is attributed to him in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, but does not appear to have had further use.
J. 887 H.W.F.
Peabody, Rev. William Bourne Oliver, D.D., Exeter, New Hampshire, July 9, 1799—May 28, 1847, Springfield, Massachusetts. Graduated from Harvard College in 1817, taught for a year in Phillips Exeter Academy, and studied for the ministry at the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained as the first minister of the Unitarian Church in Springfield, Massachusetts, in October, 1820, and remained there until his death. In 1823 he published a Poetical Catechism for the Young, in which he included some original hymns. He edited The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship, Springfield, 1835, which was adopted for use in many parishes besides his own, and several of his hymns were included in it. A Memoir of him, written by his twin brother, O. W. B. Peabody, was published in the 2d edition of his Sermons, 1849, and a collection of his Literary Remains was published in 1850. He is described as “a man of rare accomplishments, and consummate virtue,” widely respected and admired.
The following hymns by him had considerable use in the 19th century, but only the last survived in a hymn book of the 20th.
1. Behold the western evening light; (Death of the Righteous)
Published in his Catechism, 1823, and in Springfield Collections, 1835, and elsewhere. It passed into use in England; in altered form in the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853, and in George Rawson’s Baptist Ps. and Hys. 1858, where it begins,
How softly on the western hills.
2. O when the hours of life are past (The Hereafter)
Published in his Catechism in answer to the question “What do you learn of the future state of happiness?” It was included in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853, and had some use in its original form, and also altered to When all the hours of life are past.
3. The moon is up; how calm and slow, (Evening)
A poem rather than a hymn, in 6 stas. of 4 l., appended to his Catechism, 1823.
4. When brighter suns and milder skies, (Spring)
Appended to his Catechism, 1823, in 6 stas. of 4 l.
5. Who is thy neighbor? He whom thou (The good neighbor)
Included in the New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914.
The full texts of Peabody’s hymns are printed in Putnam, Singers & Songs of the Liberal Faith, Boston, 1874.
J. 887 Revised by H.W.F.
Perkins, Rev. James Handasyde, Boston, Massachusetts, July 31, 1810—December 14, 1849, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Round Hill School, Northampton, Massachusetts. After a brief business experience in Boston he moved to Cincinnati, where he was admitted to the bar in 1837, but two years later he took up the Ministry-at-Large organized by the First Congregational Society (Unitarian) of Cincinnati, and later became pastor of the church. He was active in social reforms and as a lecturer, and was author of a number of essays descriptive of life in what was then the far west.
The hymn in 3 stanzas, C.M., beginning
It is a faith sublime and sure,