Hymn Writers of the Church

Olivers, Thomas, one of Mr. Wesley's itinerant ministers, was born in Tregoman, Wales, in 1725. Early in life he was left an orphan. Distant relatives brought him up in an indifferent manner. He was sent to school for a time, and his religious education was not altogether neglected. As he grew older he became very profane, and at length ran away from his master, a shoemaker, to whom he was apprenticed. The drinking vagabond--for such he was--in his wicked career arrived at Bristol, where Whitefield had an appointment to preach. He went to hear him, and was converted. "When the sermon began," he says, "I was one of the most abandoned and profligate young men living; before it was ended I was a new creature." From that time onward he lived a new life, joined the Methodists, and in 1753 became one of Wesley's itinerant preachers. Clear, strong, and sometimes fiery, he was the man for the times, and for forty-six years made full proof of his ministry. Most of his prose writings relate to the Calvinistic controversies of that day. Wesley said he was fully a "match" for Toplady. For some years he aided Wesley in editing the Arminian Magazine. He wrote only four or five hymns, but they are all of high order. He died March 7, 1799.