16, 1910, Quincy, Massachusetts. Son of Hon. Edward Everett. He
graduated from Harvard College in 1859; took the B.A. degree at
Cambridge University, England, in 1863; and the degrees of A.M. and
LL. B. at Harvard in 1865. He received the honorary degree of Litt.D.
from Williams College in 1889 and the degree of LL.D. from the same
college in 1893 and from Dartmouth in 1901. After graduation from the
Harvard Law School he did not enter the legal profession but served
the College as tutor and then Assistant Professor of Latin for several
years. In 1872 the Boston Association of Ministers licensed him as a
lay preacher and thereafter he spoke frequently in Unitarian pulpits
in New England, but he was never ordained as a settled minister. He
served Adams Academy in Quincy, Massachusetts as headmaster from 1877
to 1907, with an interruption of two years when in 1893 he was elected
a member of the House of Representatives in Washington. In 1866 _The
Christian Register_ printed his hymn beginning
_Deal gently with us, Lord_,
and three years later he wrote “for the Unitarian Festival at the
Music Hall [Boston], May 27, 1869” a hymn beginning
_Almighty Father, Thou didst frame_
These hymns, and four others by him, are included in Putnam’s _Singers
and Songs, Etc._
J. 1634
H.W.F.
Fernald, Woodbury Melcher, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 21,
1813—December 10, 1873, Boston, Massachusetts. He entered the
Universalist ministry in 1835 and served churches of that denomination
in Newburyport and Chicopee, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, for a few
years. He then became a Unitarian, without entering the ministry of
that denomination, and eventually joined the Swedenborgian Church of
the New Jerusalem in Boston. He did some travelling on behalf of this
body, as far west as Wisconsin, in intervals of employment at the
Custom House and, later, at the Post Office in Boston. He was author
of books and essays, most of them expositions of Swedenborgian
doctrine, and of a small amount of occasional verse, published in the
periodicals of the day but never collected in a printed volume. In his
private collection of his poems are a few hymns, only two of which
appear to have had any public use. One beginning
_Great Source of being, truth and love_,
was written for the ordination of Rev. Thomas C. Adam as pastor of the
West Universalist Society in Boston, March 12, 1845. The other,
_When Israel, humbled of the Lord_,
a protest against slavery published in the _Boston Journal_, in July,
1861, was included, in part and considerably re-written, in _The
Soldier’s Companion: Dedicated to the Defenders of their Country in
the Field, by their Friends at Home_. This was published as the Army
Number of the _Monthly Journal_, Boston, October, 1861, vol. II, no.
10, a small Unitarian collection of hymns and devotional readings. In
this collection the hymn begins,
_When Israel’s foes, a numerous host_,
and is attributed to “Rev. W. M. Fernald,” though it is not included
in this form in the author’s private collection of his verse. None of
his hymns appear to have had any further use.
H.W.F.
Flint, Rev. James, D.D. Reading, Massachusetts, December 10,
1779—March 4, 1855. He graduated from Harvard College in 1802, and was
ordained an orthodox Congregational minister at East Bridgewater in
1806, where he soon adopted more liberal beliefs, and carried most of
his congregation with him. In 1821 he accepted a call to the East
Church (Unitarian) Salem, Massachusetts, where he served until his
death. In 1843 he published _A Collection of Hymns for the Christian
Church and Home_, to replace the earlier collection (1788) by Rev.
William Bentley, _q.v._, for use in the East Church. Flint’s
_Collection_ included several hymns by himself. One of them, “On
leaving an old house of worship,” beginning
_Here to the high and holy One_
was included in Lunt’s _Christian Psalter_, 1841, as was a second,
written in 1840 for the 200^th anniversary of the incorporation of the
town of Quincy, Massachusetts, beginning,
_In pleasant lands have fallen the lines_
_That bound our goodly heritage._
This second hymn has been included in a number of later hymnbooks,
among them _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, and _Hymns of the
Spirit_, 1937.
J. 379
H.W.F.
Follen, Mrs. Eliza Lee (Cabot), Boston, Massachusetts, August 15,
1787—January 26, 1860, Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1828 she married
Dr. Charles Follen, a German scholar who had sought freedom in this
country and who was then teaching German Literature and Ecclesiastical
History at Harvard. Later he was minister of the Unitarian Church (now
called the Follen Church Society) at East Lexington, Massachusetts.
Mrs. Follen both before and after her marriage contributed verse and
prose articles to various periodicals and published a number of small
books, including _Hymns for Children_, Boston, 1825; _Poems_, 1839,
and, while she was in England in 1854, another small volume for
children, entitled _The Lark and the Linnet_. These books contain some
translations from the German and the versions of a few Psalms.
Her best known hymns are
1. _How sweet to be allowed to pray_, (Resignation)
This first appeared in _The Christian Disciple_, September 1818,
then in her _Poems_, 1839, entitled “Thy will be done.”
2. _How sweet upon this sacred day_ (Sunday)
In _The Christian Disciple_, September, 1828, and in _Poems_,
entitled “Sabbath Day.”
3. _Lord deliver, thou canst save_, (Prayer for the Slave)
In _Songs of the Free_, 1836; in Adams and Chapin’s (Universalist)
_Hymns for Christian Devotion_, Boston, 1845; in Hedge and
Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853; and in other
collections, but not included in her _Poems_.
4. _God, thou art good, each perfumed flower_, (God In Nature)
This first appeared in _Hymns for Children_, Boston, 1825,
beginning with a defective line (7s instead of 8s)
(a) _God is good! each perfumed flower_
and altered as above in her _Poems_ and in _The Lark and the
Linnet_.
This hymn underwent further transformations in England. In Emily
Taylor’s _Sabbath Recreations_, 1826, it was included as an
original piece never before printed, and signed “E.L.C.”, the
initials of Mrs. Follen’s maiden name. Possibly she sent a ms.
copy to Miss Taylor before it appeared in Boston. In J. R. Beard’s
British Unitarian _Collection of Hymns_, 1837, it appears as
(b) _Yes, God is good! each perfumed flower_,
J. H. Gurney, the Anglican hymn writer and editor, included it in
his Lutterworth _Collection of Hymns for Public Worship_, 1838,
but, while retaining Mrs. Follen’s opening stanza, rewrote about
half of the remaining four stanzas, and in his later _Marylebone
Collection_, 1851, rewrote it further, beginning it
(c) _Yes, God is Good.—in earth and sky,_
and in a note appended to the Index of first lines he wrote that
he had found the hymn “in a small American volume —— well
conceived, but very imperfectly executed,” and that because of
“successive alterations—the writer has not scrupled to put his
name to it, J.H.G.” In these altered forms the hymn had
considerable use in England (For further details see Julian,
_Dictionary_, 1298).
5. _Will God, who made the earth and sea_, (Child’s Prayer)
In _Poems_, 1839. In Dr. Allan’s (English) _Children’s Worship_ it
is erroneously attributed to “H. Bateman.”
The only one of Mrs. Follen’s hymns in present use is 4_c_, in _The
Isles of Shoals Hymn Book_, 1908, but several of her poems are
included in Putnam’s _Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith_.
J. 380, 1298
H.W.F.
Foote, Rev. Henry Wilder (I), Salem, Massachusetts, June 2, 1838—May
29, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts. Educated at Harvard, A.B. 1858; A.M.
1861; graduated at the Harvard Divinity School, 1861. He was minister
of King’s Chapel (Unitarian), Boston, from 1861 until his death, and
his book, _The Annals of King’s Chapel_ (vol. I, 1882, vol. II, 1896,
completed by others) gives an authoritative account of the religious
controversies in Colonial Boston. At the time of his death he had in
preparation a hymnbook to replace the _Collection of Psalms and Hymns_
which his predecessor, Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, _q.v._, had published
in 1830. His hymnbook was completed by his widow, his sister Mrs. Mary
W. Tileston, (_q.v._) and his brother Arthur Foote, and was published
in 1891 as _Hymns of the Church Universal_. It was notable for its
scholarly catholicity and helped to introduce to American
congregations the then popular English hymn tunes of the “cathedral
school” by Barnby, Dykes, Stainer, Sullivan and others. The book
included the hymn which Mr. Foote had written for the Visitation Day
(graduation exercises) at the Divinity School in 1861,
_O Thou with whom in sweet content_
This hymn has also been included in _Hymns for Church and Home_, 1896,
in _The New Hymn and Tune Book_, 1914, and in _Hymns of the Spirit_,
1937.
J. 1604
H.W.F.
Foote, Rev. Henry Wilder (II), D.D., Litt.D., Boston, Massachusetts,
February 2, 1875—still living. Son of the above; educated at Harvard,
A.B. 1897; A.M. 1900; S.T.B. 1902. He entered the Unitarian ministry
and has served churches in New Orleans, Louisiana; Ann Arbor,
Michigan; Belmont, Massachusetts and Charlottesville, Virginia. From
1914-1924 he was an assistant professor at the Harvard Divinity School
where he gave a course on the history of Christian hymnody. He was
secretary of the committee which edited _The New Hymn and Tune Book_,
published in 1914 by the American Unitarian Association, and was
chairman of the committee which edited _Hymns of the Spirit_,
published in 1937 by the Beacon Press (to be distinguished from the
earlier _Hymns of the Spirit_ by S. Johnson and S. Longfellow, 1864).
This later book includes one hymn by Dr. Foote beginning,
_Thou whose love brought us to birth_,
Dr. Foote also edited the words in _The Concord Anthem Book_, 1924,
and in _The Second Concord Anthem Book_, 1936, for which Professor
Archibald T. Davison selected and edited the music. He is the author
of several books and articles on the cultural or religious aspects of
American colonial history, one of which, _Three Centuries of American
Hymnody_, 1940, covers the period from the publication of the _Bay
Psalm Book_ in 1640 to the late nineteen-thirties.
Freeman, James, D.D., Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 22,
1759—November 14, 1835, Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from
Harvard College in 1777. In March, 1776, Rev. Henry Caner, rector of
King’s Chapel, Boston, left with the British troops when they
evacuated the town, accompanied by many of his leading parishioners.
The remaining members of the church in September, 1782, engaged James
Freeman as a lay “Reader” to conduct worship. The prayers for the King
and royal family of England had been dropped and Freemen soon began to
omit references to the Trinity, expecting soon to be dismissed as
Reader. Instead the congregation voted to revise the liturgy in
accordance with his beliefs and in 1785 published the first edition of
the “Book of Common Prayer according to the Use of King’s Chapel.”
This action led Bishop Seabury, after his arrival in America, to
refuse ordination to Freeman, whereupon the congregation ordained him
according to Congregational usage. Freeman thus became “the first
avowed preacher of Unitarianism in the United States.” 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. It is an adaptation for congregational use of
Thomson’s “Hymn on the Seasons.” See Putnam, _Singers and Songs of the
Liberal Faith_.
J. 389
Revised by H.W.F.
Frothingham, Rev. Nathaniel Langdon, D.D., Boston, July 23, 1793—April
4, 1870, Boston. He graduated from Harvard in 1811, and after a brief
period of further study and as tutor in the College, he entered the
Unitarian ministry and in 1815 was settled as minister of the First
Church in Boston, where he served until 1850, when ill-health and
approaching blindness caused his resignation. He was one of the most
distinguished Boston ministers of his period, and the author of a good
deal of verse, published in his _Metrical Pieces, Translated and
Original_, 1855, and in a second volume with the same title in 1870.
In 1828 he wrote his finest hymn,
1. _O God, whose presence glows in all_
for the ordination of his friend, W. P. Lunt, _q.v._, as minister
of the Second Unitarian Congregational Church, New York, on June
19, of that year.
In 1835 he wrote
2. _We meditate the day_
for the installation of Mr. Lunt as Co-pastor with Rev. Peter
Whitney of the First Church at Quincy, Massachusetts, and in 1839
he wrote
3. _O Lord of life and truth and grace_,
for the ordination of Henry Whitney Bellows in New York.
His later hymns were
4. _O Saviour, whose immortal word_,
“Written for the Dedication of the Church of the Saviour, Boston,
November 16, 1847.”;
5. _Remember me, the Saviour said_, (Communion Service)
6. _The Lord gave the word,_
_’Twas the word of his truth._
7. _The patriarch’s dove, on weary wing_,
8. _They passed away from sight_, (Death and Burial)
9. _When I am weak, I’m strong_ (Spiritual Strength)
Of these hymns the first two were included in Lunt’s _Christian
Psalter_, 1841; nos. 1, 2, 6 and 7 were included in Hedge and
Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_ (1853); and all but no.
8 are included in the author’s _Metrical Pieces_, 1855. No. 5 had
considerable use in the 19^th century, but no. 1 alone survives in
20^th century Unitarian collections.
J. 400, 1564
Revised H.W.F.
Frothingham, Rev. Octavius Brooks, son of Rev. Nathaniel Langdon
Frothingham, D.D., _q.v._, Boston, November 26, 1822—November 27,
1895, Boston. He graduated from Harvard College in 1843, and in 1846
from the Harvard Divinity School, where, for the graduating exercises
of his class, he wrote his fine, and only, hymn,
_Thou Lord of Hosts, whose guiding hand_, (Soldiers of the
Cross)
which was included in the _Book of Hymns_ prepared by his classmates,
Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson, published later in the same
year. He served as minister of the (Unitarian) North Church, Salem,
Massachusetts from 1847 to 1855, and became minister of the Third
Congregational Church in New York City, resigning in 1879. He was a
bold, outspoken, eloquent speaker, and the author of many printed
discourses and of several important biographies.
J. 400, 1638
H.W.F.
Furness, Rev. William Henry, D.D., Boston, Massachusetts, April 20,
1802—January 30, 1896, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from
Harvard College in 1820 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1823,
and was given the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Harvard in 1847. In
1825 he was ordained minister of the First Unitarian Church in
Philadelphia where he served for 50 years before becoming pastor
emeritus, his connection with the church covering a period of 71
years. He was an accomplished scholar, and attained distinction as a
preacher, an author and a worker in social reforms. His publications
include _Notes on the Gospels_, 1836; _Jesus and his Biographers_,
1838; _The History of Jesus_, 1850; _a Manual of Domestic Worship_,
1840, in which his earlier hymns were printed; a translation of
Schiller’s _Song of the Bell_; and other translations from the German.
His collected _Verses, Translations and Hymns_ appeared in 1886. The
following hymns by him have had considerable use.
1. _Father in heaven, to Thee my heart_,
Appeared in The _Christian Disciple_, 1822. It was printed in this
form in several collections, including the Unitarian _Hymn and
Tune Book_, 1868. In Longfellow and Johnson’s _Book of Hymns_,
1846, it reads
_Father in heaven, to whom our hearts_
and was reprinted in this form in their _Hymns of the Spirit_,
1864, and in Martineau’s _Hymns of Praise and Prayer_, 1873.
This hymn has sometimes been attributed to “H. Ware,” in error.
2. _Feeble, helpless, how shall I_,
Included on the Cheshire _Christian Hymns_, 1844, and in later
19^th century Unitarian publications; also in the British _Lyra
Sacra Americana_, 1868, and Thring’s _Collection_, 1882.
3. _Have mercy, O Father_,
Contributed to Martineau’s _Hymns of Praise and Prayer_, 1873.
4. _Here in a world of doubt_, (Psalm XLII)
Contributed to the New York Lutheran Coll., 1834, and included in
the author’s _Manual of Domestic Worship_, 1840 and in Martineau’s
_Hymns_, 1873.
5. _Here in the broken bread_,
Included in the _Appendix_ to the Philadelphia Unitarian
_Collection_, 1828; in Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the
Church of Christ_, 1853; and in a few later collections, among
them _The Hymn and Tune Book_, 1868.
6. _Holy Father, Gracious art Thou_,
Contributed to Martineau’s _Hymns_, 1873.
7. _I feel within a want_,
Included in the Cheshire _Christian Hymns_, 1844; in Hedge and
Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853; and in a few
other collections.
8. _In the morning I will praise_ (pray)
In the author’s _Manual of Domestic Worship_, 1840, this hymn
began
_In the morning I will raise_
and was thus included in Martineau’s _Hymns_, 1873, but in
Longfellow and Johnson’s _Book of Hymns_, 1846, and later American
collections the first stanza is dropped and the hymn begins
_In the morning I will pray_
9. _O for a prophet’s fire,_
Included in the _Appendix_ to the Philadelphia Unitarian
_Collection_, 1828, and in the Cheshire _Christian Hymns_, 1844.
10. _Richly, O richly have I been_,
Written in 1823 and included in the author’s _Manual of Domestic
Worship_, 1840. In Longfellow and Johnson’s _Book of Hymns_, 1846,
and in their _Hymns of the Spirit_, 1864, it is altered to begin
_O richly, Father, have I been_
In Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of Christ_, 1853,
and most later Unitarian and other collections, the opening stanza
is dropped and it begins with the second stanza,
_Unworthy to be called Thy son_,
11. _She is not dead, but sleepeth_
Included in the author’s _Verses, Translations and Hymns_, 1886.
12. _Slowly by Thy [God’s] hand unfurled_
Written in 1825 and included in the author’s _Manual of Domestic
Worship_, 1840. In Hedge and Huntington’s _Hymns for the Church of
Christ_, 1853, the first line was changed to read,
_Slowly by God’s hand unfurled_,
and was thus printed in the Unitarian _Hymn and Tune Book_, 1868.
In Martineau’s _Hymns_, 1873, and in most later American Unitarian
collections, the original reading has been retained.
13. _That God is Love, unchanging Love_,
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)