Above:  London Bridge, Between 1890 and 1900

Image Published by Detroit Publishing Company, 1905

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsc-08569

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JEMIMA THOMPSON LUKE (AUGUST 19, 1813-FEBRUARY 2, 1906)

English Congregationalist Hymn Writer

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JAMES EDMESTON (SEPTEMBER 10, 1791-JANUARY 7, 1867)

Anglican Hymn Writer

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The Reverend Thomas Thompson (1785-1865) was an English Congregationalist minister at Blagdon.  He was also the husband of Elizabeth Pinckney (died in 1837), the father of Jemima Thompson Luke (1813-1906), and a cofounder of the British and Foreign Sailor’s Society (in 1818).  Once Thompson held a contest for fifty simple hymns.  The winner of the 20-pound prize was was James Edmeston (1791-1867), who won for his Cottage Minstrel (1821).

Edmeston, born in Wapping, London, England, came from a Nonconformist family yet converted to The Church of England, in which he was active.  He, by profession a prominent architect and surveyor, liked children, especially orphans.  Thus he visited the London Orphan Asylum, founded by Andrew Reed (https://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/feast-of-andrew-reed-february-28/) in 1813, frequently.  Edmeston also wrote twelve volumes, mostly of religious poetry.  Two of the books were Sacred Lyrics (1821) (Volumes I, II, and III), Sacred Poetry (1848), and Infant Breathings.  For many years he wrote a hymn per week for use in family devotions.  Edmeston wrote more than 2,000 hymns.  A few of them are available at my GATHERED PRAYERS.

He died at Homerton, Surrey, in 1867.

Jemima Thompson Luke (1813-1906) wanted to become a missionary to India, but her health prevented that from becoming reality.  So she supported foreign missions throughout her life and edited a missionary magazine for children instead.  She, who began to submit poems to magazines at age thirteen, wrote books including The Female Jesuit  and its Sequel, an extended and hysterical anti-Roman Catholic rant, as well as The Broad Way and the Narrow Way.  She married the Reverend Samuel Luke (1809-1868), a Congregationalist minister in 1843.  Jemima died on the Isle of Wight in 1906, after having raised children and done much to bring glory to God.

Among her hymns was “I Think, When I Read That Sweet Story of Old” (1841):

I think, when I read that sweet story of old,

When Jesus was here among men,

How He called little children as lambs to His fold,

I should like to have been with them then;

I wish that His hand had been placed on my head,

That His arm had been His kind look when He said,

“Let the little ones come unto Me.”

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Yet still to His footstool in prayer I may go,

And ask for a share in His love;

And, if I now earnestly seek Him below,

I shall see Him and hear Him above,

In that beautiful place He is gone to prepare

For all who are washed and forgiven;

And many dear children are gathering there,

For of such is the Kingdom of heaven.

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But thousands and thousands, who wander and fall,

Never heard of that heavenly home;

I should like them to know there is room for them all,

And that Jesus has bid them to come.

I long for the joy of that glorious time,

The sweetest and brightest and best,

When the dear little children of every clime

Shall crowd to His arms and be blest.

Both James Edmeston and Jemima Thompson Luke acted on their concern for others, for the glory of God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 10, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHANN SCHEFFLER, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GEORG NEUMARK, GERMAN LUTHERAN POET AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN HINES, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

Jemima Thompson Luke, James Edmeston, and others, who have composed hymn texts.

May we, as you guide us,

find worthy hymn texts to be icons,

through which we see you.

In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15

Psalm 147

Revelation 5:11-14

Luke 2:8-20

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH

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Revised on December 9, 2016

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Above:  Daisies for All, 1906

Image Copyrighted by E. W. Kelley

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-USZ62-56660

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EDWIN PAXTON HOOD (OCTOBER 24, 1820-JUNE 12, 1885)

English Congregationalist Minister, Philanthropist, and Hymn Writer

Today I add a biographer, hymn writer, philanthropist, and minister to the Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days.

Edwin Paxton Hood (1820-1885), the son of an able seaman and a domestic servant, became an orphan at a young age.  He had little formal education yet possessed an eager mind;  he was mostly self-educated.  At about age twenty Hood began to lecture about peace and temperance.  His oratorical skills helped greatly when he became an ordained Congregationalist minister in 1852.  And Hood remained a popular lecturer after his ordination.

Hood served various congregations, having to resign from one (Cavendish Street Church, Manchester) for political reasons; he belonged to the Liberal Party.  Finally Hood ministered at Falcon Street Church, Aldersgate Street, London, the city of his birth.

Hood was a prolific writer.  He edited and contributed to The Ecclectic and Congregational Review, composed texts for at least seventeen hymns , and wrote many popular books.  Among these were biographies of Oliver Cromwell, Emmanuel Swedenborg, and Thomas Binney.  One of Hood’s hymns was “God, Who Hath Made the Daisies” (1870), based on Matthew 19:13-15.  It debuted in The Children’s Choir (1870), which he edited.

God, who hath made the daisies,

And every lovely thing,

He will accept our praises,

And hearken while we sing.

He says, though we are simple,

Though ignorant we be,

“Suffer the little children,

And let them come to Me.”

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Though we are young and simple,

In praise we may be bold;

The children in the Temple

He heard in days of old;

And if our hearts are humble,

He says to you and me,

“Suffer the little children,

And let them come to Me.”

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He sees the bird that wingeth

Its way o’er earth and sky;

He hears the lark that singeth

Up in the heaven so high;

He sees the heart’s low breathings,

And says, well pleased to see,

“Suffer the little children,

And let them come to Me.”

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Therefore we will come near Him,

And joyfully we’ll sing;

No cause to shrink or fear Him,

We’ll make our voices ring;

For in our temple speaking,

He says to you and me,

“Suffer the little children,

And let them come to Me.”

Hood also devoted himself to philanthropic causes, especially the Royal Hospital for Incurables, founded by Andrew Reed in 1854.  That institution has become the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability.

Edwin Paxton Hood loved God with his mind, talents, and interests.  He, obeying our Lord and Savior’s instructions and following that great exemplar, helped others in practical ways.  Hood was a holy man, one whom I am proud to honor.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 24, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF ARMENIA

THE FEAST OF JOHANN WALTER, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF THE SEVEN MARTYRS OF THE MELANESIAN BROTHERHOOD

THE FEAST OF WALTER RUSSELL BOWIE, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

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For Further Reading:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Hood%2c%20Edwin%20Paxton%2c%201820-1885

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O God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served, and to give his life for the life of the world.

Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom the world offers no comfort and little help.

Through us give hope to the helpless,

love to the unloved,

peace to the troubled,

and rest to the weary,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Hosea 2:18-23

Psalm 94:1-15

Romans 12:9-21

Luke 6:20-36

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60

Above:  The Flag of England

Image in the Public Domain

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ANDREW REED (NOVEMBER 27, 1787-FEBRUARY 25, 1862)

English Congregationalist Minister, Humanitarian, and Hymn Writer

Andrew Reed, son of a watchmaker, learned how to make watches–to follow in his father’s footsteps.  But Reed had a different vocation, which he followed.  So he studied for the Congregational ministry at Hackney College then served his home church, New Road Chapel, St. George’s-in-the-East, London, beginning in 1811.  There he continued until 1831, when the congregation, having outgrown its building, relocated and assumed a new name, Wycliffe Chapel.  He pastored that church until 1861.

Reed’s legacy has two main components:  hymns and humanitarian works.  He founded and raised funds for three orphanages and three mental asylums.  Reed’s rationale was:

We can never rise to the highest, nor are our moralities safe, till we can say, “of Him, and to Him are all things.”

Late in life, Reed, in reply to a question, summarized his life as follows:

I was born yesterday, I shall die to-morrow, and I must not spend to-day in telling what I have done, but in doing what I may for HIM who has done all for me.  I sprang from the people, I have lived for the people–the most for the most unhappy; and the people when they know it will not suffer me to die out of loving remembrance.

Reed composed twenty-one hymns and edited two hymnals (1817 and 1842).  One of these hymns, “Spirit Divine, Attend Our Prayers,” appeared in The Evangelical Magazine (June 1829) and his Hymn-Book (1842).  The hymn’s first singing occurred at London on Good Friday, 1829.

Spirit divine, attend our prayers,

And make this house Thy home;

Descend with all Thy gracious powers;

O come, great Spirit, come!

Come as the light: to us reveal

Our emptiness and woe;

And lead us in those paths of life

Where all the righteous go.

Come as the fire: and purge our hearts

Like sacrificial flame;

Let our whole soul an offering be

To our Redeemer’s Name!

Come as the dove: and spread Thy wings,

The wings of peaceful love;

And let Thy Church on earth become

Blest as the Church above.

Spirit divine, attend our prayers;

Make a lost world Thy home;

Descend with all Thy gracious powers;

O come, great Spirit, come!

Reed understood the proper relationship of creeds to deeds.  May the same be true of each of us.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 17, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MARIA STEWART, EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF SAVE THE CHILDREN

THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER

THE FEAST OF SAINT OLYMPIAS, ORTHODOX DEACONESS

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O God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served, and to give his life for the life of the world.

Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom the world offers no comfort and little help.

Through us give hope to the hopeless,

love to the unloved,

peace to the troubled,

and rest to the weary,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Hosea 2:18-23

Psalm 94:1-15

Romans 12:9-21

Luke 6:20-36

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60

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Revised on December 9, 2016

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