THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 189
be in the first edition of that collection as early as 1756. It ha,s long been usual to give the name " Langford " as that of the author of this hymn, but it is at present uncertain which Langford. The Kev. John Langford, a dissenting minister, who entered the ministry at Black s-fields, Southwark, 1 766 , and died 1 790 , published some Sermons and " Hymns and spiritual Songs," 1776 ; but this hymn is not in that collection, and is superior to those found there. Some have thought that this hymn is by the celebrated divine, Dr. William Langford. He was born in 1704, at Westfield, near Battle, in Sussex. His father died when he was young, and he removed with his mother to Tenterden, in Kent, where he was educated. In 1721, he went to study at Glasgow University, where he graduated M.A. in 1727. He was distinguished for his early piety, and there is on record the covenant he made with God while at the University. On completing his studies, he became pastor of a church at Gravesend, and in 1734, co-pastor with the Rev. Thomas Bures, Silver Street, London. He also assisted Mr. Wood, at the Weigh-house Chapel, Eastcheap, from the year 1736, and in 1742 succeeded him in the pastorate, in which he continued with honour till his decease on April 23, 1775. In 1762, he received the diploma of D.D. from lung s College, Aberdeen. He was the author of some published sermons. Dr. Thomas Gibbons, in his funeral sermon in memory of Dr. William Langford (of which there is a copy in Dr. Williams s library), gives a brief memoir of him, but does not speak of him as an author of hymns. This seems to be against his claim, because Dr. Gibbons, as himself a hymn-writer, would not have been likely to omit a fact of so much interest.
WILLIAM MASON, M.A.
17251797.
" Again returns the day of holy rest." No. 760. THIS is the first of a small number of hymns and select pieces given at the end of vol. i, of " The works of William Mason,
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