Of these hymns nos. 4 and 6 have had the most widespread use. Those two, and no. 1 are included in The Pilgrim Hymnal, 1935, and nos. 4, 6, 7 and 8 are in the Unitarian New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and In Hymns of the Spirit, 1937.
J. 530, 1649, 1713, rewritten by H.W.F.
Horton, Rev. Edward Augustus, Springfield, Massachusetts, September 28, 1843—April 15, 1931, Toronto, Canada. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Meadville Theological School, from which he graduated in 1868. He served Unitarian churches in Leominster, Massachusetts, 1868-1875; Hingham, Massachusetts, 1877-1880; and the Second Church in Boston, 1880-1892. Thereafter he was active in the work of the Unitarian Sunday School Society. In 1912 he wrote an “Anniversary Hymn” beginning,
We honor those whose work began,
which was included in The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914.
H.W.F.
Hosmer, Rev. Frederick Lucian, D.D., Framingham, Massachusetts, October 16, 1840—June 7, 1929, Berkeley, California. He graduated from Harvard College in 1862, and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1869. In October of that year he was ordained minister of the First Congregational Church (Unitarian), Northborough, Massachusetts, where he served for 3 years. He served the Unitarian Church in Quincy, Illinois, 1872-1877; then spent sixteen months in Europe, returning late in 1878 to serve the First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, Ohio, 1878-1892; the Church of the Unity, St. Louis, Missouri, 1894-1899; and the First Unitarian Church, Berkeley, California, 1900-1915, where he remained as minister-emeritus until his death. In 1887 Buchtel College gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
While in the Divinity School he formed a close life-long friendship with [William C. Gannett], q.v. Neither wrote any hymns until early middle life, Dr. Gannett’s earliest having been written in 1873, Dr. Hosmer’s in 1875, but thereafter they worked together for nearly four decades to make a contribution to American hymnody comparable to that made by [Samuel Longfellow], q.v., and [Samuel Johnson], q.v., a generation earlier. Of the two men it has been well said that “Gannett was the better poet, Hosmer the better hymn writer,” and many more of his hymns than of those by Gannett have come into widespread use.
Working together they edited Unity Hymns and Chorals, published in 1880, a revised edition of which appeared in 1911. ([J. V. Blake], q.v., was also an editor of the first, but not of the revised edition). In 1885 they published a small collection of their poems entitled The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems, followed by later collections with the same title, 2nd Series 1894, 3rd Series 1918. In 1908 Dr. Hosmer gave a series of lectures on hymnody at the Harvard Divinity School, repeated at the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry, in Berkeley, California, but these have not been published.
Julian’s Dictionary, pp. 1650-51, lists 27 hymns by Dr. Hosmer, with “annotations—from ms. notes supplied—by the author,” as follows:—