Part 7

Written in 1892 and included in _Hymns for Church and Home_, 1896, and in _The Isles of Shoals Hymn Book_, 1908.

14. _Thou only Living, only True_,

An ordination hymn, dated 1868, included in Martineau’s _Hymns_, 1873.

15. _Thou who dost all things give_

Written in 1869. Included in the author’s _Verses, Translations and Hymns_, 1886; in _The Pilgrim Hymnal_, 1904; and in Horder’s _Treasury of American Sacred Song_, 1896.

16. _To the High and Holy One_,

This is printed in full in _Lyra Sacra Americana_, 1868. In Longfellow and Johnson’s _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864, the first stanza is dropped and it begins with the 2^nd stanza,

_To the truth that makes us free_,

17. _What is the world that it should share_,

Printed in the _Christian Disciple_, 1822, and in Martineau’s _Hymns_, 1873. It begins with the second stanza of a hymn of which the opening line reads,

_Here in Thy temple, Lord, we bow_,

In _Lyra Sacra Americana_ it is altered to read

_Oh, is there aught on earth to share_

18. _What is this that stirs within_?

Printed in the author’s _Manual of Domestic Worship_, 1840; in the Cheshire _Christian Hymns_, 1844, in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, and in a good many other American collections.

Dr. Furness’s hymns, though creditable religious verse of the period and widely esteemed because of the author’s distinction, nowhere attain a very high level of poetic beauty, and almost all of them have passed out of use. Only nos. 8, 10, and 12 were included in the Unitarian _New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, and only no. 12 survives in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937.

J. 402, 1638 Revised by H.W.F.

Fuller, Sarah Margaret, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 23, 1810—July 16, 1850, in a shipwreck south of New York. In 1847 she married the Marchese Ossoli in Rome. She did educational work in Boston and in Providence, Rhode Island, edited _The Dial_ in 1840, and was noted locally for her intellectual brilliance. Memorials of her by R. W. Emerson, W. H. Channing and J. F. Clarke appeared in 1851, her _Works_ in 1874.

Her hymn beginning

_Jesus, a child his course began_, (Christ the Pattern of Childhood)

from _Life Without and Life Within_, 1859, p. 404, had some use in Great Britain as well as in America.

J. 1585 H.W.F.

Gannett, Rev. William Channing, D.D., Boston, Massachusetts, March 13, 1840—December 15, 1923, Rochester, New York. He graduated from Harvard College in 1860; taught school in Newport, Rhode Island one year; and spent four years on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, as agent for the New England Freedmen’s Society doing relief and educational work with the thousands of Negro refugees gathered there. In 1865 he studied for a year in Europe, then entered the Harvard Divinity School from which he graduated in 1868. His first pastorate was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1868-1871. He then spent several years writing a biography of his father, Ezra Stiles Gannett, who had been William Ellery Channing’s successor as minister of the Federal Street Church, Boston. He was minister of Unity Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1877-1883; served the Western Unitarian Conference for four years; was minister at Hinsdale, Illinois, 1887-1889; and of the Unitarian Church in Rochester, New York, 1889-1908, where he remained as minister-emeritus until his death. Throughout his professional career he was closely associated with Frederick Lucian Hosmer, _q.v._ Together they published three small collections entitled _The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems_, the first in 1885, the second in 1894, the third in 1918; and together they also edited _Unity Hymns and Chorals_, 1880, revised edition in 1911. James Vila Blake, _q.v._, was co-editor of the first edition. This little hymn book is a markedly individualistic production with many of the older hymns altered to conform to the beliefs of the editors.

In these publications, in which most of their own hymns were first published, and in the careful workmanship with which their thought was brought to a perfection of poetic utterance, Gannett and Hosmer may be compared to Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson whose _Book of Hymns_, 1846, and _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864, had appeared a generation earlier.

Dr. Gannett’s hymns are listed, with annotations “based upon ms. notes kindly supplied by the author” in Julian’s _Dictionary of Hymnology_, pp. 1638-9, as follows:

1. _Bring, O morn thy music! Night thy starlit silence!_ (God Everlasting)

Written in 1892, and printed in _A Chorus of Faith_, being an account and resumé of the Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, 1893. Included in _The Thought of God_, 2^nd Series, 1894, and again in several hymnals.

2. _Clear in memory’s silent reaches_, (Memory)

Written in 1877 for a Free Religious Association Festival, and published in _The Thought of God_, 1^st Series, 1885.

3. _From heart to heart, from creed to creed_, (Faith)

Written in 1875 for 150^th anniversary of the First Religious Society of Newburyport, and given in _The Thought of God_, 1^st Series, 1885.

4. _He hides within the lily_, (Divine Providence)

“Consider the lilies, how they grow.” Written in 1873, and printed for use at the Free Religious Association Festival, May 30, 1873. Published in _The Thought of God_, 1^st Series, 1885, in 4 st. of 8 l. The most widely used of the author’s hymns.

5. _I hear it often in the dark_, (The Voice of God)

Written at Milwaukee in 1870, and published in _The Thought of God_, 1^st Series, 1885. Sometimes it begins with St. iii, “O God within, so close to me,” as in _Hys. for Church and Home_, Boston, 1895.

6. _Praise to God and Thanksgiving_, (Harvest)

Written in 1882 for a Harvest Festival at St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was then a pastor, and included in _The Thought of God_, 1^st Series, 1885. In the Boston _Pilgrim Hymnal_, 1904, and in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937, it begins

_Praise to God, and thanks we bring_,

7. _Sleep, my little Jesus_, (Christmas Carol)

Written for the Sunday School, St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1882, and given in _The Thought of God_, 2^nd Series, 1894, as “Mary’s Manger Song.”

8. _The Lord is in His holy place_ (Dedication of a Place of Worship)

Written for the Dedication of the Rev. C. W. Wendte’s Church, Chicago, April 24, 1873, and published in _The Thought of God_, 1^st Series, 1885. It is one of the most popular and widely used of the author’s hymns.

9. _The morning hangs its signal_, (Morning)

This is dated by the author “Chicago, July 30, 1886,” and printed in _Love to God and Love to Man_, being no. 28 of the Chicago “Unity Mission” series of hymns, n.d. It is also included in _The Thought of God_, 2^nd Series, 1894. Although a morning hymn it is adapted for use in Advent. It is usually known as “The Crowning Day.”

Of the hymns thus listed in Julian’s _Dictionary_ Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9 have been widely used and are included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937. No. 1 was written to be set to J. B. Dykes’ tune _Nicaea_, to which it is usually sung. No. 4 is probably the earliest hymn in the English language to give a religious interpretation of the then novel and controversial doctrine of evolution. No. 9, as included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937, is attributed to “William Channing Gannett and others”, being an arrangement from one of his poems.

Another fine hymn by Dr. Gannett beginning,

10. _God laid his rocks in courses_,

is unaccountably missing from the above list in Julian’s _Dictionary_. It is dated 1888 and was written for the dedication of the church in Hinsdale which was erected shortly before his pastorate there came to an end.

_Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937, also includes as a hymn beginning,

11. _It sounds along the ages_,

an arrangement of stanzas from one of Dr. Gannett’s poems entitled “The Word of God.”

Finally, mention should be made of his part in giving form to the great hymn beginning

12. _Praise to the living God! All praiséd be his name!_

This is a metrical version of the Yigdal, a summary of the Jewish faith attributed to Daniel Ben Judah who lived about the 14^th century A.D. About 1760 Thomas Olivers, a Methodist preacher visiting a Jewish synagogue in London, heard it chanted in Hebrew by the cantor Leoni (Meyer Lyon) to a traditional melody. Much impressed he secured a prose translation which he turned into the hymn beginning

_The God of Abraham praise_,

to be sung to the same tune, to which he gave the name Leoni. His version, however, did not follow the original text at all closely, for he gave it a Christian interpretation. (A detailed account of this episode will be found in Julian’s _Dictionary_, pp. 1149-1151.) This hymn soon became, and has remained, widely popular. In the 1880’s Rabbi Max Landsberg of Temple Berith Kodesh in Rochester, New York, a friend of Rev. Newton Mann, _q.v._ then minister of the Unitarian Church in Rochester, asked Mr. Mann if he could not make a metrical version of the Yigdal in English which would be a more exact translation. Mr. Mann did so, but not in the metre of the tune to which the Hebrew text was sung. After Dr. Gannett had succeeded Mr. Mann in Rochester, Rabbi Landsberg asked him to recast Mr. Mann’s version in the same metre as the tune. Dr. Gannett did so, and his version in 5 stas. was included in the Jewish _Union Hymnal_, 1910, from which, with one stanza omitted and some other alterations which in most cases are not improvements, it has come into a number of Christian hymn books. The unchanged version in 4 stas. will be found in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937, where it is recorded as “Revised version of the Yigdal of Daniel Ben Judah” and the tune is called “Yigdal (Leoni)” and is described as “Jewish Melody, arr. by Meyer Lyon.” Dr. Gannett never claimed this version as his, and it is now impossible to discover how much of its wording is due to Mr. Mann’s earlier verse, but its poetic perfection is highly suggestive of Dr. Gannett’s craftsmanship, which assuredly has contributed much to its present form.

H.W.F

Gilman, Mrs. Caroline (Howard), Boston, Massachusetts, October 8, 1794—September 18, 1888, Washington D. C. She married Rev. Samuel Gilman, _q.v._, on October 14, 1819, and after his death in 1858 lived for a time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later in Tiverton, Long Island, New York.

She began to write stories and poems at an early age, many of which were published in “The Rosebud,” later called “The Southern Rose,” a juvenile weekly paper published in Charleston, South Carolina, which she edited for several years, beginning in 1832. Her book entitled “Verses of a Lifetime” was published in 1854, as were a number of other books which gave her a considerable reputation as an author. Five of her poems are included in Putnam’s _Singers and Songs_, etc. Two of her hymns had considerable use,

1. _Is there a lone and dreary hour_, (Providence)

This was contributed to Sewall’s _Collection_, 1820, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, to which in 1867 she added a fifth stanza for inclusion in the Charleston _Services and Hymns_. This hymn had wide use in both British and American collections in the 19^th century.

2. _We bless Thee for this sacred day_ (Sunday)

Also contributed to Sewall’s _Collection_, 1820, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, to which she added a fifth stanza, when included in the Charleston _Services and Hymns_, 1867.

Neither of these hymns is in current use.

J. 423 Revised by H.W.F.

Gilman, Rev. Samuel, D.D., Gloucester, Massachusetts, February 16, 1791—February 9, 1858, Kingston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1811, served the College as tutor in mathematics for two years, and studied in the Harvard Divinity School. On December 1, 1819, he was ordained minister of the Unitarian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which he served with great distinction until his death, which occurred while on a visit to Massachusetts. His wife, Caroline Howard Gilman, _q.v._, was a writer noted in her day. He wrote a good many poems and essays, published in magazines; a book, “Memoirs of a New England Village Choir,” 1829, which ran to three editions; and in 1856 a volume of his miscellaneous essays, entitled “Contributions to Literature, Descriptive, Critical, Humorous, Biographical, Philosophical and Poetical.” His two best known songs were _The Union Ode_, composed for the Union party of South Carolina and sung there on July 4, 1831, during the Nullification excitement, and later in the North during the Civil War; and the college hymn _Fair Harvard_, which he wrote in 1836. He had come to Cambridge for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his graduation and the 200^th anniversary of the founding of the College. On the eve of the celebration, having already an established reputation as a poet, he was asked to write a song for the occasion and it was sung at the meeting on September 8, 1836, to a tune popular at the time, composed for the song “Believe me, if all those endearing young charms.” Harvard gave him the honorary degree of D.D. in 1837.

He wrote a number of hymns of minor importance.

1. _O God, accept this sacred hour_ (Communion)

was contributed to Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris’s _Hymns for the Lord’s Supper_, 1820, and was republished in Sewall’s New York Collection of the same year, in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853, and other collections.

2. _This child we dedicate to Thee_ (Christening)

In Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_ the author’s name is not given and the piece is attributed to the _West Boston Collection_, 1823. Putnam, in _Singers and Songs_, etc., p. 73, gives four of its original stanzas, and says that it is a translation from the German, but the original has not been traced.

3. _We sing Thy mercy, God of love_, (Communion)

Contributed to _Hymns of the Lord’s Supper_ and included in Sewall’s New York _Collection_.

4. _Who would sever freedom’s shrine?_

A song supporting the Union cause, of which Gilman was a strong advocate, written at the time of the Nullification agitation. Several stanzas from it, beginning as above, were included in _The Soldier’s Companion_, 1861.

5. _Yes, to the [that] last command_ (Communion)

Like no. 1 and 3 included in _Hymns for the Lord’s Supper_ and in Sewall’s _Collection_.

All these hymns have long since passed out of use.

Gilman (with C. M. Taggart) edited the _Charleston Collection_ in 1854, under the title _Services and Hymns for the use of the Unitarian Church of Charleston, S.C._, a second and enlarged edition of which appeared in 1867. It included three of his hymns, nos. 1, 3 and 5, listed above, and the two by his wife, Caroline Gilman, _q.v._, listed under her name.

J. 423, 1592 revised—H.W.F.

Goldsmith, Rev. Peter Hair, D.D. (1865-1926) was born in Greenville, South Carolina. He was educated at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, and served several Baptist churches before transferring his membership to the Unitarian denomination, after which he served as minister to the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1903-1910, and to the church in Yonkers, New York, 1910-1917.

In 1912 he wrote a hymn beginning,

_Holy, holy Lord,_ _We with one accord,_

which was included in _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, but has not passed into other collections.

H.W.F.

Greenough, James Bradstreet, Portland, Maine, 1833-1901, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1856, was appointed tutor in 1865, assistant professor in 1873, and professor of Latin in 1883. In 1884 he wrote the Latin hymn in four stanzas beginning

_Deus omnium creator_,

for the tune _Harvard Hymn_ which his friend, John Knowles Paine, professor of music at Harvard, had composed in 1883 for use at the Harvard Commencement dinner.

It is included in _The University Hymn Book_, 1896, and in _The Harvard University Hymn Book_, 1926.

H.W.F.

Greenwood, Helen Woodward, Leominster, Massachusetts, April 18, 1880—April 2, 1959, Leominster. She was for many years engaged in secretarial work for the General Alliance of Unitarian Women at 25 Beacon Street, Boston. A hymn by her, beginning

_As once again we gather here_

is included in the _Isles of Shoals Hymn Book_, 1908.

H.W.F.

Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, D.D., Boston, Massachusetts, April 3, 1822—June 10, 1909, Roxbury, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1839, the youngest member of his class. He did not go to the Divinity School, but taught in the Boston Latin School and studied for the ministry under the direction of Rev. S. K. Lothrop and Rev. J. G. Palfrey. He was licensed to preach by the Boston Association and in 1846 was ordained as minister of the Church of the Unity (now the First Unitarian Church), Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1856 he moved to Boston, where he served the South Congregational Church (Unitarian) as minister and minister emeritus until his death. He was a voluminous writer. One of his stories entitled “A Man Without A Country,” and another, “In His Name,” brought him wide reputation. He was a distinguished preacher and a greatly beloved pastor, an ardent advocate of peace who as early as 1871 proposed a “United States of Europe,” and in 1889 outlined a plan for an “International Tribunal.” In 1858 he wrote a hymn “For the dedication of a Church” beginning,

_O Father, take this new-built shrine_,

which was included in Longfellow and Johnson’s _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864, from which Martineau took it for his _Hymns of Praise and Prayer_, London, 1873.

J. 481 H.W.F.

Hale, Mary Whitwell, Boston, Massachusetts, January 29, 1810—November 17, 1862, Keene, New Hampshire. Most of her life she was a school teacher in Boston, later in Taunton, Massachusetts, and, for her last 20 years, in Keene. She wrote a good deal of verse. Two of her poems, one on “Home,” and the second on “Music” were written for a juvenile concert in the Unitarian Church at Taunton, April, 1834. A number of her later hymns and poems appeared in _The Christian Register_, signed by Y.L.E. (the final letters of her name), and in 1840 a volume entitled _Poems_ was published in Boston. Several of her poems are included in Putnam’s _Singers and Songs_, etc.

Four of her hymns were included in the _Cheshire Collection_, 1844, viz:

1. _Praise for the glorious light_,

Written for a Temperance meeting.

2. _This day let grateful praise ascend_ (Sunday)

3. _Whatever dims the sense of truth_

In Putnam, Singers and Songs, this is entitled “A Mother’s Counsel,” with a quotation from John Wesley’s mother.

4. _When in silence o’er the deep_ (Christmas)

Of these nos. 2 and 3 were taken from her _Poems_, and nos. 1 and 4 were written for the _Cheshire Collection_. No. 4 is in _Church Harmonies_. 1895, but none of her hymns are in current use.

J. 481 H.W.F.

Hall, Harriet Ware, Boston, Massachusetts, September 15, 1841—March 18, 1889, Boston. She was a lifelong resident of Boston, a member of King’s Chapel. Two small books by her were privately printed, one a collection of poems entitled _A Book for Friends_, 1888, the other entitled _Essays_, printed posthumously in 1890. The first book contains a hymn beginning

_Lord, beneath thine equal hand_,

in three stanzas, 7.7.7.7.D., dated February 10, 1869, and written for the installation of Rev. E. H. Hall at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1869. It is included in the _Isles of Shoals Hymn Book_, 1908, the first line altered to read,

_Lord, beneath whose equal hand._

H.W.F.

Ham, Rev. Marion Franklin, D.D., Harveysburg, Ohio, February 18, 1867—July 23, 1956, Arlington, Massachusetts. He was educated in the public schools at Harveysburg, but as a youth moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee to find employment. There he joined the Unitarian Church and, after serving it as a lay reader for several years, was ordained in 1898 as its minister, serving it until 1904. He later served Unitarian churches in Dallas, Texas, 1904-1909; in Reading, Massachusetts, 1909-1934; and in Waverley, Massachusetts, 1934-1939. He began to write verse in 1888, and many of his poems appeared in newspapers and periodicals, some of them being widely reprinted. His collected poems were published in book form in 1896, entitled _The Golden Shuttle_, which reached a fourth edition in 1910. He then turned to hymn writing, and four of his earliest hymns were included in _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, viz:—

1. _I hear Thy voice, within the silence speaking_, (1913)

2. _O Lord of life, Thy kingdom is at hand_, (1912)

3. _O Thou whose gracious presence shone_ (Communion) (1912)

4. _Touch Thou mine eyes, the sombre shadows falling_, (1911)

These are also included in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937, as are five later hymns by him, viz:—

5. _As tranquil streams that meet and merge_ (1933)

6. _From Bethany the Master_, (Palm Sunday) (1935)

7. _Heir of all the waiting ages_, (Advent) (1937)

8. _Ring, O ring, ye Christmas bells_ (1932)

9. _The builders, toiling through the days_ (Church dedication) (1925)

In April, 1936, he wrote an Easter hymn

10. _Oh, who shall roll the stone away?_

which first appeared in the Boston _Transcript_. It is included in _The Hymnal_, 1940.

In his later years he published, or had privately printed, several small booklets containing these and other poems by him: _Songs of the Spirit_, 1932; _Songs of Faith and Hope_, 1940; _Songs at Sunset_, 1951; _Songs of a Lifetime_, 1953; and _In a Rose Garden_, 1956. Of these, _Songs of a Lifetime_ contains what he regarded as his best poems, as well as his latest hymns, among them one widely used on United Nations Sunday, beginning,

11. _Freedom, thy holy light_,

and a fine national hymn,

12. _O my country, land of promise_,

A number of his hymns have been included in the hymnals of several denominations, and No. 2 was translated into Japanese.

Dr. Ham’s hymns manifest a deep spiritual insight expressed with literary craftsmanship of a high order, which make them among the most notable contributions to American hymnody in the first half of the 20^th century.

H.W.F.

Harris, Florence, (Mrs. Robert G. Hooke) (1891-1933) wrote in 1907, for the tenth anniversary of Unity Church (Unitarian), Montclair, New Jersey, of which she was a member a hymn entitled “The Founders,” beginning,

_Like pilgrims sailing through the night_,

which was included in _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, and in _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1937.

H.W.F.

Harris, Rev. Thaddeus Mason, D.D. (1768-1842). He graduated from Harvard in 1787, entered the ministry and served the First Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts (Unitarian) from 1793 until his resignation in 1836. Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society. In 1801 he printed a leaflet with a few hymns, which formed the basis for a larger collection of _Hymns for the Lord’s Supper, original and selected_, [edited] _by Thaddeus Mason Harris. D.D. Boston; printed by Sewall Phelps, No. 5 Court Street, 1820_. A second edition was printed in 1821. This booklet contains original hymns by Rev. John Pierpont, _q.v._, Rev. Samuel Gilman, _q.v._, and others, none of them in use today.

H.W.F.