The composer, Frederic Arthur Challinor, was born in Staffordshire, England, 1866, the son of a miner. Poverty compelled him in childhood to seek employment to supplement the family income. At the age of ten he began working in a brick yard. Two years later he found employment in a coal mine and then in a china manufacturing plant. All the while he was interested in music and spent his spare time studying harmony. By hard work and perseverance, he finally won his Mus. Bac. degree in 1903. Challinor has composed several popular cantatas and published more than four hundred compositions for voices.
420. Jesus bids us shine
Susan Warner, 1819-85
A hymn for small children, which first appeared, anonymously, in The Little Corporal, Chicago.
The author, Susan Warner, sister of Anna B. Warner (see [Hymn 201]), was the daughter of a reputable attorney in New York State. Her father fell into undeserved misfortune which left the daughters as the breadwinners of the household. This burden they fulfilled by writing stories and books. Susan’s first book, The Wide, Wide World, published in 1865 under the pseudonym of “Elizabeth Wetherall,” became one of the most widely read of American novels, second in popularity only to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was translated into French and German and became a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic. She also wrote a number of definitely religious books for children. Like her sister, Anna, she was buried at West Point, where the two had conducted a Bible class for many years for the cadets of the U. S. Military Academy.
MUSIC. The tune is by Edwin O. Excell, 1851-1921, an American composer of Gospel song tunes. In England, the hymn is sung to “Lumetto,” a tune by Edward Arthur, composed in 1927.
421. Here we come with gladness
Julia H. Johnston, 1852—
Intended to be sung as a collection march.
The author, Julia Harriette Johnston, born at Salineville, Ohio, was educated at Gettysburg and Peoria, Illinois, High School. She was much interested in missions and Sunday-school work and frequently contributed articles to magazines, on those subjects. Among her publications were The School of the Master, Bright Threads, and the Life of Adoniram Judson.