337. Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim
Bourne H. Draper, 1775-1843
A hymn, originally of four stanzas, written as a farewell to missionaries.
The author, Rev. Bourne H. Draper, was born of a Church of England family, near Oxford, England. He joined the Baptist Church while employed as a printer’s apprentice at the Clarendon Press, Oxford. He trained himself for the Baptist ministry and became pastor of the Baptist Church at Chipping-Norton. A man of great piety and poetic gift, he wrote numerous books for children as well as devotional works and volumes of sermons.
MUSIC. MISSIONARY CHANT appeared in the composer’s American Harp, 1835, where it was identified with this hymn. Concerning the composition of the tune, Zeuner said: “I was sitting on one of those seats on Boston Commons on a most beautiful moonlight evening, all alone, with all the world moving about me, and suddenly ‘Missionary Chant’ was given me. I ran home as fast as ever I could and put it on paper before I should forget.”
Charles Heinrich Christopher Zeuner, 1795-1857, a native of Germany, came to America at the age of 29 and settled in Boston. His musical ability was soon recognized, and he was made president of the Handel and Haydn Society, and later its conductor. He published a book, American Harp, of nearly 400 pages of tunes, in 1832, mostly his own compositions. He moved to Philadelphia where he served as organist of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church and later of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church. Due to harsh criticism of his playing, he became despondent and took his own life one November day at a lonely spot in the woods. Zeuner was never married and had no relatives in this country.