THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS IOI
Montgomery was the son of John Montgomery, an Irishman and a Moravian minister, and was born at Irvine, Scotland, in 1771. In 1776 his parents moved to the Gracehill Moravian Settlement in county Antrim. After training at Fulneck, during which his father and mother had both died as missionaries in the West Indies, the boy was sent to a shopkeeper s at Mirfield, near Wakefield. Thence he moved to Wath-upon-Dearne. He travelled to London, hoping to find a publisher for his early poems, but failed. In 1792 he became assistant to Mr. Gales, auctioneer, bookseller, and printer of the Sheffield Register. Montgomery changed the name to the Sheffield Iris, and edited it for thirty-one years. His father had been a disciple of Cennick, and it is said that a volume of Cennick s sermons was the means of James Montgomery s conversion. He lived a busy life as editor, lecturer, and advocate of Foreign Missions and of the Bible Society in all parts of the country. In 1833 he received a royal pension of ^200 a year. He maintained very close relations to Methodism, and was for some time a worshipper in our chapels. Dr. Hannah introduced him to a Sheffield Conference : We feel under great obligation to yourself and to the religious body to which you belong, and beg to assure you of the kindest affection of the Conference. He died in his sleep at the Mount, Sheffield, April 30, 1854. He was honoured by a public funeral, a bronze statue was erected in the cemetery, a stained glass window in the parish church, and a Wesleyan chapel and public hall were named after him.
Montgomery wrote from 400 to 500 hymns. His MS. was generally half a sheet of writing-paper, with the date and his signature at the bottom. He corrected his hymns freely, and was extremely critical of his own work. In 1819 he and Mr. Cotterill published a Collection of hymns. In 1807 he told a friend, When I was a boy I wrote a great many hymns ; but as I grew up and my heart degenerated, I directed my talents, such as they were, to other services, and seldom indeed since my fourteenth year have they been employed in the delightful duties of the sanctuary. However, I shall lie in wait for my heart, and when I can string it to the pitch of David s lyre, I will set a psalm " to the Chief Musician." He did not fail to carry out that purpose, to the enriching of our whole service of praise. A Whitby solicitor once asked him which of his works would live. Montgomery replied, None, sir ; nothing, except, perhaps, a few of my hymns. This was in keeping with the
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