Introduction

Biography

Matson was ed­u­ca­ted first un­der the Rev. J. M. Gould, and then at St. John’s Col­lege, Cam­bridge. Sub­se­quent­ly, he stu­died un­der Professor Nes­bitt at the Ag­ri­cul­tur­al and Che­mi­cal Col­lege, Ken­ning­ton.

In 1853, he un­der­went a great spi­rit­ual change. Leav­ing the Church of Eng­land, he first joined the Me­tho­dist New Con­nex­ion body, then the Con­gre­ga­tion­ali­sts.

After theo­lo­gic­al train­ing, he en­tered the min­is­try and held sev­er­al pas­tor­ates, in­clud­ing Ha­vant, Hamp­shire; Gos­port; High­bury; Ports­mouth, and oth­ers. He re­tired in 1897.

Works

• A Sum­mer Ev­en­ing Re­ver­ie, and Oth­er Po­ems, 1857
• Po­ems, 1858
• Pleasures of the Sanc­tu­ary, 1865
• The In­ner Life (Lon­don: El­lio­tt Stock, 1866)
• Sacred Lyr­ics, 1870
• Three Sup­ple­ment­al Hymns, 1872
• Edderline and Oth­er Po­ems, 1880
• The World Re­deemed, 1881
• The Priest in the Vil­lage, Four Ec­logues, 1884
• Lays of Laud, Life, and Li­ta­ny, In­clud­ing the In­ner Life, 1891