1808 - 1868 Person Name: Thomas H. Stockton Author of "We need not soar above the skies" in The Primitive Methodist Church Hymnal Stockton, Thomas Hewlings, D.D. (Mount Holly, New Jersey, June 4, 1808--October 9, 1868, Philadelphia). The son of William S., founder and editor of The Wesleyan Repository, 1821, and Elizabeth S. (Hewlings) Stockton. Largely educated in private schools, after studying medicine for a time and spending some five years following literary pursuits, he was admitted to the Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. A voluminous writer, he became one of the most eloquent preachers of the nineteenth century in America. When but twenty-five years of age he was elected chaplain of the House of Representatives, Congress of the United States, serving in that capacity the sessions of 1835-1836, 1859-1860, 1861-1862, and in 1862 was chosen chaplain of the United States Senate. It was he who offered the memorable prayer at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Monument.
Although much in the public eye as an eminent preacher, lecturer, and leader in all forms of social progress, he insisted his name be used with neither prefix nor suffix. He did not acknowledge the degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred on him by Gettysburg College and refused to accept the presidency of Miami College, Oxford, Ohio, when unanimously elected to that position by its board of trustees. Because of his opposition to denominationalism he twice resigned his assigned pastorates and organized, in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, "Societies of Brotherly Love," designed to follow the pattern set by John Wesley for his early converts.
Dr. Stockton compiled the Methodist Protestant Hymn-Book of 1837, the first Methodist hymnal to accredit the hymns to their respective authors. In addition to numerous sermons and speeches, his published works include:
Floating Flowers from a Hidden Brook, 1844
Ecclesiastical Opposition to the Bible, 1853
Stand Up, A Christian Ballad, 1858
Poems, 1862
"Stand up for Jesus," from A Christian Ballad which included autobiographical notes and some other poems, was suggested by the same incident which gave rise to the George Duffield, Jr., hymn with the same opening line. Although set to music several times it gave way to the latter.
--Robert G. McCutchan, DNAH Archives
T. H. Stockton
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