Page:Our Hymns.djvu/319

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THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN.

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��Congregational Church at Peckham, and he continued to occupy that position to the end of his long and useful life.

At his ordination in December, 1801, the church at Peckhain consisted of only ten members. But it soon increased, and at length his popularity rendered a larger chapel necessary, and in 1817 Hanover Chapel was built. For about twelve years from 1814, Dr. Gollyer was also pastor of the church assembling in Baiters Hall. Both at Peckham and at Baiters Hall he was the means of reviving the spiritual life of the people, and of gathering in converts, and of restoring sound doctrine when it was giving place to serious error.

For half a century Dr. Collyer was one of the most popular dissenting ministers in London, attracting sometimes even the royal dukes within the walls of his crowded chapel. He was also much beloved by his brethren in the ministry, and by a large circle of admiring friends, and most of all by the members of his own attached family. His fidelity to the great truths of the Gospel was marked by all, and his works on theology remain as a testimony to the truths he taught. They are in the form of lectures on "Parables," "Doctrines," "Duties," " Comparisons," and " Facts."

"Within a month of his death he preached his last sermon from the words, " How Avilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan ? "

In 1812 Dr. Collyer published a collection of hymns for the use of his congregation. Some of the hymns are original, and others are by various authors. All the hymns by each author are arranged together, and the author s name is given. There are 979 hymns in the collection, and the last 57 are by Dr. Collyer himself. Several of them, though not without traces of genius, are of a stilted, sensational character, and are therefore wisely omitted from our collections.

In the "New Congregational Hymn Book," hymns 520, 846, 857, and 913 are by Dr. Collyer. All but iS o. 846 are found in his collection of 1812. They are given with verses omitted. Without displaying any high poetical talent, they are of the useful

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