William Pierson Merrill

William Pierson Merrill was an American Presbyterian minister, hymn writer, author, church musician, and advocate for international peace. Born in East Orange, New Jersey, in 1867, he graduated from Rutgers College in 1887 and Union Theological Seminary in 1890. At Union he served as an organist, and he later sang bass in the professional quartet at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He contributed four tunes to the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1895, showing that his musical work extended beyond hymn texts.

Merrill served Presbyterian congregations in Philadelphia and Chicago before becoming pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City in 1911, remaining there until 1938. His books included Christian Internationalism, The Common Creed of Christians, The Freedom of the Preacher, and Prophets of the Dawn. He also became a prominent Christian peace advocate; in 1914 he helped lead the Church Peace Union, founded with Andrew Carnegie’s support, and preached publicly on international reconciliation.

He wrote Rise Up, O Men of God in 1911 for the Presbyterian Brotherhood Movement after Nolan R. Best of The Continent suggested the need for a brotherhood hymn. Merrill later recalled that an article by Gerald Stanley Lee helped shape his thinking and that the words came rapidly while he was aboard a Lake Michigan steamer returning to Chicago.