O süße Stunde des Gebets

Author: W. W. Walford

William W. Walford, a blind preacher of England, is the author of the hymn beginning "Sweet hour of prayer." This hymn first appeared in print in the New York Observer September 13, 1845. The contributor who furnished the hymn says: "During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory. In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision, and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the r… Go to person page >

Translator: William Horn

Horn, William. (Germany, May 1, 1839--April 27, 1917). Evangelical. Come to United States in 1855, settled in Wisconsin. Licensed in 1861, ordained elder 1866, presiding elder 1871, bishop 1891. Editor of various Evangelical German-language publications, including Das Evangelische Magazin and Christliche Kinderfreund. Editor of German weekly of the Evangelical Association, 1883, Christliche Botschafter. Editor of Evangelisches Gesangbuch, 1877, for which he supplied a number of hymns. His most famous hymn was "Pure and free from all corruption." He wrote 24 hymns in all, and has been called one of the greatest of the German writers in America. Translated many English hymns into German. Retired as bishop in 1915. --Robert S. Wilson,… Go to person page >