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Annie S. Hawks

1835 - 1918 Hymnal Number: d68 Author of "I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Hawks, Annie Sherwood. Mrs. Hawks was born in Hoosick, N. Y., May 28, 1835, and has resided for many years at Brooklyn. Her hymns were contributed to Bright Jewels, Pure Gold, Boyal Diadem, Brightest and Best, Temple Anthems, Tidal Wave, and other popular Sunday School hymnbooks. They include "I need Thee every hour" (written April, 1872), "Thine, most gracious Lord," "Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?" and others of the same type. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==============

Charles W. Fry

1837 - 1882 Hymnal Number: d98 Author of "[He's the] Lily of the valley, the bright and Morning star" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Charles William Fry United Kingdom 1837-1882. Born at Alderbury, Wiltshire, England, he was a bricklayer by trade, and was ultimately a successful building contractor, but also, like his father, a versatile musician, playing the violin, cello, piano, cornet, and harmonium. He lead and orchestra and band at the Wesleyan chapel in Alderbury. A Methodist, he also helped the Christian Mission in Salisbury. When he witnessed the abuse heralded against the Salvation Army when they established their ministry in 1878, he offered to serve as bodyguard for the Salvation Army workers. The next day Fry and his three sons showed up with their weapons, consisting of two cornets, a trombone, and a small tuba, which they played, in between fighting off the trouble-makers. Their music attracted a crowd for the preachers. Thus the first Salvation Army brass band was formed, and his family band accompanied Salvation Army founder, William Booth, in evangelism campaigns. Other musicians soon accompanied the Salvation Army band, and then, when William Booth saw how effective band music was, encouraged formation of other Salvation Army bands. Fry died at Glasgow, Scotland, the year after writing his hymn. John Perry

Russell Kelso Carter

1849 - 1928 Person Name: R. Kelso Carter Hymnal Number: d172 Author of "Standing, standing" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Russel Kelso Carter was a professor in the Pennsylvania Military College of Chester. While there he was licensed to preach by the Methodist Episcopal Church. He became very active in leading camp meetings and revivals. After failing health forced him to abandon this work, he studied and became a medical doctor as well as a writer. He wrote novels as well as hymns. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916)

William Cowper

1731 - 1800 Hymnal Number: d185 Author of "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's vein [veins]" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"; b. Berkampstead, Hertfordshire, England, 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, England, 1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation. For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton became his pastor. There he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties, and the two collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts. Bert Polman ============ Cowper, William, the poet. The leading events in the life of Cowper are: born in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800. The simple life of Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite "Lines on her picture," a vivid delineation of his childhood, written in his 60th year, died when he was six years old. At his first school he was profoundly wretched, but happier at Westminster; excelling at cricket and football, and numbering Warren Hastings, Colman, and the future model of his versification. Churchill, among his contemporaries or friends. Destined for the Bar, he was articled to a solicitor, along with Thurlow. During this period he fell in love with his cousin, Theodora Cowper, sister to Lady Hesketh, and wrote love poems to her. The marriage was forbidden by her father, but she never forgot him, and in after years secretly aided his necessities. Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began to increase, as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's death. But on the whole, it is the playful, humorous side of him that is most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar; spent in the society of Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd, and in writing satires for The Connoisseur and St. James's Chronicle and halfpenny ballads. Then came the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, and made him a sedentary invalid, dependent on his friends. He had been nominated to the Clerkship of the Journals of the House of Lords, but the dread of appearing before them to show his fitness for the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted his life with "laudanum, knife and cord,"—-in the third attempt nearly succeeding. The dark delusion of his life now first showed itself—a belief in his reprobation by God. But for the present, under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton (q. v.) at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which the two first were spent at Huntingdon (where he formed his lifelong friendship with Mrs. Unwin), and the remainder at Olney in active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guidance of John Newton (q. v.), were full of the realisation of God's favour, and the happiest, most lucid period of his life. But the tension of long religious exercises, the nervous excitement of leading at prayer meetings, and the extreme despondence (far more than the Calvinism) of Newton, could scarcely have been a healthy atmosphere for a shy, sensitive spirit, that needed most of all the joyous sunlight of Christianity. A year after his brother's death, madness returned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he attempted suicide; and he then settled down into a belief in stark contradiction to his Calvinistic creed, "that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlasting perdition" (Southey). In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, during which he chiefly resided in J. Newton's house, patiently tended by him and by his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. Gradually he became interested in carpentering, gardening, glazing, and the tendance of some tame hares and other playmates. At the close of 1780, Mrs. Unwin suggested to him some serious poetical work; and the occupation proved so congenial, that his first volume was published in 1782. To a gay episode in 1783 (his fascination by the wit of Lady Austen) his greatest poem, The Task, and also John Gilpin were owing. His other principal work was his Homer, published in 1791. The dark cloud had greatly lifted from his life when Lady Hesketh's care accomplished his removal to Weston (1786): but the loss of his dear friend William Unwin lowered it again for some months. The five years' illness of Mrs. Unwin, during which his nurse of old became his tenderly-watched patient, deepened the darkness more and more. And her death (1796) brought “fixed despair," of which his last poem, The Castaway, is the terrible memorial. Perhaps no more beautiful sentence has been written of him, than the testimony of one, who saw him after death, that with the "composure and calmness" of the face there “mingled, as it were, a holy surprise." Cowper's poetry marks the dawn of the return from the conventionality of Pope to natural expression, and the study of quiet nature. His ambition was higher than this, to be the Bard of Christianity. His great poems show no trace of his monomania, and are full of healthy piety. His fame as a poet is less than as a letter-writer: the charm of his letters is unsurpassed. Though the most considerable poet, who has written hymns, he has contributed little to the development of their structure, adopting the traditional modes of his time and Newton's severe canons. The spiritual ideas of the hymns are identical with Newton's: their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy: more than half of them are full of trustful or reassuring faith: ten of them are either submissive (44), self-reproachful (17, 42, 43), full of sad yearning (1, 34), questioning (9), or dark spiritual conflict (38-40). The specialty of Cowper's handling is a greater plaintiveness, tenderness, and refinement. A study of these hymns as they stood originally under the classified heads of the Olney Hymns, 1779, which in some cases probably indicate the aim of Cowper as well as the ultimate arrangement of the book by Newton, shows that one or two hymns were more the history of his conversion, than transcripts of present feelings; and the study of Newton's hymns in the same volume, full of heavy indictment against the sins of his own regenerate life, brings out the peculiar danger of his friendship to the poet: it tends also to modify considerably the conclusions of Southey as to the signs of incipient madness in Cowper's maddest hymns. Cowper's best hymns are given in The Book of Praise by Lord Selborne. Two may be selected from them; the exquisitely tender "Hark! my soul, it is the Lord" (q. v.), and "Oh, for a closer walk with God" (q. v.). Anyone who knows Mrs. Browning's noble lines on Cowper's grave will find even a deeper beauty in the latter, which is a purely English hymn of perfect structure and streamlike cadence, by connecting its sadness and its aspiration not only with the “discord on the music" and the "darkness on the glory," but the rapture of his heavenly waking beneath the "pathetic eyes” of Christ. Authorities. Lives, by Hayley; Grimshaw; Southey; Professor Goldwin Smith; Mr. Benham (attached to Globe Edition); Life of Newton, by Rev. Josiah Bull; and the Olney Hymns. The numbers of the hymns quoted refer to the Olney Hymns. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Cowper, W. , p. 265, i. Other hymns are:— 1. Holy Lord God, I love Thy truth. Hatred of Sin. 2. I was a grovelling creature once. Hope and Confidence. 3. No strength of nature can suffice. Obedience through love. 4. The Lord receives His highest praise. Faith. 5. The saints should never be dismayed. Providence. All these hymns appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ===================== Cowper, W., p. 265, i. Prof. John E. B. Mayor, of Cambridge, contributed some letters by Cowper, hitherto unpublished, together with notes thereon, to Notes and Queries, July 2 to Sept. 24, 1904. These letters are dated from Huntingdon, where he spent two years after leaving St. Alban's (see p. 265, i.), and Olney. The first is dated "Huntingdon, June 24, 1765," and the last "From Olney, July 14, 1772." They together with extracts from other letters by J. Newton (dated respectively Aug. 8, 1772, Nov. 4, 1772), two quotations without date, followed by the last in the N. & Q. series, Aug. 1773, are of intense interest to all students of Cowper, and especially to those who have given attention to the religious side of the poet's life, with its faint lights and deep and awful shadows. From the hymnological standpoint the additional information which we gather is not important, except concerning the hymns "0 for a closer walk with God," "God moves in a mysterious way," "Tis my happiness below," and "Hear what God, the Lord, hath spoken." Concerning the last three, their position in the manuscripts, and the date of the last from J. Newton in the above order, "Aug. 1773," is conclusive proof against the common belief that "God moves in a mysterious way" was written as the outpouring of Cowper's soul in gratitude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in October 1773. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane

1830 - 1869 Person Name: Elizabeth C. Clephane Hymnal Number: d189 Author of "There were ninety and nine that [who] safely lay" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Clephane, Elizabeth Cecilia, third daughter of Andrew Clephane, Sheriff of Fife, was born at Edinburgh, June 18, 1830, and died at Bridgend House, near Melrose, Feb. 19, 1869. Her hymns appeared, almost all for the first time, in the Family Treasury, under the general title of Breathings on the Border. In publishing the first of these in the Treasury, the late Rev. W. Arnot, of Edinburgh, then editor, thus introduced them:— "These lines express the experiences, the hopes, and the longings of a young Christian lately released. Written on the very edge of this life, with the better land fully, in the view of faith, they seem to us footsteps printed on the sands of Time, where these sands touch the ocean of Eternity. These footprints of one whom the Good Shepherd led through the wilderness into rest, may, with God's blessing, contribute to comfort and direct succeeding pilgrims." The hymns, together with their dates,are:— 1. Beneath the cross of Jesus. Family Treasury, 1872, p. 398, 2. Mine eyes for ever closed. Family Treasury, 1872, p. 398. 3. Who climbeth up too nigh. Family Treasury, 1872, p. 552. 4. Into His summer garden. Family Treasury, 1873, p. 245. 5. From my dwelling midst the dead. Family Treasury, 1873, p. 365. 6. The day is drawing nearly done. Family Treasury, 1873, p. 389. 7. Life-light waneth to an end. Family Treasury, 1874, p. 595. 8. There were ninety and nine that safely lay. Family Treasury, 1874, p. 595. Of these Nos. 1 and 8 are in common use. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Jeremiah Eames Rankin

1828 - 1904 Hymnal Number: d15 Author of "Tell it to Jesus" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Pseudonym: R. E. Jeremy. Rankin, Jeremiah Eames, D.D., was born at Thornton, New Haven, Jan. 2, 1828, and educated at Middleburg College, Vermont, and at Andover. For two years he resided at Potsdam, U.S. Subsequently he held pastoral charges as a Congregational Minister at New York, St. Albans, Charlestown, Washington ( District of Columbia), &c. In 1878 he edited the Gospel Temperance Hymnal, and later the Gospel Bells. His hymns appeared in these collections, and in D. E. Jones's Songs of the New Life, 1869. His best known hymn is "Labouring and heavy laden" (Seeking Christ). This was "written [in 1855] for a sister who was an inquirer," was first printed in the Boston Recorder, and then included in Nason's Congregational Hymn Book, 1857. Another of his hymns is "Rest, rest, rest, brother rest." He died in 1904. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ======================== Rankin, J. 33., p. 951, ii. Dr. Rankin, b. in N. H. (not New Haven), and received his D.D. 1869, LL.D. 1889 from his Alma Mater. He was President for several years of Howard University, Washington, D.C. His publications included several volumes of Sermons, German-English Lyrics, Sacred and Secular, 1897; 2nd ed. 1898, &c. In addition to his hymns noted on p. 951, ii., he has written and published mainly in sheet form many others, the most important and best-known being:— 1. God be with you till we meet again. [Benediction.] Dr. Rankin's account of this hymn, supplied to us, in common with Mr. Brownlie, for his Hymns and H. Writers of The Church Hymnary, 1899, is: "It was written as a Christian good-bye, and first sung in the First Congregational Church, of which I was minister for fifteen years. We had Gospel meetings on Sunday nights, and our music was intentionally of the popular kind. I wrote the first stanza, and sent it to two gentlemen for music. The music which seemed to me to best suit the words was written by T. G. Tomer, teacher of public schools in New Jersey, at one time on the staff of General 0. 0. Howard. After receiving the music (which was revised by Dr. J. W. Bischoff, the organist of my church), I wrote the other stanzas." The hymn became at once popular, and has been translated into several languages. In America it is in numerous collections; and in Great Britain, in The Church Hymnary, 1898, Horder's Worship Song, 1905, The Methodist Hymn Book, 1904, and others. It was left undated by Dr. Rankin, but I.D. Sankey gives it as 1882. 2. Beautiful the little hands. [Little ones for Jesus.] Given without date in Gloria Deo, New York, 1900. Dr. Rankin's translations include versions of German, French, Latin, and Welsh hymns. His contributions to the periodical press have been numerous. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Herbert Buffum

1879 - 1939 Hymnal Number: d74 Author of "Nothing can happen outside of God's will" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Herbert Buffum was born in La Fayette, Illinois 13 November 1879. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He started preaching at seventeen years of age. He did city mission work up and down the Pacific Coast and later in small towns in Kansas. He began publishing hymns at the age of eighteen. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916)

Johnson Oatman, Jr.

1856 - 1922 Person Name: Johnson Oatman Hymnal Number: d1 Author of "I've given all to Jesus" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Johnson Oatman, Jr., son of Johnson and Rachel Ann Oatman, was born near Medford, N. J., April 21, 1856. His father was an excellent singer, and it always delighted the son to sit by his side and hear him sing the songs of the church. Outside of the usual time spent in the public schools, Mr. Oatman received his education at Herbert's Academy, Princetown, N. J., and the New Jersey Collegiate Institute, Bordentown, N. J. At the age of nineteen he joined the M.E. Church, and a few years later he was granted a license to preach the Gospel, and still later he was regularly ordained by Bishop Merrill. However, Mr. Oatman only serves as a local preacher. For many years he was engaged with his father in the mercantile business at Lumberton, N. J., under the firm name of Johnson Oatman & Son. Since the death of his father, he has for the past fifteen years been in the life insurance business, having charge of the business of one of the great companies in Mt. Holly, N. J., where he resides. He has written over three thousand hymns, and no gospel song book is considered as being complete unless it contains some of his hymns. In 1878 he married Wilhelmina Reid, of Lumberton, N.J. and had three children, Rachel, Miriam, and Percy. Excerpted from Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers by Jacob Henry Hall; Fleming H. Revell, Co. 1914

J. M. Henson

1887 - 1972 Hymnal Number: d9 Author of "Watching you, watching you, every day mind the course you pursue" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4

Lydia Baxter

1809 - 1874 Hymnal Number: d177 Author of "Precious name, O how sweet" in Cornelius' Gospel Songs No. 4 Baxter, Lydia, an American Baptist, was b. at Petersburg, N. York, Sep. 2, 1800, married to Mr. Baxter, and d. in N. Y. June 22, 1874. In addition to her Gems by the Wayside, 1855, Mrs. Baxter contributed many hymns to collections for Sunday Schools, and Evangelistic Services. Of these, the following are the best known:— 1. Cast thy net again, my brother. Patient toil. Given in the Royal Diadem, N. Y., 1873. 2. Go, work in my vineyard. Duty. Also given in the Royal Diadem, 1873, and Mr. Sankey's S. & Solos, No. 4. 3. I'm kneeling, Lord, at mercy's gate. Lent. In Coronation Hymns, &c, N. Y., 1879. 4. I'm weary, I'm fainting, my day's work is done. Longing for rest. Royal Diadem. 1873. 5. In the fadeless spring-time. Heavenly Reunion. In the Royal Diadem, 1873, I. D. Sankey's S. S. & Solos, No. 256, and others. It was written for Mr. H. P. Main in 1872. 6. One by one we cross the river. Death. In Songs of Salvation, N. Y., 1870, I. D. Sankey's S. S. & Solos, No. 357, &c. It dates cir. 1866. 7. Take the name of Jesus with you. Name of Jesus. Written late in 1870, or early in 1871, for W. H. Doane, and pub. in Pure Gold, 1871. It is No. 148 of I. D. Sankey's S. S. & Solos. 8. The Master is coming. Invitation. In Songs of Salvation, 1870, No. 38. 9. There is a gate that stands ajar. Mercy. In New Hallowed Songs, and also the Gospel Songs of P. Bliss, 1874. It was written for S. J. Vail about 1872. It has attained to some popularity. It is given in Mr. Sankey's S. & Solos, No. 2. -John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)