Henry Jeffreys Zelley

Henry Jeffreys Zelley was an American Methodist minister and gospel hymn writer born at Mount Holly, New Jersey, on March 15, 1859. He was educated in local schools and at Pennington Seminary and later studied at Taylor University. Hymnary's biographical authority records that he entered Methodist ministry in 1882 and served throughout the New Jersey Conference, where his work included pastoral appointments and conference responsibilities as statistical secretary, treasurer, and trustee. He was also associated with the camp-meeting tradition that formed an important setting for late nineteenth-century evangelical song.

Zelley wrote prolifically alongside his ministry. Hymnological sources credit him with more than 1,500 poems, hymns, and gospel songs. Among his better-documented texts are “He Brought Me Out,” written in collaboration with Henry L. Gilmour, and “He Rolled the Sea Away.”

In 1899 Zelley supplied the text published as “Heavenly Sunlight,” paired from its first known printing with music by George Harrison Cook. He served numerous New Jersey churches before retiring in 1929 and died in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 16, 1942.