The composer, Henry Percy Smith, 1825-98, was a minister in the Church of England, deeply interested in church music. After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he served various churches as curate and vicar and finally became chaplain at Cannes and Canon of Gibraltar.
224. O Thou great Friend to all the sons of men
Theodore Parker, 1810-60
Based on the Scriptural passages, John 15:14: “Ye are my friends if ye do the things which I command you” and John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
The author, Rev. Theodore Parker, an outstanding abolitionist and a leader in New England Unitarianism, was educated at Harvard and spent most of his ministry in Boston. While travelling abroad in the hope of restoring his health, he became ill and died at Florence, Italy, where he was buried.
MUSIC. FFIGYSBREN. For comments on this tune see [Hymn 183].
225. Onward, Christian soldiers
S. Baring-Gould, 1834-1924
A hymn of the Christian warfare, written by a Church of England clergyman for a children’s processional, but now having a much wider use. The author gave the following account of the writing of the hymn:
Whitmonday is a great day for school festivals in Yorkshire. One Whitmonday, thirty years ago, it was arranged that our school should join forces with a neighboring village. I wanted the children to sing when marching from one village to another; so I sat up at night, resolved that I would write something myself. “Onward, Christian soldiers” was the result. It was written in great haste, and I am afraid some of the rhymes are faulty. Certainly nothing has surprised me more than its popularity.