attributed to “J. H. Perkins” in Longfellow and Johnson’s Book of Hymns, 1846-48, is presumably by him, although it is not included with his poems printed in the Memoir and Writings of James Handasyde Perkins, edited by W. H. Channing, Cincinnati, 1851. It does not appear to have had any further use.

H.W.F.

Pierpont, Rev. John, Litchfield, Connecticut, April 6, 1785—August 27, 1866, Medford, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College in 1804, studied law, and in 1812 set up practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts, but later turned to the ministry and graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1818. That fall he became minister of the Hollis Street Church (Unitarian) in Boston, which he served till 1840, when a sharp controversy over his outspoken attacks on intemperance, slavery and other social evils led to his resignation. In the same year he published his Poems and Hymns, which included his temperance and anti-slavery poems and songs, and of which a later edition appeared in 1854. He also wrote a number of excellent school books. In 1845 he became minister of the Unitarian Church at Troy, New York, and in 1849 of the First Parish in Medford, Massachusetts, which he served until 1859, when he retired. With the outbreak of the Civil War he became an Army chaplain and was later employed in the Treasury Department at Washington. He died suddenly while on a visit to Medford.

He was the maternal grandfather of J. Pierpont Morgan of New York, who was named for him, but it would be hard to find a greater contrast than that offered by the careers of the hymn-writing reformer and his grandson, the financial magnate.

In his own day Pierpont’s hymns brought him a wide reputation. Thus Putnam, in his Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith, 1873, says, “Mr. Pierpont was one of the best hymn writers in America. He was a genuine poet, as well as a powerful preacher and stern reformer.” Today he occupies a much more modest place in American hymnody. None of his hymns attained a very high level of excellence. Most of them are respectable verse, written in response to frequent requests for hymns for special occasions, but they well illustrate the mood of the Unitarianism of his period.

His hymns which have come into use are

1. Another day its course hath run (Evening)

Appeared in Hymns for Children, Boston 1825; in Greenwood’s Chapel Liturgy, 1827; in Lunt’s Christian Psalter, 1841; and in the author’s Poems and Hymns, 1840.

2. Break forth in song, ye trees (Public Thanksgiving)

Written for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Settlement of Boston, Sept. 17, 1830. Included in Poems and Hymns, 1840.

3. Break the bread and pour the wine (Communion)

In Harris’s Hymns for the Lord’s Supper, 1820.

4. Father, while we break the bread, (Communion)

5. God Almighty and All-seeing (Greatness of God)

Contributed to Elias Nason’s Congregational Hymn Book, Boston, 1857.

6. God of mercy, do Thou never (Ordination)

Written for the ordination of John B. P. Storer at Walpole, Mass., Nov. 18, 1826. Included in the author’s Poems, 1840, and in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853.

7. God of our fathers, in Whose sight, (Love of Truth)

This hymn is composed of stas. IX and X of a longer hymn written for the Charlestown (Mass.) Centennial, June 17, 1830. In this form it was included in Longfellow and Johnson’s Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, and elsewhere.

8. Gone are those great and good, (Commemoration)

Part of no. 2, above, in Church Harmonies, 1895.

9. I cannot make him dead (Memorial)

A part of an exquisitely touching and beautiful poem of ten stanzas, originally printed in the Monthly Miscellany, Oct. 1840.

10. Let the still air rejoice, (Praise)

This was headed “Temperance Hymn” in The Soldier’s Companion, 1861, but is really a patriotic ditty.

11. Mighty God, whose name is holy (Charitable Institutions)

Written for the anniversary of the Howard Benevolent Society, Dec. 1826. Included in the author’s Poems, 1840.

12. My God, I thank Thee that the night (Morning)

In the author’s Poems, 1840. In Lunt’s Christian Psalter, 1841, and Martineau’s Hymns, 1873, it begins

O God, I thank Thee.

13. O bow Thine ear, Eternal One (Opening of Worship)

Dated 1823, but not included in the author’s Poems. It is given in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns, etc. 1853.

14. O Thou to Whom in ancient times (Worship)

“Written for the opening of the Independent Congregational Church in Barton Square, Salem, Mass. Dec. 7, 1824,” and printed at the close of the sermon preached by Henry Colman on that day. Included in the author’s Poems, 1840, and in many collections in this country and in Great Britain.

15. O Thou Who art above all height (Ordination)

“Written for the ordination of Mr. William Ware as Pastor of the First Congregational Church in New York, Dec. 18, 1821.” Included in Poems, 1840, and in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns, etc.

16. O Thou, Who on the whirlwind rides (Dedication of a Place of Worship)

Written for the opening of the Seamen’s Bethel in Boston, Sept. 11, 1833. Sometimes used beginning

Thou Who on the whirlwind rides

17. O’er Kedron’s stream, and Salem’s height, (Gethsemane)

Contributed to T. M. Harris’s Hymns for the Lord’s Supper, 1820. Included in Martineau’s Hymns, London, 1873.

18. On this stone, now laid with prayer (Foundation Stone)

Written for the laying of the cornerstone of Suffolk Street Chapel, Boston, for the Ministry to the Poor, May 23, 1839.

19. With Thy pure dew and rain, (Against slavery)

Written for the African Colonization Society. Included in Cheever’s Common Place Book, 1831, but not in the author’s Poems, 1840.

20. While with lips with praise that glow, (Communion)

Included in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns, etc.

All of the above hymns have passed out of use except nos. 1, 8, 12, and 14 which are included in the New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and nos. 8 and 14, included in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937.

J. 895, 1647 Revised by H.W.F.

Pray, Lewis Glover, Quincy, Massachusetts, August 15, 1793—October 9, 1882, Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was a business man in Boston, active in civic and church affairs. For 33 years he was superintendent of the Sunday School in the Twelfth Congregational Society of Boston. In 1833 he published a Sunday School Hymn Book, the first book containing music published for Sunday Schools in New England. It appeared in enlarged form in 1844 as the Sunday School Hymn and Service Book. In 1847 he published his History of Sunday Schools. His own hymns and poems were published in 1862 as The Sylphids’ School, and in a second volume, Autumn Leaves, 1873. Most of them are songs for Sunday School use rather than hymns for the church service but one of them, from The Sylphids’ School, beginning