A Handful of Hymn-Writers

John Fawcett, 1739 to 1817

Another of those who was led to a knowledge of Christ in the gospel through the preaching of George Whitefield. Like Doddridge and Wesley, Fawcett adopted the habit of summing up the leading ideas of his sermon “in a few plain verses” to be sung after the service. “Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love”, was written to mark his decision to refuse a call to a large London church, and to remain with his poorer but much-attached country congregation. Dr Fawcett took a deep interest in the early missionary movements of the Baptist body to which he belonged and was one of Carey’s helpers. Among the letters in his biography is one giving an account of Carey’s famous sermon on Isaiah 54, memorable for its two illuminating heads –

Robert Murray McCheyne, 1813 to 1843

Towards the end of the last century, if one had been asked to make out a list of Scottish “Aids to the Devout Life”, they would undoubtedly have put high on the list Andrew Bonar’s “Memoirs of M’Cheyne”. There are few more impressive pictures of spiritual intensity; few more inspiring records of ministerial devotion.

He was ordained to the ministry in 1836, his first and only charge being that of St Peter’s in Dundee. In 1839 he was one of a deputation sent to the Holy Land by the Church of Scotland to investigate the condition of the Jews, an investigation which led to the establishment of Jewish Missions by the Church of Scotland and by the Free Church. On his return to Scotland, St. Peter’s, Dundee, became the centre of an evangelical revival which profoundly influenced the religious history of the east of Scotland at that time.

Once on being asked if he was not afraid of running short of sermons, he replied, “No, I am just an interpreter of scripture in my sermons; and when the Bible runs dry, then I shall”.

Of the several hymns he wrote, “When this passing world is done”, is one of the most frequently sung, but probably the greatest favourite, and full of gospel truth, is “I once was a stranger to grace and to God.” This hymn rejoices in the title Jehovah Tsidkenu (the Lord our righteousness) – the watchword of the reformation.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a Pastor to his flock in every way, young, or old, rich, or poor, high rank or low, he ever attended to the flock under his care. He even took time to write the following to a little boy of his acquaintance.

William Williams, 1717 to 1791

Though ordained a Deacon of the Church of England, Williams never received Priest’s Orders as he was frowned upon by the ecclesiastical authorities of his day for associating with Whitefield and other revival leaders. He worked chiefly among the Calvinistic Methodists of Wales, where he was held in high esteem.

At the request of the Countess of Huntingdon he prepared a small hymnbook for the use of Whitefield’s Orphan Homes in America. In this book there first appears his stirring missionary hymn, “O’er the gloomy hills of darkness”. “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah”, is of course, the English rendering of a hymn first written by Williams in Welsh and translated by Peter Williams (1721 to 1796).

Henry Francis Lyte, 1793 to 1847

Born at Ednam near Kelso, but of English parentage. Educated in Ireland, he entered the ministry of the church of England in 1815.

An experience at the death bed of a fellow-minister in 1818 led him to look at “life and its issues with a different eye than before, and to study the Bible and preach in another manner than he had previously done”.

The greater part of his ministerial course was spent at Lower Brixham, a fishing village on the Devonshire coast. Here, for twenty-five years, though far from robust, he laboured devotedly as a minister of Christ. Here, too, he “made hymns for his little ones, hymns for his hardy fishermen and hymns for sufferers like himself”.

In a poem entitled “Declining Days”, Henry Lyte express the desire of his soul with regards his writings:

That wish was, surely, realised in his “Abide with me”.

In September 1847, before going to Nice (France), he preached to his congregation at the afternoon Breaking of Bread. “In the evening of the same day,” it is recorded, “he placed in the hands of a near and dear relative his little hymn ‘Abide with me,’ together with a melody of his own composing adapted to the words.” That hymn has proved “a song that will not die”. It has helped to bind not “one”, but many a “broken heart”.
Henry Lyte never returned from Nice but died and is buried there.

Paul Gerhardt, 1607 to 1676

A Lutheran pastor who ranks next to Luther himself as the most gifted and popular hymn-writer of his own denomination. Gerhardt had many sorrows. He did not obtain a pastorate until he was forty-four years of age; for four of his five children died in early youth; his wife died after a long illness during the time he was seeking for a pastorate in Berlin. Yet his hymns have no morbid touch, but are fresh and healthy in tone, ever turning our eyes to what Christ has done on our behalf.

Probably his best-known hymn as far as English-speaking people are concerned is his rendering of Bernard’s, “O Sacred Head once wounded”. Gerhardt translated Bernard’s hymn from Latin into German, and J. W. Alexander, in turn, translated it from German into English. Although having passed through three tongues, it proclaims in all, says Dr Schaff, “with equal effect, the dying love of our Saviour, and our boundless indebtedness to Him”.

Dr Alexander, the translator of Gerhardt’s version, was born in Virginia in March 1804, and was Professor at Princeton, and Presbyterian minister in New York. He died at Sweet Springs, Virginia, on July 31st, 1859.

Harriet Auber, 1773 to 1862

Miss Auber was born in London on the 4th October 1773. Her father was Rector of Tring. She spent the greater part of her life at Broxbourne and Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, where she died on 20th January 1862.

She compiled a collection of her own hymns and hymns from other writers under the title, “Spirit of the Psalms”. A good many of these versions of the Psalms have passed into other hymnbooks and Mr Spurgeon included about twenty in his own Tabernacle hymnbook which appeared in 1866.

Her most famous hymn is, undoubtedly, “Our Blest Redeemer, ere He breathed His tender, last farewell”. At some date, someone wrote the words of this hymn on a pane of glass in her house at Hoddesdon. A minister who afterwards lived in the house offered to buy the pane of glass, but the landlord would not consent. At a still later date, the pane of glass was removed and has never been traced.

Miss Auber lived with a dear old friend by the name of Miss Mackenzie, and the two old saints were greatly loved in the district. Miss Auber was buried in the Churchyard opposite her house at the age of eighty-nine. Remember her own sentiments concerning the Spirit of God:

Note – The Wicket Gate Magazine hopes in the coming months to produce a free PDF booklet titled, “A handful of Hymnwriters”. This will be made available on the web site.