Slavery and death the cup contains
“was written during the Washingtonian Temperance Revival” and appeared in Adams’ and Chapin’s Unitarian Hymns for Christian Devotion, Boston, 1846. In the American Methodist Episcopal Hymnal, 1878 the first line is altered to read
Bondage and death the cup contains,
The hymn is included, with the original wording, in the Universalist Church Harmonies, 1895.
J. 1061 H.W.F.
Savage, Rev. Minot Judson, D.D., Norridgewock, Maine, June 10, 1841—May 22, 1918, Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were strictly orthodox Congregationalists whose resources were meagre, but a generous benefactor made it possible for him to enter Bangor Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1864. He served as a Congregational minister in California, Massachusetts and Missouri, but, having become acquainted with the works of Darwin and Herbert Spencer, he transferred his membership to the Unitarian denomination in 1872 and became minister of the Third Unitarian Church in Chicago. Two years later he accepted a call to Unity Church in Boston, which he served until 1896 when he moved to New York as minister of the Church of the Messiah. He was one of the earliest advocates of a religious interpretation of the doctrine of evolution, a bold thinker and forceful speaker in great demand, and the author of many books and printed sermons. In 1883 he published Sacred Songs for Public Worship; a Hymn and Tune Book, with music arranged by Howard M. Dow, for use in Unity Church. It contained 195 hymns and songs, 42 of which were from his own pen. It had the shortcomings of a “one-man book” and was musically nearer akin to the typical gospel song-book than was usual in Unitarian hymn-books, and it had little use outside his own congregation. Several of his hymns passed into other collections in England and America, viz:
1. Dost thou hear the bugle sounding, (Duty)
2. Father, we would not dare to change thy purpose (Prayer)
3. God of the glorious summer hours, (New Year)
4. How shall come the kingdom holy (Coming of the kingdom)
5. O God, whose law is in the sky (Consecration to Duty)
6. O star of truth, down shining, (Devotion to Truth)
7. Seek not afar for beauty, (God in Nature)
8. The God that to our fathers revealed his holy will,
9. The very blossoms of our life, (Baptism)
10. What purpose burns within our hearts, (Church Fellowship)
11. When the gladsome day declineth, (Evening)
Of these nos. 4, 6, 7 and 11 are included in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937.
J. 1698 H.W.F.
Scudder, Eliza, Boston, Massachusetts, November 14, 1821—September 28, 1896, Weston, Massachusetts. She was a niece of [Rev. E. H. Sears], q.v. Early in life she joined a Congregational Church, throughout her middle years was a Unitarian, and late in life entered the Episcopal Church. She wrote a small number of poems which were published in Boston in 1880 under the title Hymns and Sonnets, by E.S., and again with her two latest poems and a brief biographical sketch by Horace E. Scudder, in 1897, but most of her hymns had appeared at earlier dates in other places. They are characterized by a profound mystical spirit expressed in terms of great literary beauty, and some of them passed into a considerable measure of common use.