James Montgomery

(1771-1854)

Often in jail, this activist wrote "Angels from the Realms of Glory."

In 1818, the inhabitants of the Georgian Isles in the South Seas turned from their worship of idols to the Christian faith. The London Missionary Society thought it appropriate that special hymns be written in honor of this milestone. "Hark! The Song of Jubilee" was one of those hymns, authored by James Montgomery.

This controversial newspaper editor had long championed foreign missions and Bible distribution. His passion had personal roots; James's parents had given their lives for the gospel in the West Indies.

James had once studied to be a missionary, attending a Moravian seminary in London. He found poetry, however, more absorbing than his studies.

Not long after the sudden death of both parents on the mission field, James left school and began to cultivate his literary gifts. At age 23 he was appointed editor of the weekly Sheffield Register in London, a position he would hold for thirty-one years.

Montgomery became an activist for numerous causes, particularly the abolition of slavery. His radical views earned him fines and imprisonment on at least two occasions. In 1797 he published a collection of poems written behind bars, Prison Amusements.

Eventually his philanthropic and literary achievements were recognized; he was invited to lecture at the Royal Institution and received an annual pension from the British government.

Montgomery is best remembered for more than 400 hymns, most of them written in the early 1770s when he was serving as a pastor in Liverpool. A few came later, such as "Angels from the Realms of Glory," which first appeared as a poem in his newspaper on Christmas Eve of 1816. He published his collection as Montgomery's Original Hymns.

Many hymnologists give him a place after Watts and Wesley, and a substantial number of his works are still in use, particularly in Baptist hymnals.