SIDNEY DYER. Sidney Dyer was, at the age of sixteen years, a " bold drummer boy " in the American army. He was then ignorant of the rudiments of a common English edu- cation. He was a sprightly, intelligent boy, however, and attracted the notice of a benevolent woman, through whose persuasion he was induced to give to study those hours which his companions spent in idleness or dissipation. Kind influences clus- tered around him, as he became more and more deeply interested in the pursuit of knowledge, and, at length, he determined to consecrate himself to the Christian min- istry. He has celebrated in pleasant lines these important changes in his pursuits and purposes : I minsjled with the coarse and rude, And heard the ribald jest ; And thought to die as they will die, Unhonored and unblessed. But there was one who saw my grief, Just bordering on despair ; She sought me out, and angel-like, Made all my woes her care. Oh ! then my soul o'erflowed with bliss, My step was light and free, While my full heart with joyance beat Its first glad " Reveille ! " My feet were turned on wisdom's " March ! " And on my raptured sight The dawning broke, and since that hour Has poured increasing light. When now I think of " auld lang syne," Of present, past employ, I scarce can make myself believe I was that •' Drummer Boy." Mr. Dyer connected himself with the Baptist Church, and, we believe, began his career as a preacher in Kentucky, about the year 1845. In 1849 he published a vol- ume of poems* in Louisville, Kentucky, and, in 1855, consented to the publication of " An Olio of Love and Song," delivered by him before the Athenian Society of In- diana University, on the thirty-first day of July, in that year. Since 1850, Mr. Dyer has been the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. He has written a large number of very popular songs. He is quite successful in expressing domestic sentiments and emotions in words well-adapted to music, and he has turned a number of hopeful proverbs to happy advantage in songs which have been sung in all parts of our country.
- Voices of Nature, and Thouglits in Rhyme. Louisville : .T. V. Cowling and G. C Daries, 1849. 12mo, pp. 156.
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