories of the Lamb," written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is everywhere known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. Montgomery calls Watts "the greatest name among hymn-writers," and the honour can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred. Watts died November 25, 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. A monumental statue was erected in Southampton, his native place, and there is also a monument to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey. "Happy," says the great contemporary champion of Anglican orthodoxy, "will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God." ("Memorials of Westminster Abbey," p. 325.) --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872. ================================= Watts, Isaac, D.D. The father of Dr. Watts was a respected Nonconformist, and at the birth of the child, and during its infancy, twice suffered imprisonment for his religious convictions. In his later years he kept a flourishing boarding school at Southampton. Isaac, the eldest of his nine children, was born in that town July 17, 1674. His taste for verse showed itself in early childhood. He was taught Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by Mr. Pinhorn, rector of All Saints, and headmaster of the Grammar School, in Southampton. The splendid promise of the boy induced a physician of the town and other friends to offer him an education at one of the Universities for eventual ordination in the Church of England: but this he refused; and entered a Nonconformist Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690, under the care of Mr. Thomas Rowe, the pastor of the Independent congregation at Girdlers' Hall. Of this congregation he became a member in 1693. Leaving the Academy at the age of twenty, he spent two years at home; and it was then that the bulk of the Hymns and Spiritual Songs (published 1707-9) were written, and sung from manuscripts in the Southampton Chapel. The hymn "Behold the glories of the Lamb" is said to have been the first he composed, and written as an attempt to raise the standard of praise. In answer to requests, others succeeded. The hymn "There is a land of pure delight" is said to have been suggested by the view across Southampton Water. The next six years of Watts's life were again spent at Stoke Newington, in the post of tutor to the son of an eminent Puritan, Sir John Hartopp; and to the intense study of these years must be traced the accumulation of the theological and philosophical materials which he published subsequently, and also the life-long enfeeblement of his constitution. Watts preached his first sermon when he was twenty-four years old. In the next three years he preached frequently; and in 1702 was ordained pastor of the eminent Independent congregation in Mark Lane, over which Caryl and Dr. John Owen had presided, and which numbered Mrs. Bendish, Cromwell's granddaughter, Charles Fleetwood, Charles Desborough, Sir John Hartopp, Lady Haversham, and other distinguished Independents among its members. In this year he removed to the house of Mr. Hollis in the Minories. His health began to fail in the following year, and Mr. Samuel Price was appointed as his assistant in the ministry. In 1712 a fever shattered his constitution, and Mr. Price was then appointed co-pastor of the congregation which had in the meantime removed to a new chapel in Bury Street. It was at this period that he became the guest of Sir Thomas Abney, under whose roof, and after his death (1722) that of his widow, he remained for the rest of his suffering life; residing for the longer portion of these thirty-six years principally at the beautiful country seat of Theobalds in Herts, and for the last thirteen years at Stoke Newington. His degree of D.D. was bestowed on him in 1728, unsolicited, by the University of Edinburgh. His infirmities increased on him up to the peaceful close of his sufferings, Nov. 25, 1748. He was buried in the Puritan restingplace at Bunhill Fields, but a monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey. His learning and piety, gentleness and largeness of heart have earned him the title of the Melanchthon of his day. Among his friends, churchmen like Bishop Gibson are ranked with Nonconformists such as Doddridge. His theological as well as philosophical fame was considerable. His Speculations on the Human Nature of the Logos, as a contribution to the great controversy on the Holy Trinity, brought on him a charge of Arian opinions. His work on The Improvement of the Mind, published in 1741, is eulogised by Johnson. His Logic was still a valued textbook at Oxford within living memory. The World to Come, published in 1745, was once a favourite devotional work, parts of it being translated into several languages. His Catechisms, Scripture History (1732), as well as The Divine and Moral Songs (1715), were the most popular text-books for religious education fifty years ago. The Hymns and Spiritual Songs were published in 1707-9, though written earlier. The Horae Lyricae, which contains hymns interspersed among the poems, appeared in 1706-9. Some hymns were also appended at the close of the several Sermons preached in London, published in 1721-24. The Psalms were published in 1719. The earliest life of Watts is that by his friend Dr. Gibbons. Johnson has included him in his Lives of the Poets; and Southey has echoed Johnson's warm eulogy. The most interesting modern life is Isaac Watts: his Life and Writings, by E. Paxton Hood. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] A large mass of Dr. Watts's hymns and paraphrases of the Psalms have no personal history beyond the date of their publication. These we have grouped together here and shall preface the list with the books from which they are taken. (l) Horae Lyricae. Poems chiefly of the Lyric kind. In Three Books Sacred: i.To Devotion and Piety; ii. To Virtue, Honour, and Friendship; iii. To the Memory of the Dead. By I. Watts, 1706. Second edition, 1709. (2) Hymns and Spiritual Songs. In Three Books: i. Collected from the Scriptures; ii. Composed on Divine Subjects; iii. Prepared for the Lord's Supper. By I. Watts, 1707. This contained in Bk i. 78 hymns; Bk. ii. 110; Bk. iii. 22, and 12 doxologies. In the 2nd edition published in 1709, Bk. i. was increased to 150; Bk. ii. to 170; Bk. iii. to 25 and 15 doxologies. (3) Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children. By I. Watts, London, 1715. (4) The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, And apply'd to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts. London: Printed by J. Clark, at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry, &c, 1719. (5) Sermons with hymns appended thereto, vol. i., 1721; ii., 1723; iii. 1727. In the 5th ed. of the Sermons the three volumes, in duodecimo, were reduced to two, in octavo. (6) Reliquiae Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse, on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written chiefly in Younger Years. By I. Watts, D.D., London, 1734. (7) Remnants of Time. London, 1736. 454 Hymns and Versions of the Psalms, in addition to the centos are all in common use at the present time. --Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================================== Watts, I. , p. 1241, ii. Nearly 100 hymns, additional to those already annotated, are given in some minor hymn-books. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ================= Watts, I. , p. 1236, i. At the time of the publication of this Dictionary in 1892, every copy of the 1707 edition of Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs was supposed to have perished, and all notes thereon were based upon references which were found in magazines and old collections of hymns and versions of the Psalms. Recently three copies have been recovered, and by a careful examination of one of these we have been able to give some of the results in the revision of pp. 1-1597, and the rest we now subjoin. i. Hymns in the 1709 ed. of Hymns and Spiritual Songs which previously appeared in the 1707 edition of the same book, but are not so noted in the 1st ed. of this Dictionary:— On pp. 1237, L-1239, ii., Nos. 18, 33, 42, 43, 47, 48, 60, 56, 58, 59, 63, 75, 82, 83, 84, 85, 93, 96, 99, 102, 104, 105, 113, 115, 116, 123, 124, 134, 137, 139, 146, 147, 148, 149, 162, 166, 174, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 200, 202. ii. Versions of the Psalms in his Psalms of David, 1719, which previously appeared in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707:— On pp. 1239, U.-1241, i., Nos. 241, 288, 304, 313, 314, 317, 410, 441. iii. Additional not noted in the revision:— 1. My soul, how lovely is the place; p. 1240, ii. 332. This version of Ps. lxiv. first appeared in the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, as "Ye saints, how lovely is the place." 2. Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine; p. 1055, ii. In the 1707 edition of Hymns & Spiritual Songs, Bk. i., No. 35, and again in his Psalms of David, 1719. 3. Sing to the Lord with [cheerful] joyful voice, p. 1059, ii. This version of Ps. c. is No. 43 in the Hymns & Spiritual Songs, 1707, Bk. i., from which it passed into the Ps. of David, 1719. A careful collation of the earliest editions of Watts's Horae Lyricae shows that Nos. 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, p. 1237, i., are in the 1706 ed., and that the rest were added in 1709. Of the remaining hymns, Nos. 91 appeared in his Sermons, vol. ii., 1723, and No. 196 in Sermons, vol. i., 1721. No. 199 was added after Watts's death. It must be noted also that the original title of what is usually known as Divine and Moral Songs was Divine Songs only. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907) =========== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

John Wesley

1703 - 1791 Hymnal Number: 1 Author of "From all that dwell below the skies" in The Wesleyan Methodist Hymnal John Wesley, the son of Samuel, and brother of Charles Wesley, was born at Epworth, June 17, 1703. He was educated at the Charterhouse, London, and at Christ Church, Oxford. He became a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and graduated M.A. in 1726. At Oxford, he was one of the small band consisting of George Whitefield, Hames Hervey, Charles Wesley, and a few others, who were even then known for their piety; they were deridingly called "Methodists." After his ordination he went, in 1735, on a mission to Georgia. The mission was not successful, and he returned to England in 1738. From that time, his life was one of great labour, preaching the Gospel, and publishing his commentaries and other theological works. He died in London, in 1791, in his eighty-eighth year. His prose works are very numerous, but he did not write many useful hymns. It is to him, however, and not to his brother Charles, that we are indebted for the translations from the German. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872 ====================== John Wesley, M.A., was born at Epworth Rectory in 1703, and, like the rest of the family, received his early education from his mother. He narrowly escaped perishing in the fire which destroyed the rectory house in 1709, and his deliverance made a life-long impression upon him. In 1714 he was nominated on the foundation of Charterhouse by his father's patron, the Duke of Buckingham, and remained at that school until 1720, when he went up, with a scholarship, from Charterhouse to Christ Church, Oxford. Having taken his degree, he received Holy Orders from the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Potter) in 1725. In 1726 he was elected Fellow of Lincoln College, and remained at Oxford until 1727, when he returned into Lincolnshire to assist his father as curate at Epworth and Wroot. In 1729 he was summoned back to Oxford by his firm friend, Dr. Morley, Rector of Lincoln, to assist in the College tuition. There he found already established the little band of "Oxford Methodists" who immediately placed themselves under his direction. In 1735 he went, as a Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to Georgia, where a new colony had been founded under the governorship of General Oglethorpe. On his voyage out he was deeply impressed with the piety and Christian courage of some German fellow travellers, Moravians. During his short ministry in Georgia he met with many discouragements, and returned home saddened and dissatisfied both with himself and his work; but in London he again fell in with the Moravians, especially with Peter Bohler; and one memorable night (May 24, 1738) he went to a meeting in Aldersgate Street, where some one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. There, "About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." From that moment his future course was sealed; and for more than half a century he laboured, through evil report and good report, to spread what he believed to be the everlasting Gospel, travelling more miles, preaching more sermons, publishing more books of a practical sort, and making more converts than any man of his day, or perhaps of any day, and dying at last, March 2, 1791, in harness, at the patriarchal age of 88. The popular conception of the division of labour between the two brothers in the Revival, is that John was the preacher, and Charles the hymnwriter. But this is not strictly accurate. On the one hand Charles was also a great preacher, second only to his brother and George Whitefield in the effects which he produced. On the other hand, John by no means relegated to Charles the exclusive task of supplying the people with their hymns. John Wesley was not the sort of man to depute any part of his work entirely to another: and this part was, in his opinion, one of vital importance. With that wonderful instinct for gauging the popular mind, which was one element in his success, he saw at once that hymns might be utilized, not only for raising the devotion, but also for instructing, and establishing the faith of his disciples. He intended the hymns to be not merely a constituent part of public worship, but also a kind of creed in verse. They were to be "a body of experimental and practical divinity." "In what other publication," he asks in his Preface to the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780 (Preface, Oct. 20,1779), "have you so distinct and full an account of Scriptural Christianity; such a declaration of the heights and depths of religion, speculative and practical; so strong cautions against the most plausible errors, particularly those now most prevalent; and so clear directions for making your calling and election sure; for perfecting holiness in the fear of God?" The part which he actually took in writing the hymns, it is not easy to ascertain; but it is certain that more than thirty translations from the German, French and Spanish (chiefly from the German) were exclusively his; and there are some original hymns, admittedly his composition, which are not unworthy to stand by the side of his brother's. His translations from the German especially have had a wide circulation. Although somewhat free as translations they embody the fire and energy of the originals. It has been the common practice, however for a hundred years or more to ascribe all translations from the German to John Wesley, as he only of the two brothers knew that language; and to assign to Charles Wesley all the original hymns except such as are traceable to John Wesley through his Journals and other works. The list of 482 original hymns by John and Charles Wesley listed in this Dictionary of Hymnology have formed an important part of Methodist hymnody and show the enormous influence of the Wesleys on the English hymnody of the nineteenth century. -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) =================== See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church