Hymn Writers of the Church

Reed, Andrew, an English Independent minister, was born in London November 27, 1787; was graduated from Hackney College, and soon afterwards became pastor of a Church in East London, where he remained for fifty years, devoting much of his time to philanthropic work. In 1834, on a visit to America, he received from Yale College the degree of D.D. He published a Supplement to Watts in 1817, a revised and enlarged edition of which appeared in 1841, containing twenty-seven hymns by himself and nineteen by his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Holmes Reed. He died at Hackney, London, February 25, 1862. Dr. Reed is best known in England as the founder of the London Orphan Asylum, the Asylum for Fatherless Children, The Asylum for Idiots, the Infant Orphan Asylum, and the Hospital for Incurables. If the value of every song is to be determined by the intrinsic merits of the hymn, plus the life and character of the man who wrote it, it must follow that the hymns of the man who founded and worked for all these philanthropic and beneficent institutions are among the most valuable hymns in the entire collection. Mrs. Reed's hymn beginning "O do not let the word depart" is quite as popular and useful as anything her husband wrote.