Henry Wilder Foote

“ Henry D. Sewall, one of the laymen who founded the First Congregational Society of New York, now All Souls Church, which was organized in 1819. Commonly called “the New York Collection.” It contains 504 psalms and hymns arranged in three sections in alphabetical order of first lines. There are no musical directions except that the metre of each hymn is indicated. The Collection is chiefly notable for the inclusion, without the author’s name, of five original hymns by William Cullen Bryant, a member of the congregation, who had written them at the instance of Miss Sedgwick. ”

“ There is a world eye hath not seen (The Spirit World)
included in Longfellow and Johnson’s Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, and there marked Anon., is attributed to Very in Julian’s Dictionary. The hymn is an abbreviated and mutilated version of the beautiful poem beginning
There is a world we have not seen
in A. M. Buchanan’s Folk Hymns of America, pp. 80-81. (See H. W. Foote, Three Centuries of American Hymnody, p. 173) . The original form is in three stanzas of eight lines, long metre. The very inferior re-written form is in four stanzas, four lines, common metre. ”

“ Charles Timothy, Salem, Massachusetts, June 20, 1813—June 14, 1883, Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated from Harvard College in 1832 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1835. He was ordained as the first minister of the Unitarian Church in Newport, Rhode Island, on January 1, 1837, and served there until 1873. He was author of a number of books, most of them translations from German poets and novelists. After his death a volume entitled Poems, Original and Translated, was published. The only hymn with which his name is associated was in two stanzas beginning,
God bless our native land! ”

“ Throughout his career in New York he has been an outspoken leader in many causes for social betterment, and a prolific author in prose and verse who has published a large number of books, religious and biographical, and of printed sermons. No other American author of his period has written so many fine hymns which have been widely used in this country, in England, and in Japan. ”

“ Henry Ware, Jr. (1794-1843) who wrote a number of hymns highly valued as utterances of the religious idealism of the period, but long since dropped from use, except for an excellent one for the dedication of an organ, probably the only hymn in the English language written expressly for such an occasion. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) , a lay man of letters, was another of the elder members of the famous group of New England poets of the 19th century, and as early as 1820 he contributed 5 hymns to Sewall’s New York Collection, published in that year, and he later wrote others. ”

“ Belknap endeavored to compile a collection which should serve both the orthodox and the liberal wings of the New England Congregationalism of his day. In his preface he says, “In this selection, those Christians who do not scruple to sing praises to their Redeemer and Sanctifier, will find materials for such a sublime enjoyment; whilst others, whose tenderness of conscience may oblige them to 17 confine their addresses to the Father only, will find no deficiency of matter suited to their idea of the chaste and awful spirit of devotion.” ”

“ These writers are far too numerous to name in this outline sketch but their thumbnail biographies and notations as to their hymns will be found in the following catalogue. A survey of this whole era discloses the evolution in liberal religious thought from the period when the emphasis was on the sinfulness of man and the redemptive function of the Christian Church, to the vision of a world wide religion taking in many forms, and manifested in that service of mankind which found expression in the “social gospel” in the first half of this century. ”

“ John Haynes Holmes has been a more prolific writer, author of about 45 hymns, many written for special occasions, but 10 or 15 others have come into general and widespread use. His hymns are in a quite different key from those of Dr. Ham’s quiet mysticism, generally being stirring calls to social justice and the service of mankind, though a few are hymns of gratitude for the simple joys of life. ”

“ He joined the Methodist Church in 1847 and three years later sailed for America, settling at Shoemakertown, Pennsylvania, where he was both a blacksmith and a preacher. Having become acquainted with Dr. W. H. Furness, q.v., of Philadelphia, he accepted Unitarian beliefs and left the Methodist Church. His great intellectual abilities and natural gifts as a preacher brought him an invitation in 1859 to go to Chicago to take charge of the newly organized Unity Church in that city, which he served until 1879, when he accepted a call to the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) , New York. ”

“ The early flowering of Bryant’s gifts as a poet, promoted by a fortunate combination of circumstances, quickly brought him widespread recognition in both Great Britain and America, which deepened 69 into respect for his fine character as he advanced in age. The writings of no other American poet of his period were so eagerly searched by compilers of hymn books, who sometimes included verses which were meditative, poems rather than hymns, e.g., nos. ”

“ Edwin Henry, D.D. Chester Park, Long Island, New York, August 23, 1898—still living. He graduated from Boston University, 1922; from Meadville Theological School, 1926; and took the degree of M.A. at the University of Chicago, 1928. He has served as minister of Unitarian churches in Chicago, Illinois; Schenectady, New York; and Salt Lake City, Utah. Since 1949 he has been Director of the American Humanist Association. His hymn beginning,
Where is our holy church? ”

“ He remained active pastor of the Chapel until 1826. He edited a Collection of Psalms and Hymns for public worship, published in 1799. It included 155 psalms “selected chiefly from Tate and Brady,” followed by 90 hymns, and remained in use in the Chapel until the publication in 1830 of the much better Collection edited by his successor, Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, q.v. Freeman wrote one hymn
Lord of the worlds below (The Seasons)
which first appeared in his Collection, from which it passed to a number of later ones. ”

“ Written in Fall River, 1848, and published in the Supplement to A Book of Hymns, Second Edition, Boston, 1848, with the title “The New Commandment,” in 3 stas. of 4 l.; in H. & V.
4. Eternal One, Thou living God. (Anniversary)
Written in 1875 for a church anniversary, possibly for the 25th anniversary of the Preble Chapel in 171 Portland, Maine; 5 stas. of 4 l. In H. & V. the original reading of the last two lines,
“Afloat upon its boundless sea,
Who sails with God is safe indeed.”
are changed to the inferior reading,
“That truth alone can make us free;
Who goes with God is safe indeed.” ”

“ Great God, the followers of thy Son, (Ordination)
Written for the ordination of Jared Sparks, the historian, as minister of the First Unitarian Church, Baltimore, Maryland, May 5, 1819, but suitable for any service of worship and perhaps the most widely used of Ware’s hymns.
6. In this glad hour when children meet (Family Gatherings)
Dated August 20, 1835. In Lyra Sacra Americana.
7. Lift your glad voices in triumph on high (Easter)
Dated 1817, and published in the Christian Disciple of that year, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines. In Lyra Sacra Americana and included in many 19th century hymn books. ”

“ While he has infrequently attained the felicity of phrasing which results in a memorable line his hymns are cast in vigorous and often stirring verse, expressing a noble altruism and a wholesome attitude towards life.
M. F. Ham and J. H. Holmes are the latest notable figures in 9 this era of 150 years since the beginning of American Unitarian hymnody, throughout which scores of lesser writers have also contributed their offerings to the main stream. ”

“ In 1883 he published Sacred Songs for Public Worship; a Hymn and Tune Book, with music arranged by Howard M. Dow, for use in Unity Church. It contained 195 hymns and songs, 42 of which were from his own pen. It had the shortcomings of a “one-man book” and was musically nearer akin to the typical gospel song-book than was usual in Unitarian hymn-books, and it had little use outside his own congregation. Several of his hymns passed into other collections in England and America, viz:
1. ”

“ Julian’s Dictionary, pp. 1650-51, lists 27 hymns by Dr. Hosmer, with “annotations—from ms. notes supplied—by the author,” as follows:—
142
1. Father, to Thee we look in all our sorrow (Trust in God)
Written in 1881 upon the death of a member of the author’s congregation, and published in The Thought of God, 1st Series, 1885.
2. From age to age how grandly rise (Unity)
Written for the annual festival of the Free Religious Association, Boston, June 2, 1899, and first published in Souvenir Festival Hys. 1899. Subsequently altered by the author to “From age to age the prophet’s vision.” ”

“ Thus Putnam, in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, 1873, says, “Mr. Pierpont was one of the best hymn writers in America. He was a genuine poet, as well as a powerful preacher and stern reformer.” Today he occupies a much more modest place in American hymnody. None of his hymns attained a very high level of excellence. Most of them are respectable verse, written in 205 response to frequent requests for hymns for special occasions, but they well illustrate the mood of the Unitarianism of his period.
His hymns which have come into use are
1. ”

“ After his death a small volume entitled Hymns and Verses by Samuel Longfellow was published in 1894 with a very brief introductory note by his niece, Miss Alice M. Longfellow. It included 41 hymns which she thought were his, followed by 30 short poems of no outstanding excellence. Some of the “hymns” included seem never to have come into use as such; some of her attributions were mistaken; she omitted some hymns which he wrote or adapted but cited in his books as “Anonymous” because based on the work of others ”