John Kent (hymnist)

For other possible meanings see John Kent (disambiguation)
John Kent

John Kent
Born December 1766
Died November 15, 1843
Occupation Hymnist

John Kent (December 1766 – November 15, 1843) was an English Calvinist Baptist writer of hymns.

Biography

Kent was born of poor, religious parents in Devonshire, and was apprenticed to his father, a shipwright.[1] He began to write verse in his youth, and worked hard to educate himself despite limited opportunities.[2] His hymns are first known to have been published in 1799 in Samuel Reece's A Selection of Evangelical Hymns,[3] compiled for the Barrack-Street Baptist congregation near Plymouth Dockyard, where he and his father worked.[2] The first collection composed entirely of John Kent's hymns was his Original Gospel Hymns, published in 1803; though he gained a reputation as a hymnist, he continued as a shipbuilder, writing hymns as his work allowed.[2] His collection passed through ten editions between 1803 and 1861, being expanded with new material as it became available.[3] Kent became blind by 60 years of age, and mostly ceased authoring new hymns until his death seventeen years later in 1843.[2] His last words were "I am accepted."[4]

Character of his works

The simplicity and force of Kent's hymns' expression of Calvinism has limited their adoption outside a narrow segment of Christian churches, but they have been fairly broadly employed in various Predestinarian Baptist churches, with 51 of them contained in William Gadsby's A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship and twelve in Charles Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book.[2] His most frequently-printed hymns include "What Cheering Words Are These", "O Thou, Before Whose Gracious Throne", "On Zion's Glorious Summit Stood", and "Where Two or Three Together Meet".[3]

References

  1. ↑ Duffield, Samuel Willoughby (1886). English Hymns: Their Authors and History. Funk & Wagnalls. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Miller, Josiah. Singers and Songs of the Church. Longmans, Green and Co., 1869, p. 333-4.
  3. 1 2 3 John Kent - Hymnary. <http://www.hymnary.org/person/Kent_J1?sort=asc&order=Instances>
  4. ↑ Rogers, Charles (1867). Lyra Britannica, a collection of British hymns, with biographical sketches of the hymn writers. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
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