Dictionary of Hymnology

Biography

Jonathan Bush Atchinson

A biography of the American Methodist preacher and gospel song writer Jonathan Bush Atchinson.

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Jonathan Bush Atchinson was an American Methodist preacher and hymn writer born at Wilson, New York, on February 17, 1840. He entered active ministry after being officially licensed as a Methodist preacher on September 6, 1874. He devoted much of his output to writing gospel songs and Sunday school hymns.

His first published hymn, "Behold the stone is rolled away," an Easter text, appeared in the Sunday School Times in December 1874. Though not adopted in Great Britain, several of his subsequent gospel songs achieved wide popularity through Ira D. Sankey's collections. His text "Fully persuaded, Lord, I believe," written around 1874 and set to music by W. F. Sherwin, was included in Gospel Hymns (No. 1) and Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (No. 149). Other widely circulated hymns include "I have read of a beautiful city" (set by O. F. Presbrey) and "O crown of rejoicing that's waiting for me" (set by P. P. Bliss), both of which were published in Sankey's compilations.

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