1807 - 1883 Author of "God sits sovereign on the throne" Hatfield, Edwin Francis, D.D., was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, Jan. 9, 1807, and educated at Middlcbury College, Vermont, and at Andover. From 1832 to 1835 he was pastor of the 2nd Presbyterian Church, St. Louis. In 1835 he removed to New York, where he was at first pastor of 7th Presbyterian Church, and then of the North Presbyterian Church (1856-63) in the same city; and in 1864 he was appointed special agent to the Union Theological Seminary, New York. He also held from 1846 the appointment of Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly. He died at Summit, New Jersey, Sept. 22, 1883. His hymnological knowledge was extensive. His publications include:—
(1) Freedom's Lyre; or, Psalms, Hymns, and Sacred Songs, for the Slave and his Friends, N. Y., 1840, to which he contributed 24 hymns under the signature of “E. F. H."; (2) The Church Hymn Book for the Worship of God, N. Y., 18t2, in which are 10 of his hymns; and (3) Chapel Hymns, N. Y., 1873. (4) The Poets of the Church. Biographical Sketches of Hymn Writers, with Notes on their Hymns, New York, 1884. This was a posthumous publication, and is far from being accurate. His hymns and psalm versions in common use include:—
1. Come, bless Jehovah's name. (1837.) Psalms 134.
2. Come, let us gladly sing. (1837.) Psalms 95.
3. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. (1837.) Psalms 150.
4. How perfect is Thy law. (1837.) Psalms 19.
5. How sweetly breaks the Sabbath dawn. (1840.) Sunday.
6. My Shepherd's name is love. (1837.) Psalms 23.
7. 0 sing hallelujah, praise ye the Lord. (1837.) Psalms 146.
8. Thee, Thee, we praise, 0 God, and now. (1871.) A paraphrase of the Te Deum.
9. 'Tis Thine alone, Almighty Name. (1872.) Temperance.
10. Why, 0 God, Thy people spurn! (1837.) Psalms 60.
11. To God the Father, Son. Doxology. In Freedom's Lyre, 1840. It is widely used.
These hymns and psalm versions are all in his Church Hymn Book, 1872, and the dates appended above are from that collection. No. 10 was published in his Freedom's Lyre, 1810, No. 25. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology
Edwin F. Hatfield
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