Newell, Rev. William, D.D., Littleton, Massachusetts, February 25, 1804—October 28, 1881, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1824 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1829. He was ordained minister of the First Parish in Cambridge on May 19, 1830, where he served until his retirement on March 31, 1868. He was author of many commemorative sermons and memoirs, and received the honorary degree of D.D. from Harvard in 1853. A number of his poems are included in Putnam, Singers and Songs, etc. His hymn beginning,

All hail, God’s angel, Truth (Thanksgiving)

is included in G. Horder’s Worship Song, with Tunes, London, 1905, but is not found in American collections.

J. 1676 H.W.F.

Norton, Prof. Andrews, Hingham, Massachusetts, December 31, 1786—September 18, 1853, Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated from Harvard in 1804. In 1811 he was appointed tutor in the College, in 1813 librarian and Lecturer on the Bible, and in 1819 Professor of Sacred Literature in the Harvard Divinity School, a post which he resigned in 1830 to devote himself to literary and theological pursuits. In 1837 he published the first volume of his famous book The Genuineness of the Gospels, followed in 1844 by the second and third volumes. This was the earliest scholarly work on the New Testament by an American author, and expressed the conservative Unitarian thought of his period. He wrote several other books, and numerous articles. His few poems were printed in a small volume soon after his death, including six hymns, some of which have had considerable use.

1. Another year, another year, (Close of the Year)

Appeared in the Christian Examiner, Nov.-Dec. 1827, in 11 stas. of 4 l. In the Unitarian Hymn and Tune Book, 1868, a cento from it begins with sta. 6,

O what concerns it him whose way

2. Faint not, poor traveller, though thy way, (Fortitude)

Printed in the Christian Disciple, July-Aug. 1822, and included in the West Boston Collection, 1823.

3. He has gone to his God, he has gone to his home (Burial)

Printed in the Christian Examiner, Jan.-Feb. 1824.

4. My God, I thank Thee; may no thought (Submission)

Appeared in the Monthly Anthology and Boston Review, Sept. 1809, and was included in Lunt’s Christian Psalter, 1841, and in many later collections. This was Norton’s earliest and best known hymn.

5. O stay thy tears; for they are blest, (Burial of the Young)

Printed in the General Depository and Review, April, 1812, in 5 stas. of 4 l. In 1855, stas. III-V were included in Beecher’s Plymouth Coll. no. 1094 as

How blest are they whose transient years

6. Where ancient forests round us spread,

Written in 1833 for the dedication of a church.

Of the above nos. 1, 4, 5 were included in Martineau’s Hymns, London, 1873. Nos. 4 and 6 are in the Unitarian New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and no. 6 is in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937. See Putnam’s Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith for the full text of all Norton’s hymns.

J. 810 Revised by H.W.F.

Parker, Rev. Theodore, was born on a farm in Lexington, Massachusetts on August 24, 1810, and died in Florence, Italy, on May 10, 1860. He entered Harvard College in 1830, but did most of his work at home, and studied in the Harvard Divinity School, 1834-1836. In 1840 he was granted the degree of A.M. from Harvard. Entering the ministry he served the Unitarian Church in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1837-1846, and the 28th Congregational Society, Boston, 1846-1860. He was a famous preacher; author of numerous printed discourses on social and religious problems; and one of the earliest American translators of current German theological literature. He wrote a few poems, none intended for use as hymns, but Longfellow and Johnson took one of his sonnets and, by eliminating two lines, transformed it into a hymn of 3 stanzas of 4 lines each beginning,

O thou great Friend of all the sons of men,