Alfred Morton Smith
1879 - 1971
Episcopal
Biography
Alfred Morton Smith was born in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, in 1879. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1901 and studied at Philadelphia Divinity School, receiving degrees in 1905 and 1911. An Episcopalian, he was ordained deacon in 1905 and priest in 1906. After early ministry in Philadelphia and Long Beach, California, he served for ten years at St. Matthias Church in Los Angeles.
Smith served as a United States Army chaplain during the First World War and returned to Philadelphia in 1919. He spent the rest of his active ministry there before retiring in 1955. Later years took him to Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, and Brigantine, New Jersey, where he died in 1971. Standard hymnological indexes credit him with the tunes ASSISI, LABOR, and SURSUM CORDA.
Smith composed SURSUM CORDA in 1941, decades before Lincoln wrote How Like a Gentle Spirit. The tune was printed in The Hymnal 1940 with Henry Montagu Butler's text beginning Lift up your hearts and later served many other ten-syllable texts. The 1989 United Methodist hymnal paired it with Lincoln's new words. Smith is therefore the composer of the record's tune, not a collaborator in the creation of Lincoln's text.
Smith served as a United States Army chaplain during the First World War and returned to Philadelphia in 1919. He spent the rest of his active ministry there before retiring in 1955. Later years took him to Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, and Brigantine, New Jersey, where he died in 1971. Standard hymnological indexes credit him with the tunes ASSISI, LABOR, and SURSUM CORDA.
Smith composed SURSUM CORDA in 1941, decades before Lincoln wrote How Like a Gentle Spirit. The tune was printed in The Hymnal 1940 with Henry Montagu Butler's text beginning Lift up your hearts and later served many other ten-syllable texts. The 1989 United Methodist hymnal paired it with Lincoln's new words. Smith is therefore the composer of the record's tune, not a collaborator in the creation of Lincoln's text.
Hymns by Alfred Morton Smith
How Like a Gentle Spirit
Role: Composer