Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles

James Edmeston (1791–1867)

JAMES EDMESTON (1791–1867), the author of the popular hymns “Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us” (written for the children of the London Orphan Asylum) and “Saviour, breathe an evening blessing,” is said to have written no less than two thousand hymns, of which many have come into general use. An architect by profession, he had Sir Gilbert Scott for a pupil, and published a number of volumes of verse. The principal of these are “The Search and other Poems” (1817); “Sacred Lyrics” (first series, 1820; second series, 1821; third series, 1822); “Patmos, a Fragment, and other Poems” (1824); “The Woman of Shunem and other Poems” (1829); “Fifty Original Hymns” (1833); “Church Hymns and Poems” (1844); “Infant Breathings” (1846); “Sacred Poetry” (1847). He died on the 7th of January, 1867.