Edmund Simon Lorenz

Edmund Simon Lorenz (1854–1942) was an American United Brethren minister, composer, editor, teacher, and music publisher whose career linked pastoral work, theological education, hymnody, and the growing gospel-song movement. Born in North Lawrence, Ohio, he studied at Otterbein University, Union Biblical Seminary, Yale Theological Seminary, and the University of Leipzig. He served as pastor of High Street United Brethren Church in Dayton and later became president of Lebanon Valley College, retiring from that office after illness.

Lorenz devoted most of his long career to church music. He edited or helped produce numerous Sunday school books, gospel-song collections, hymnals, anthem books, and instructional works, including Gates of Praise, Notes of Victory, The Otterbein Hymnal, Practical Church Music, Music in Work and Worship, and The Singing Church. He also founded influential periodicals such as The Choir Leader and The Choir Herald and established the publishing enterprise that became the Lorenz Publishing Company in Dayton.

His work was especially important within the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, but his music circulated far beyond that denomination. DAYTON, the tune associated with Tell It to Jesus, is one of the gospel melodies through which his name remains familiar in later hymnals.