1792–1872

Introduction

portrait
National Portrait Gallery

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National Portrait Gallery

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Born: Oc­to­ber 17, 1792, Hea­vi­tree, Exe­ter, Dev­on, Eng­land.

Died: No­vem­ber 23, 1872, Exe­ter, Dev­on Eng­land.

Buried: Higher Ce­me­te­ry, Exe­ter, Dev­on, Eng­land. On his tomb­stone were the words from his hymn: In the Cross of Christ I Glo­ry.

Biography

John was the son of Charles Bow­ring and Sa­rah Jane Anne Lane, hus­band of Deb­or­ah Cas­tle, and fa­ther of Ed­gar Bow­ring.

An ac­comp­lished lin­guist, he mas­tered five lang­uages by age 16 with­out a teacher. It has been said he was ev­en­tu­al­ly flu­ent in over 20 lang­uag­es and could speak 80 more; he was known for his trans­la­tions of Dutch po­et­ry. At age 33, he became ed­it­or of the West­min­ster Review.

Bowring was also one of the pre­emi­nent Brit­ish states­men of his day: Com­mis­sion­er to France, Con­sul at Can­ton (Guang­zhou), Min­is­ter Ple­ni­po­ten­ti­ary to Chi­na, Gov­er­nor of Hong Kong, and twice a mem­ber of Par­lia­ment. Queen Vic­tor­ia knight­ed him in 1854.

Works

Lyrics

  1. All Em­brac­ing Mind That Planned, The
  2. All Have Joys That Throw Their Bright­ness
  3. Are We Not from God Des­cend­ed?
  4. As Gen­tle Child­ren Fond­ly Press
  5. As, When the Del­uge Waves Were Gone
  6. Bee Hath Its Do­mes­tic Cell, The
  7. Blessèd, Bless­èd Are the Dead
  8. Clay to Clay, and Dust to Dust
  9. Cloud, the Whirl­wind, and the Wrath, The
  10. Come the Rich, and Come the Poor
  11. Come, Ye Bless­èd of My Fa­ther
  12. Days of Mor­tal Man, The
  13. Drop the Lim­pid Wa­ters Now
  14. Earth’s Tran­si­to­ry Things De­cay
  15. Extinguished Now is the Last, Lone Star
  16. Father and Friend!
  17. Father, Glo­ri­fy Thy Name
  18. Father of Spir­its, Hum­bly Bent Be­fore Thee
  19. From All Ev­il, All Temp­ta­tion
  20. From the Re­cess­es of a Low­ly Spir­it
  21. Gather Up, O Earth, Thy Dead
  22. Gently the Shades of Night De­scend
  23. Give unto the Lord, Ye Migh­ty!
  24. God Is Love! His Mer­cy Bright­ens
  25. He Builds His House up­on the Sand
  26. He Lives! He Lives!
  27. He Was There Alone, When Ev­en
  28. He Who Walks in Vir­tue’s Way
  29. Heavenly Spheres to Thee, O God, The
  30. How Bright Are the Stars of the Dawn!
  31. How Dark, How De­so­late
  32. How He Wept as He Ap­proached the Place
  33. How Shall We Praise Thee, Lord of Light?
  34. How Sweet­ly Flowed the Gos­pel’s Sound
  35. How Wide, How Won­drous Is the World!
  36. Hymn of Praise, the Breath of Pray­er, The
  37. If All Our Hopes and All Our Fears
  38. If List­en­ing, as I List­en Still
  39. In the Cross of Christ I Glo­ry
  40. In the Dust I’m Doomed to Sleep
  41. In Thy Courts Let Peace Be Found
  42. Jesus Lives, and We in Him
  43. Labors of the Day Are Done, The
  44. Lead Us with Thy Gen­tle Way
  45. Let Those Who Doubt the Hea­ven­ly Source
  46. Let Thy Gra­cious Spir­it Reach Us
  47. Long Had the Dark­ness of Ag­es Sur­round­ed
  48. Lord! In Hea­ven, Thy Dwell­ing Place
  49. Lord! In the Un­be­gin­ning Years
  50. Lord, Where Thy Ra­di­ant Beams Are Shed
  51. Man Is Not Left Un­told, Un­taught
  52. Mighty Is the Pow­er That Gives
  53. Mysterious Are the Ways of God
  54. Not with Terr­or Do We Meet
  55. O Let My Trem­bling Soul Be Still
  56. O Sweet It Is to Feel and Know
  57. Offerings to Thy Throne Which Rise, The
  58. Oft When the Ga­ther­ing Clouds of Woe
  59. Oh, How Wise That God Hath Hid­den
  60. Oh, Let My Trem­bling Soul Be Still
  61. Oh, Sweet and Sac­red Is the Rest
  62. Oh! Sweet It Is to Know, to Feel
  63. Oh, What a Cloud of An­xious Thought
  64. Oh, What a Strug­gle Wakes With­in
  65. On Light Beams Break­ing from Ab­ove
  66. On! On! Our Mo­ments Hur­ry By
  67. On the Dust I’m Doomed to Sleep
  68. Our Times Are in Thy Hand
  69. Rejoice, Re­joice, This Glo­ri­ous Earth
  70. Round Us, o’er Us, Is There Aught
  71. Scattered o’er Va­ri­ous Fields by Hea­ven
  72. Some Spot There Is, Some Cher­ished Spot
  73. Stillness Reigns
  74. Sweet Are the Joys of Home
  75. Ten Thou­sand Bless­ings Are My Lot
  76. There Is No Spot, or High or Low
  77. There’s No Re­treat from Sin
  78. They Are Not Gone, Whom Death’s Dark Shroud
  79. Though the Stream of Be­ing Flow­eth
  80. Thousand, Thou­sand Chang­ing Things, A
  81. Thy Will Be Done, in De­vi­ous Way
  82. Thy Word Is Truth
  83. ’Tis Not the Gift, but ’Tis the Spir­it
  84. To Each, to All, by Love Di­vine
  85. Unnumbered Sys­tems, Suns and Worlds
  86. Upon the Gos­pel’s Sac­red Page
  87. Wake, Slum­ber­er, Wake!
  88. Watchman, Tell Us of the Night
  89. When Be­fore Thy Throne We Kneel
  90. When Pure De­vo­tion Lifts the Soul
  91. When, Wak­ened by Thy Voice of Pow­er
  92. Where Is Thy Sting, O Death?
  93. Who Hath o’er the Ocean Been
  94. Who Shall Roll Away the Stone?
  95. With Hea­vy Heart the Sav­ior Turned

Sources