Part 12

which they included in their _Book of Hymns_, 1846. It has had widespread and long continued use in American hymn-books and to some extent in England. Twelve of Parker’s poetical pieces are included in A. P. Putnam’s _Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith_. Biographies of Parker have been written by John Weiss, Octavius B. Frothingham, and other authors.

J. 882 H.W.F.

Peabody, Rev. Ephraim, Wilton, New Hampshire, March 22, 1807—November 28, 1856, Boston, Massachusetts.

He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1827, and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1830. After serving as a tutor in the Huidekoper family in Meadville, Pennsylvania, he was ordained in 1832 as minister of a recently gathered Unitarian congregation in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1837 he joined Rev. John H. Morison in serving the First Congregational Society of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in 1845 he accepted a call to King’s Chapel, Boston, where he remained until his death, though ill-health prevented him from preaching in the last year and a half of his life. An impressive preacher, he also wrote some poetry, and a hymn for an ordination, beginning

_Lift aloud the voice of praise_

is attributed to him in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853.

H.W.F.

Peabody, Rev. Oliver William Bourne, Exeter, New Hampshire, July 9, 1799—July 5, 1847, Burlington, Vermont. He was twin brother of W. B. O. Peabody, _q.v._ He graduated from Harvard College in 1817, practised law for a few years at Exeter, served as professor of English Literature in Jefferson College, Louisiana from 1842 to 1845, and in the latter year was licensed to preach by the Boston Association and served as minister of the Unitarian Church at Burlington, Vermont, until his death two years later.

A hymn beginning

_God of the rolling orbs above_

is attributed to him in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853, but does not appear to have had further use.

J. 887 H.W.F.

Peabody, Rev. William Bourne Oliver, D.D., Exeter, New Hampshire, July 9, 1799—May 28, 1847, Springfield, Massachusetts. Graduated from Harvard College in 1817, taught for a year in Phillips Exeter Academy, and studied for the ministry at the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained as the first minister of the Unitarian Church in Springfield, Massachusetts, in October, 1820, and remained there until his death. In 1823 he published a _Poetical Catechism for the Young_, in which he included some original hymns. He edited _The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship_, Springfield, 1835, which was adopted for use in many parishes besides his own, and several of his hymns were included in it. A _Memoir_ of him, written by his twin brother, O. W. B. Peabody, was published in the 2^d edition of his _Sermons_, 1849, and a collection of his _Literary Remains_ was published in 1850. He is described as “a man of rare accomplishments, and consummate virtue,” widely respected and admired.

The following hymns by him had considerable use in the 19^th century, but only the last survived in a hymn book of the 20^th.

1. _Behold the western evening light_; (Death of the Righteous)

Published in his _Catechism_, 1823, and in _Springfield Collections_, 1835, and elsewhere. It passed into use in England; in altered form in the _Leeds Hymn Book_, 1853, and in George Rawson’s Baptist _Ps._ and _Hys._ 1858, where it begins,

_How softly on the western hills._

2. _O when the hours of life are past_ (The Hereafter)

Published in his _Catechism_ in answer to the question “What do you learn of the future state of happiness?” It was included in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853, and had some use in its original form, and also altered to _When all the hours of life are past_.

3. _The moon is up; how calm and slow_, (Evening)

A poem rather than a hymn, in 6 stas. of 4 l., appended to his _Catechism_, 1823.

4. _When brighter suns and milder skies_, (Spring)

Appended to his _Catechism_, 1823, in 6 stas. of 4 l.

5. _Who is thy neighbor? He whom thou_ (The good neighbor)

Included in the _New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914.

The full texts of Peabody’s hymns are printed in Putnam, _Singers & Songs of the Liberal Faith_, Boston, 1874.

J. 887 Revised by H.W.F.

Perkins, Rev. James Handasyde, Boston, Massachusetts, July 31, 1810—December 14, 1849, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Round Hill School, Northampton, Massachusetts. After a brief business experience in Boston he moved to Cincinnati, where he was admitted to the bar in 1837, but two years later he took up the Ministry-at-Large organized by the First Congregational Society (Unitarian) of Cincinnati, and later became pastor of the church. He was active in social reforms and as a lecturer, and was author of a number of essays descriptive of life in what was then the far west.

The hymn in 3 stanzas, C.M., beginning

_It is a faith sublime and sure_,

attributed to “J. H. Perkins” in Longfellow and Johnson’s _Book of Hymns_, 1846-48, is presumably by him, although it is not included with his poems printed in the _Memoir and Writings of James Handasyde Perkins_, edited by W. H. Channing, Cincinnati, 1851. It does not appear to have had any further use.

H.W.F.

Pierpont, Rev. John, Litchfield, Connecticut, April 6, 1785—August 27, 1866, Medford, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College in 1804, studied law, and in 1812 set up practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts, but later turned to the ministry and graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1818. That fall he became minister of the Hollis Street Church (Unitarian) in Boston, which he served till 1840, when a sharp controversy over his outspoken attacks on intemperance, slavery and other social evils led to his resignation. In the same year he published his _Poems and Hymns_, which included his temperance and anti-slavery poems and songs, and of which a later edition appeared in 1854. He also wrote a number of excellent school books. In 1845 he became minister of the Unitarian Church at Troy, New York, and in 1849 of the First Parish in Medford, Massachusetts, which he served until 1859, when he retired. With the outbreak of the Civil War he became an Army chaplain and was later employed in the Treasury Department at Washington. He died suddenly while on a visit to Medford.

He was the maternal grandfather of J. Pierpont Morgan of New York, who was named for him, but it would be hard to find a greater contrast than that offered by the careers of the hymn-writing reformer and his grandson, the financial magnate.

In his own day Pierpont’s hymns brought him a wide reputation. 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 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. _Another day its course hath run_ (Evening)

Appeared in _Hymns for Children_, Boston 1825; in Greenwood’s _Chapel Liturgy_, 1827; in Lunt’s _Christian Psalter_, 1841; and in the author’s _Poems and Hymns_, 1840.

2. _Break forth in song, ye trees_ (Public Thanksgiving)

Written for the celebration of the 200^th anniversary of the Settlement of Boston, Sept. 17, 1830. Included in _Poems and Hymns_, 1840.

3. _Break the bread and pour the wine_ (Communion)

In Harris’s _Hymns for the Lord’s Supper_, 1820.

4. _Father, while we break the bread_, (Communion)

5. _God Almighty and All-seeing_ (Greatness of God)

Contributed to Elias Nason’s _Congregational Hymn Book_, Boston, 1857.

6. _God of mercy, do Thou never_ (Ordination)

Written for the ordination of John B. P. Storer at Walpole, Mass., Nov. 18, 1826. Included in the author’s _Poems_, 1840, and in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853.

7. _God of our fathers, in Whose sight_, (Love of Truth)

This hymn is composed of stas. IX and X of a longer hymn written for the Charlestown (Mass.) Centennial, June 17, 1830. In this form it was included in Longfellow and Johnson’s _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864, and elsewhere.

8. _Gone are those great and good_, (Commemoration)

Part of no. 2, above, in _Church Harmonies_, 1895.

9. _I cannot make him dead_ (Memorial)

A part of an exquisitely touching and beautiful poem of ten stanzas, originally printed in the _Monthly Miscellany_, Oct. 1840.

10. _Let the still air rejoice_, (Praise)

This was headed “Temperance Hymn” in _The Soldier’s Companion_, 1861, but is really a patriotic ditty.

11. _Mighty God, whose name is holy_ (Charitable Institutions)

Written for the anniversary of the Howard Benevolent Society, Dec. 1826. Included in the author’s _Poems_, 1840.

12. _My God, I thank Thee that the night_ (Morning)

In the author’s Poems, 1840. In Lunt’s _Christian Psalter_, 1841, and Martineau’s _Hymns_, 1873, it begins

_O God, I thank Thee_.

13. _O bow Thine ear, Eternal One_ (Opening of Worship)

Dated 1823, but not included in the author’s Poems. It is given in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns_, etc. 1853.

14. _O Thou to Whom in ancient times_ (Worship)

“Written for the opening of the Independent Congregational Church in Barton Square, Salem, Mass. Dec. 7, 1824,” and printed at the close of the sermon preached by Henry Colman on that day. Included in the author’s _Poems_, 1840, and in many collections in this country and in Great Britain.

15. _O Thou Who art above all height_ (Ordination)

“Written for the ordination of Mr. William Ware as Pastor of the First Congregational Church in New York, Dec. 18, 1821.” Included in _Poems_, 1840, and in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns_, etc.

16. _O Thou, Who on the whirlwind rides_ (Dedication of a Place of Worship)

Written for the opening of the Seamen’s Bethel in Boston, Sept. 11, 1833. Sometimes used beginning

_Thou Who on the whirlwind rides_

17. _O’er Kedron’s stream, and Salem’s height_, (Gethsemane)

Contributed to T. M. Harris’s _Hymns for the Lord’s Supper_, 1820. Included in Martineau’s _Hymns_, London, 1873.

18. _On this stone, now laid with prayer_ (Foundation Stone)

Written for the laying of the cornerstone of Suffolk Street Chapel, Boston, for the Ministry to the Poor, May 23, 1839.

19. _With Thy pure dew and rain_, (Against slavery)

Written for the African Colonization Society. Included in Cheever’s _Common Place Book_, 1831, but not in the author’s _Poems_, 1840.

20. _While with lips with praise that glow_, (Communion)

Included in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns_, etc.

All of the above hymns have passed out of use except nos. 1, 8, 12, and 14 which are included in the _New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, and nos. 8 and 14, included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937.

J. 895, 1647 Revised by H.W.F.

Pray, Lewis Glover, Quincy, Massachusetts, August 15, 1793—October 9, 1882, Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was a business man in Boston, active in civic and church affairs. For 33 years he was superintendent of the Sunday School in the Twelfth Congregational Society of Boston. In 1833 he published a _Sunday School Hymn Book_, the first book containing music published for Sunday Schools in New England. It appeared in enlarged form in 1844 as the _Sunday School Hymn and Service Book_. In 1847 he published his _History of Sunday Schools_. His own hymns and poems were published in 1862 as _The Sylphids’ School_, and in a second volume, _Autumn Leaves_, 1873. Most of them are songs for Sunday School use rather than hymns for the church service but one of them, from _The Sylphids’ School_, beginning

_When God upheaved the pillared earth_,

was included in _Hymns of the Ages_. 3^d Series, 1864.

J. 906 H.W.F.

Prince, Rev. Thomas, D.D., Sandwich, Massachusetts, May 15, 1687—October 22, 1758, Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 1707. After voyages to Barbadoes and a stay of several years in England he returned to Boston and in 1717 was ordained as colleague of Rev. Joseph Sewall, minister of the Old South Church. His career was marked by frequent controversies and by his _Chronological History of New England_, based on his great collection of rare documents dating from the early years of the Colony. This priceless collection was unfortunately dispersed and much of it lost after his death. During his ministry the Tate and Brady version of the Psalms was gradually replacing the _Bay Psalm Book_ in New England, but his parishioners clung to the old book. He persuaded them to let him revise it, which he did, improving or modernizing the verse and printing after the Psalms “an addition of Fifty other Hymns on the most important subjects of Christianity.” It included one hymn by himself beginning

_With Christ and all his shining Train_ _Of Saints and Angels, we shall rise_ (The Resurrection)

His collection was published in 1758 and was first used in the Old South Meeting House on the Sunday following his death. Its use there continued for another 30 years, but it was not adopted elsewhere, the _Bay Psalm Book_ being by that time generally superseded by collections of _Watts and Select_.

H.W.F.

Putnam, Rev. Alfred Porter, D. D. Danvers, Massachusetts, January 10, 1827—April 15, 1906, Salem, Massachusetts. He was educated at Brown University, A.B. 1852, and graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1855. Entering the Unitarian ministry he served a church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1855-1864, and the Church of the Saviour, Brooklyn, New York, 1864-1886, when he retired. Brown University gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1871. He wrote no hymns but published in 1874 a book entitled _Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith: being selections of hymns and other sacred poems of the Liberal Church in America, with biographical sketches of the writers_. This book includes practically all the hymns by American Unitarian authors which had come into use prior to 1870, and the biographical sketches are generally accurate and adequate in brief space. This useful reference book is elsewhere referred to in this Dictionary as Putnam: _Singers and Songs_.

H.W.F.

Robbins, Rev. Chandler, D.D., Lynn, Massachusetts, February 14, 1810—September 12, 1882, Westport, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1829 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1833. On December 4th of the same year he was ordained minister of the Second Church (Unitarian), Boston, in succession to Henry Ware, Jr. and R. W. Emerson. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Harvard in 1855. He was the author of a number of books, essays and memorial discourses dealing with local events and persons. In 1843 he published _The Social Hymn Book_, intended for social gatherings rather than for church services, and in 1854 an enlarged edition entitled _Hymn Book for Christian Worship_, though this book does not give his name as editor. He contributed two hymns to _A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Sanctuary_, 1845, compiled by George E. Ellis.

1. _Lo! the day of rest declineth_ (Evening)

for which L. B. Barnes, then president of the Handel and Haydn Society composed the tune, Bedford Street, named for the location of Dr. Robbins’ church.

2. _While thus [now] thy throne of grace we seek_, (Voice of God)

The first of these is included in The _Isles of Shoals Hymn Book_, 1908, and in the _New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914. The second is in _Church Harmonies_, 1895.

J. 966 H.W.F.

Robbins, Rev. Samuel Dowse, Lynn, Massachusetts, March 7, 1812—?1884, Belmont, Massachusetts, he was a brother of Chandler Robbins, _q.v._ He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1833 and on November 13 of the same year was ordained minister of the Unitarian Church in Lynn. He subsequently held pastorates in Chelsea (1840), Framingham (1859) and Wayland, Massachusetts, 1867-1873.

He wrote a good many poems on religious themes, which were published in magazines and newspapers but were never collected in a volume. The Unitarian _Hymn and Tune Book_, 1868, included four of his hymns, viz:

1. _Down toward the twilight drifting_, (Sunset)

2. _Saviour, when thy bread we break_, (Communion)

3. _Thou art my morning, God of light_, (Day)

4. _Thou art, O God! my East. In thee I dawned_,

In Putnam, _Singers and Songs_, etc., this is entitled “The Compass,” with the statement, “Several mistakes in this hymn, as it is printed in the Hymn and Tune Book, are here corrected by Mr. Robbins.”

Julian’s _Dictionary_, p. 967, also cites one beginning

5. _Thou art our father! thou of God the Son_ (Christ)

but it is a religious poem rather than a hymn and there is no evidence that it was included in any hymn book.

J. 967 Revised H.W.F.

Sargent, Lucius Manlius, Boston, Massachusetts, June 25, 1786—June 2, 1867, Boston. A layman of independent means, author of many articles advocating temperance. His temperance hymn beginning

_Slavery and death the cup contains_

“was written during the Washingtonian Temperance Revival” and appeared in Adams’ and Chapin’s Unitarian _Hymns for Christian Devotion_, Boston, 1846. In the American Methodist Episcopal _Hymnal_, 1878 the first line is altered to read

_Bondage and death the cup contains_,

The hymn is included, with the original wording, in the Universalist _Church Harmonies_, 1895.

J. 1061 H.W.F.

Savage, Rev. Minot Judson, D.D., Norridgewock, Maine, June 10, 1841—May 22, 1918, Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were strictly orthodox Congregationalists whose resources were meagre, but a generous benefactor made it possible for him to enter Bangor Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1864. He served as a Congregational minister in California, Massachusetts and Missouri, but, having become acquainted with the works of Darwin and Herbert Spencer, he transferred his membership to the Unitarian denomination in 1872 and became minister of the Third Unitarian Church in Chicago. Two years later he accepted a call to Unity Church in Boston, which he served until 1896 when he moved to New York as minister of the Church of the Messiah. He was one of the earliest advocates of a religious interpretation of the doctrine of evolution, a bold thinker and forceful speaker in great demand, and the author of many books and printed sermons. 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. _Dost thou hear the bugle sounding_, (Duty)

2. _Father, we would not dare to change thy purpose_ (Prayer)

3. _God of the glorious summer hours_, (New Year)

4. _How shall come the kingdom holy_ (Coming of the kingdom)

5. _O God, whose law is in the sky_ (Consecration to Duty)

6. _O star of truth, down shining_, (Devotion to Truth)

7. _Seek not afar for beauty_, (God in Nature)

8. _The God that to our fathers revealed his holy will_,

9. _The very blossoms of our life_, (Baptism)

10. _What purpose burns within our hearts_, (Church Fellowship)

11. _When the gladsome day declineth_, (Evening)

Of these nos. 4, 6, 7 and 11 are included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937.

J. 1698 H.W.F.

Scudder, Eliza, Boston, Massachusetts, November 14, 1821—September 28, 1896, Weston, Massachusetts. She was a niece of Rev. E. H. Sears, _q.v._ Early in life she joined a Congregational Church, throughout her middle years was a Unitarian, and late in life entered the Episcopal Church. She wrote a small number of poems which were published in Boston in 1880 under the title _Hymns and Sonnets, by E.S._, and again with her two latest poems and a brief biographical sketch by Horace E. Scudder, in 1897, but most of her hymns had appeared at earlier dates in other places. They are characterized by a profound mystical spirit expressed in terms of great literary beauty, and some of them passed into a considerable measure of common use.

1. _And wherefore should I seek above_,

This hymn, included in _The Isles of Shoals Hymnbook_, 1908, consists of the last three stanzas of a much longer poem entitled “The New Heaven,” dated 1855.

2. _From past regret and present faithlessness_, (Repentance)

written in August, 1871, and published in _Quiet Hours_, Boston, 1875. This was altered in some hymnbooks to,

_From past regret and present feebleness_,

In most cases the opening stanza has been omitted and the hymn has begun with the second stanza,

_Thou Life within my life, than self more near_,

see no. 9, below.

3. _I cannot find Thee, still on restless pinion_, (Seeking after God)

This first appeared in Longfellow and Johnson’s _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864.

4. _In Thee my powers and treasures live_, (Faith and Joy)

This appeared in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864. It is part of a hymn of 10 stanzas beginning

_Let whosoever will inquire_, dated 1855.

In _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, another arrangement of stanzas forms a hymn beginning

_My God, I rather look to Thee_

5. _Life of our life, and light of all our seeing_, (Prayer)

Written in August, 1870, it was included in _Quiet Hours_, 1875.

6. _The day is done: the weary day of thought and toil is past_, (Evening)

Included in _Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life_, E. H. Sears, Boston, 2^nd ed. 1878, p. 296, entitled “Vesper Hymn,” dated “October, 1874.”

7. _Thou Grace divine, encircling all_, (Divine Grace)

This appeared in E. H. Sears’ _Pictures of the Olden Time, as shown in the Fortunes of a Family of Pilgrims_, 1857. Written in 1852, it was included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864. In the Universalist _Psalms and Hymns_, 1865, it was mistakenly called “An Ancient Catholic Hymn.”

8. _Thou hast gone up again_ (Ascension)

In _Hymns and Sonnets_, 1880.

9. _Thou Life within my life, than self more near_,

As noted above, this is part of No. 2, beginning with the second stanza of that hymn. In this form it is perhaps Miss Scudder’s most beautiful hymn.

10. _Thou long disowned, reviled, opprest_, (Spirit of Truth)

Written in January, 1860, it was included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864. A cento from this hymn, altered to read,

_Come Thou, with purifying fire_,

was included in Stryker’s _Church Song_, 1889.

Of these hymns nos. 3, 4 (selected stanzas), 7, 9 and 10 are included in _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, and nos. 3, 7 and 9 in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937.

J. 1035, 1589, 1700 H.W.F.