J. 1564
My life flows on in endless song,
8.7.8.7.D. 3 stas. Isles of Shoals Hymn Book, 1908.
Now, when the dusky shades of night retreating,
This is a free translation in five stanzas of the Latin hymn, Ecce jam noctis tenuatar umbra by Gregory the Great, c. 600, included in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, as anonymous. It passed into Beecher’s Plymouth Collection, 1855, and into many other hymn books, British and American, often with the 3d and 4th stanzas omitted. There is no clue as to its author though Julian (p. 320) points out that the first stanza appears to be an altered form of W. J. Copeland’s translation from the Latin, published in 1848. The three stanza form of the hymn is included in the New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937.
J. 819 H.W.F.
We follow, Lord, where thou dost lead,
L.M. 5 stas. Attributed to “Book of Hymns,” in Isles of Shoals Hymn Book, 1908.
Appleton, Rev. Francis Parker, Boston, Massachusetts, August 9, 1822—June 14, 1903, Cohasset, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1845, and was minister to the Unitarian church, in South Danvers, (now Peabody) Massachusetts from 1846 to 1853. He then left the ministry for secular occupations. His hymn,
Thirsting for a living spring,
was included, anonymously, in Longfellow and Johnson’s Book of Hymns, 1846, and, attributed to him, in Hymns of the Spirit, 1864. It is included in the Isles of Shoals Hymn Book, 1908; in The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937. His hymn,
The past yet lives in all its truth, O God,
was also included in Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, and in The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, but has now dropped out of use.
J. 1551, 1606 H.W.F.