THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 193
man Magazine," but he desisted from this in 1789, as his literary accuracy and scholarship were found inadequate to the work.
HON. AND REV. WALTER SHIRLEY.
17251786. "Lord, dismissus vvibh Tay bias nn:*." No. 732
THE first appearance of this favourite hymn (in the " New Con gregational Hymn Book," erroneously attributed to Madan) is believed to be in Dr. Conyers Collection, 1774. A- C. Hobart Seymour, Esq., himself one of our hymn- writers, and one who has given, for many years, attention to hymnology, has assigned to this hymn the above-named authorship. Mr. Seymour is con nected by marriage with Mr. Shirley s descendants, and has in his possession the manuscript of some of his hymns. He_ha& in formed the author of this work, that the late Kev. Walter Shirley, son of the poet, always stated that this hymn was by his father, and that it was so believed generally by the members of the family.
The Hon. and Kev. Walter Shirley was the friend of White- field and Wesley, and the brother-in-law and friend of the Countess of Huntingdon, in whose chapels he often preached. He was a successful Episcopal minister at Loughrea, in Ireland. He died of a painful disease, in his sixty-first year, in 1786. When he could no longer leave the house, he used to preach seated in his chair in his drawing-room to many who gladly assembled to hear. He took a deep interest in the modern missionary work, then in its infancy, and when, in 1772, the missionaries sent by Lady Huntingdon were about to embark for America, he wrote the hymn,
" Go, destined vessel, heavenly freighted, go ! For lo ! the Lord s ambassadors are there," &c.
About the year 1774, the Countess appointed Mr. Shirley to
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