Hymn Writers of the Church

Cox, Samuel Keener, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born in Baltimore, Md., July 16, 1823; and died at Harrisonburg, Va., November 27, 1909. He was the son of Rev. Luther J. Cox, a Methodist local preacher, and was a first cousin of Bishop John C. Keener. He enjoyed fine educational advantages in early life, and in 1844 he joined the Maryland Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, of which his father was one of the organizers in 1828. After filling various pastoral charges in Washington City and elsewhere, he became in 1853 Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Madison College, Uniontown, Pa., which position he filled for some years, and then was engaged in educational work in Virginia and Alabama until 1866, when he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in which Church he served as educator, pastor in Baltimore, Washington City, and elsewhere and as editor of the Episcopal Methodist, the Baltimore Christian Advocate, and the Baltimore and Richmond Christian Advocate. He was a member of the committee of nine which in 1886-88 compiled the hymn book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which was the official hymnal of that Church until this present book became the joint hymnal of both branches of American Episcopal Methodism. Dr. Cox was a brother of Dr. Christopher C. Cox, the author of Hymn No. 52.