Save the Perishing

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

The heathen perish: day by day. J. Montgomery. Missions.] First printed in the Sheffield Iris newspaper, of which Montgomery was the proprietor and editor, on the 20th April, 1824, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines. It was repeated in Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 551, and again in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 256. It is given in comparatively few modern hymn-books.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)