1805 - 1890 Hymnal Number: d1 Author of "A mighty fortress is our God" in Melodies of Praise Hedge, Frederick Henry, D.D., son of Professor Hedge of Harvard College, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1805, and educated in Germany and at Harvard. In 1829 he became pastor of the Unitarian Church, West Cambridge. In 1835 he removed to Bangor, Maine; in 1850 to Providence, and in 1856 to Brookline, Mass. He was appointed in 1857, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge (U.S.), and in 1872, Professor of German Literature at Harvard. Dr. Hedge is one of the editors of the Christian Examiner, and the author of The Prose Writers of Germany, and other works. In 1853 he edited, with Dr. F. D. Huntington, the Unitarian Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston Crosby, Nichols & Co. To that collection and the supplement (1853) he contributed the following translations from the German:—
1. A mighty fortress is our God. (Ein feste Burg.)
2. Christ hath arisen! joy to, &c. (Goethe's Faust.)
3. The sun is still for ever sounding. (Goethe's Faust.)
There is also in the Unitarian Hymn [& Tune] Book for The Church & Home, Boston, 1868, a translation from the Latin.
4. Holy Spirit, Fire divine. (“Veni Sancte Spiritus.")
Dr. Hedge's original hymns, given in the Hymns for the Church, 1853, are:—
5. Beneath Thine hammer, Lord, I lie. Resignation.
6. Sovereign and transforming grace. Ordination. Written for the Ordination of H. D. Barlow at Lynn, Mass., Dec. 9, 1829. It is given in several collections.
7. 'Twas in the East, the mystic East. Christmas.
8. 'Twas the day when God's anointed. Good Friday. Written originally for a Confirmation at Bangor, Maine, held on Good Friday, 1843. The hymn "It is finished, Man of Sorrows! From Thy cross, &c," in a few collections, including Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873, is composed of st. iv.-vi. of this hymn. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Frederic Henry Hedge
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