Hymn Writers of the Church

Dwight, Timothy, a distinguished Congregational minister and educator, was born at Northampton, Mass., May 14, 1752. His mother was a daughter of Jonathan Edwards. He entered Yale College at the age of thirteen, and, graduating four years later, became a tutor, which position he resigned in 1777 to become chaplain in the Revolutionary army. He next became a pastor at Greenfield, Conn., and in 1795 was elected President of Yale College, and remained in this position until his death, January 11, 1817. He is best known by his theological works, which are numerous and strong and show him to be a moderate Calvinist in faith. In 1800 he prepared and published a revised edition of Watts's Psalms, which was approved and adopted by the General Association of Connecticut (Congregational). This volume contained several other hymns from various sources, some of which were written by himself. He is the author of about a dozen hymns found in modern Church hymnals. "This is the most important name," says Prof. F. M. Bird, "in early American hymnology, as it is also one of the most illustrious in American literature and education."