H.W.F.
Weiss, Rev. John, Boston, Massachusetts, June 28, 1828—March 9, 1879, Boston. He graduated from Harvard College in 1837, and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1843. He was ordained minister of the First Church, (Unitarian) Watertown, Massachusetts in 1843; was minister of the First Church, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1847-1858; and served the church at Watertown again 1862-1869. He was a leader in the anti-slavery movement and a prolific author of books and essays. For Visitation Day at the Divinity School, 1843, he wrote a hymn beginning,
1. A wondrous star our pioneer,
which was included in the Book of Hymns, 1846, compiled by S. Longfellow and S. Johnson, and in their later book, Hymns of the Spirit, 1864. The Book of Hymns also included a hymn “For a Summer Festival” beginning,
2. Beneath thy trees we meet today,
which is in the Universalist Church Harmonies, 1895.
His hymn
3. The world throws wide its brazen gates
was included in Hedge and Huntington’s Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853.
Three other hymns by him, which have not found their way into any hymn books, are printed in Putnam’s Singers and Songs.
H.W.F.
Wendte, Rev. Charles William, Boston, Massachusetts, June 11, 1844—September 9, 1911, San Francisco, California. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1869 and served Unitarian churches in Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Newport, Rhode Island. From 1885 to 1900 he was engaged in denominational work on the Pacific Coast and thereafter was Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the American Unitarian Association, Boston, spending a part of each year in Europe. Long interested in Sunday Schools he published in 1886 The Carol, for Sunday School and Home; a book of songs for use by children and young people entitled Jubilate Deo in 1900; and another in 1908 entitled Heart and Voice, a Collection of Songs and Services for the Sunday-School and Home. In 1907 he wrote a hymn on “The City of God” beginning,
Not given to us from out the sky,
which was included in The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937, (with a slight alteration by the author).