Great Hymn Writers Part 1

GEORGE HERBERT

George Herbert is one of our great hymn writers. He lived through dramatic times in English history. Although he died at the age of 40 he lived through the reigns of three monarchs – Elizabeth I (1558-1603), James I (1603.1625) and Charles I (1625-1649). Contemporaries of Herbert’s were the explorer and circum-navigator of the globe, Sir Francis Drake, John Hawkins, the first English slave-trader and William Shakespeare. It was an age when Britain was developing into a great sea power. Drake’s daring voyages to the little known West Indies opened the way to the treasures to be had from the New World. The great European powers of the time were England, France and Spain. Socially it was a period when the plague visited Britain, followed by famine. The population was heavily taxed to finance the war with Spain. Henry VIII had dissolved the monasteries, many of which deserved their fate. However, the ministry to the poor carried out by the better ones collapsed. Thus a compulsory Poor Tax was imposed in 1597 and well-known institutions were founded – such as Christ Hospital for the education of boys, St. Thomas’ and St. Bartholomew’s Hospitals for the sick, and Bethlehem (later Bedlam) for the care of the insane. Yet England was full of vagabonds and tramps, travel was not really safe without escort. It was the age of alchemy. Originating independently in Egypt and China, it remained for 1,500 years a legitimate branch of science and philosophy. 

This then was the world into which George Herbert was born on the 3rd of April 1593 in Montgomery, Wales. He was one of ten children. After the death of his father his mother raised the children alone. Mrs. Herbert was patron to the Rev’d. John Donne (1571-1631), the ‘passionate Dean’ of St. Paul’s, London. 

George Herbert was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He wrote circular verse and sonnets as well as religious composition. He was elected a major Fellow of Trinity, was Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge and was a public orator. He was elected to represent Montgomery in parliament in 1624-1625. His mother died in 1627 and John Donne gave the funeral oration. Two years later Herbert married Jane Denvers. The following year he gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders, becaming Rector of Bermerton by Salisbury. He wrote a great deal and succeeded in rebuilding his church, funding the work partly himself. He helped the poor, becoming known as ‘Holy Mr. Herbert’ until his death in 1633 from tuberculosis. He is commemorated in the Anglican calendar on 27th February. Some of his best-known hymns are: King of Glory, King of Peace, Let all the world and Teach me my God and King

ISAAC WATTS

Our second great hymn writer chronologiocally is Isaac Watts. It had never occurred to me that the writer of such well known hymns in our Anglican hymnals as ‘O God our help in ages past’, ‘Joy to the world’, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’ and ‘Jesus shall reign’ could not have been an Anglican. However, an article in the Vienna magazine ‘Crossways’ has shown me to be mistaken. 

He was a prolific hymn writer from an early age, and has some 750 hymns to his name. His propensity for rhyming almost drove his parents to distraction during his childhood years. Watts was born in Southampton in the home of a firm non-conformist. He attended King Edward the VI School where he studied classical languages. Because of his nonconformity entry to Oxford or Cambridge was barred. Thus he became a student at the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690. 

He later became the pastor to a large independent chapel in London. He also worked as a private tutor, living with the Hartopp family at Fleetwood House and later with the family of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Abney. Sir Thomas, although a Dissenter, showed a certain openness towards the Church of England. Watts himself adopted a more interdenominational attitude towards religious belief than was normal for Dissenters of his period. 

His textbook on Logic, published in 1724, became the standard work on the subject at Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and Harvard for over 100 years. He died in 1748 in Stoke Newington and was buried in the Dissenting Cemetery at Bunhill Fields. His papers were given to Yale University which was largely a Dissenting foundation. He is commemorated in the Church of England Calendar on the 25th of November. 

Watts lived in a turbulent period. He lived through the reigns of six kings from the Restoration to the the Hanoverian George II. The Book of Common Prayer, banned under Cromwell, was reintroduced (in almost the form we know it) in 1662. The Declaration of Indulgence allowed Protestant dissenters to worship openly again. He was born just after the Plague and the Great Fire of 1666. Thus Sir Christopher Wren was rebuilding St. Paul’s during his lifetime. During these years the Union of England and Scotland was achieved. A dark chapter of these years was the massacre at Glencoe and the crushing of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 and 1745. A number of important charitable movements though also took form during these years. By the time of his death witches were no longer burned 

CHARLES WESLEY

Charles Wesley was born on the 18th December 1707 in Epworth, Lincolnshire – the 18th (and last) child of the Rev’d. Samuel and Susanna Wesley. He was first educated at home by his parents, and later at Westminster School. He went on to Oxford with a Westminster scholarship. While at Oxford he and his brother John formed the Oxford Holy Club in 1729 for the purposes of worship and visiting the sick and those in prison. Its members received the nickname of ‘Methodists’. It was at this time that his lasting friendship with George Whitfield began. Charles was made Deacon in the Church of England in 1735. In this same year he, accompanied by his brother John, made his first voyage to the colony of Georgia as part of the entourage of the governor, George Oglethorpe. He returned to England the following year as a result of poor health. His brothers, John and Samuel the Younger, were also ordained as priests of the Church of England.

Charles and John together are considered to be the founders of Methodism, although they did not always agree. In particular Charles was strongly opposed to any breach with the Church of England. Just before his death he sent for the Rector of St. Marylebone Parish Church, in which parish he lived, and said to him, “Sir, whatever the world may say of me, I have lived, and I die, a member of the Church of England. I pray you bury me in your churchyard.” On his death, his coffin was carried to the church by eight clergymen of the Church of England. In 1749 he married Sarah Gwynne. She was much younger than Charles. They had eight children together of whom only three sons survived infancy. Sarah accompanied Charles and John on their preaching tours throughout Britain until Charles ceased to travel in 1765. In the course of his life Charles wrote the words for over 7,000 hymns. 5,500 of these he published during his lifetime. It is sometimes said that these hymns had as much impact on the mission of the two brothers as the preaching of John. Many of these hymns are still commonly sung today. They include: And can it be that I should gain?; Christ the Lord is risen today; Christ whose glory fills the skies; Come, Thou long-expected Jesus; Hail! The day that sees him rise; Hark the herald angels sing; Jesu, Lover of my soul; Lo! He comes with clouds descending; O for a thousand tongues to sing; Rejoice, the Lord is King; Soldiers of Christ, arise; Jesus, from whom all blessings flow; Come, Holy Ghost our hearts inspire; Forth in Thy name O Lord.

Dr Simon Harding

www.biblon.com

www.chronosoil.com

About the Author

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