James Montgomery

James Montgomery was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, in 1771, the son of Moravian parents. He spent part of his childhood in Ireland and was educated at the Moravian school at Fulneck in Yorkshire. After leaving school and working in several trades, he entered the office of the Sheffield Register in 1792. When its editor Joseph Gales left England, Montgomery took over the paper and relaunched it as the Sheffield Iris. He edited it until 1825 and was imprisoned twice in the 1790s for material published during a period of political repression.

Montgomery became a prominent Sheffield poet, journalist, publisher, and reformer. He supported the abolition of slavery, education through Sunday schools, improved treatment of child chimney sweeps, Bible and missionary societies, and other civic causes. His religious associations crossed denominational lines, but his Moravian formation remained important; he later helped revise the English Moravian hymnal published in 1849.

He compiled The Christian Psalmist in 1825 and published Original Hymns for Public, Social, and Private Devotion in 1853. According to Thy Gracious Word appeared as hymn 510 in the former collection. His other enduring texts include Angels from the Realms of Glory, Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Go to Dark Gethsemane, and Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire.