Clapp, Eliza Thayer, 1811-1888. She was a resident of Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was author of Words in a Sunday School, of Studies in Religion, New York, 1845, and of later essays on religion and of poems posthumously collected in a volume entitled Essays, Letters and Poems, privately printed in Boston, 1888. At the request of her friend R. W. Emerson she contributed three hymns and two poems to The Dial, 1841. From one of the hymns in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, published in The Dial, July, 1841, and entitled “The future is better than the past,” is taken the hymn beginning
All before us is the way, (Onward with confidence)
included in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, where it was erroneously attributed to Emerson, an error which was repeated in several other collections which included it.
J. 234 H.W.F.
Clarke, Rev. James Freeman, D.D., Hanover, New Hampshire, April 4, 1810—June 8, 1888, Boston, Massachusetts. He was named for his step-grandfather, [Rev. James Freeman], q.v. He graduated from Harvard College in 1829 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1833. He served as minister of the Unitarian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1833 to 1840. In 1841 he returned to Boston where he gathered a group of persons interested in the more radical social and religious reforms of the day into a church which he named the Church of the Disciples (Unitarian) of which he remained minister until his death. He became one of the most distinguished ministers of his period in Boston, greatly beloved and admired for his courage as well as his piety, his wisdom as well as his wit. He was the author of several books (and many short printed articles) the best known of which were his Orthodoxy: its Truths and Errors, and Ten Great Religions. The latter is an amplification of lectures on Comparative Religion which he gave at the Harvard Divinity School as early as 1854, and again for several years in the eighteen-seventies, the earliest course in this field of study to be given in any American theological school. In 1844 he published a Service Book for use by his congregation, which included a small selection of hymns, among them Sarah Flower Adams’ Nearer my, God, to Thee, which had appeared in England only three years earlier and was now introduced for the first time to an American congregation, whence it quickly passed into numerous other collections. In 1852 a revised and enlarged edition of the Service Book was published entitled the Disciples Hymn Book, which included five hymns by the compiler. A few of his poems are included in Putnam’s Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, and the following hymns by him have come into some use.
1. Brother, hast thou wandered far? (The Prodigal)
First printed in the Service Book, 1844. It appeared in abbreviated form as
Hast thou wasted all the powers?
(beginning with the second stanza) in Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853; in Beecher’s Plymouth Collection, 1855, and in other American and British books.
2. Dear Friend, whose presence in the house, (Jesus at Cana)
Dated 1855. A tender poem rather than a hymn, included in the British Lyra Sacra Americana.
3. Father, to us Thy children humbly kneeling (Aspiration)
About 1833, after arrival in Louisville, Clarke wrote a poem entitled “Hymn and Prayer” beginning Infinite Spirit, who art round us ever, which was published in The Dial for January, 1841. Five stanzas beginning
Unseen, yet not unfelt!—if any thought
were taken from this form of the poem for inclusion in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, but already Clarke had taken from his poem, and largely rewritten, three stanzas to make the hymn beginning as above. In this later form it was included in his Service Book, 1844, in Longfellow and Johnson’s Book of Hymns, 1846, in the Disciples Hymn Book, 1852, and in many later collections down to the present day.
4. For all thy gifts we bless Thee, Lord
Written for a Unitarian Convention in New York City, held on October 22, 1845, and included in Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853.
5. Hast thou wasted all the powers,
Included in Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853.
6. To him who children blessed (Christening)
7. To Thee, O God in heaven (Christening)
Both of these tender and beautiful hymns for a christening appeared in the Service Book, 1844, and have passed into a good many other collections, although hymns are now seldom sung at such a service.
Of the above no. 3 was included in Longfellow and Johnson’s Book of Hymns, 1846, attributed to Clarke, and nos. 1, 5 and 6 were included as Anonymous. In their Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, these hymns were correctly attributed to Clarke. He was the author of a limited quantity of pleasing religious verse acceptable to his many friends rather than a hymn writer of distinction, his best ones being nos. 3, 5 and 6. The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, includes nos. 3 and 6; The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1935, includes nos. 3 and 5; Hymns of the Spirit, 1937, has only no. 3.
J. 235, 1556 Re-written, H.W.F.
Collyer, Rev. Robert, D.D., Keighly, Yorkshire, England, December 8, 1823—November 30, 1912, New York, New York. His education in childhood was very limited, and in early manhood he became a blacksmith, which had been his father’s trade. He joined the Methodist Church in 1847 and three years later sailed for America, settling at Shoemakertown, Pennsylvania, where he was both a blacksmith and a preacher. Having become acquainted with [Dr. W. H. Furness], q.v., of Philadelphia, he accepted Unitarian beliefs and left the Methodist Church. His great intellectual abilities and natural gifts as a preacher brought him an invitation in 1859 to go to Chicago to take charge of the newly organized Unity Church in that city, which he served until 1879, when he accepted a call to the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian), New York. He was a widely popular lecturer and author of many published sermons, other articles, and a few occasional verses. The church of which he was minister was destroyed by the great Chicago fire of 1870 but was soon rebuilt. For the dedication of the new building in December 3, 1873, he wrote his one fine hymn beginning,
With thankful hearts, O God, we come,