Hymn Writers of the Church

Hedge, Frederick Henry, a Unitarian divine, professor and author of note, was born at Cambridge, Mass., December 12, 1805. He graduated at Harvard College in 1825, and at the Theological School, Cambridge, in 1828. For a number of years he was the pastor of Unitarian Churches. In 1857 he became Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Divinity School, and in 1872 Professor of German Literature at Harvard, which place he held many years. In 1853 he and Dr. F. D. Huntingdon (who later became a bishop in the Episcopal Church) prepared a volume titled Hymns for the Church of Christ, for use in Unitarian Churches. Dr. Hedge was for some years one of the editors of the Christian Examiner. His Prose Writers of Germany, 1848, is a standard work. He did much to introduce and popularize German scholarship and literature in this country. Dr. Hedge died at Cambridge August 21, 1890. Of some eight or more hymns and translations by him, we have but one in our Hymnal--a translation--but it is one of the best in the entire collection.