A. R. Cousin

Anne Ross Cousin, born Anne Ross Cundell in Leith, Scotland, on April 27, 1824, was a distinguished 19th-century poet, musician, and hymnwriter. The only daughter of physician David Ross Cundell, she received a robust musical education as a student of John Muir Wood. In 1847, she married the Reverend William Cousin, a prominent minister of the Free Church of Melrose, and her subsequent literary output became deeply intertwined with the spiritual life of the Scottish Presbyterian tradition. During her travels and ministry alongside her husband from 1854 to 1878, she became a prolific contributor to various religious periodicals, most notably The Christian Treasury.

Her most enduring contribution to Christian hymnody is the poem "The Sands of Time Are Sinking," which was first published in 1857. This piece, originally titled "Immanuel’s Land," was inspired by the deathbed sayings of the 17th-century Scottish Covenanter Samuel Rutherford. While the original poem consisted of nineteen stanzas, it was later condensed into the popular hymn used in congregations across Great Britain and the United States. In 1876, she published a comprehensive collection of 107 of her works titled Immanuel’s Land and Other Pieces by A. R. C., which established her reputation for writing deeply meditative and scripturally grounded verse.

Beyond her most famous work, Cousin authored several other significant hymns that entered common liturgical use, including the Good Friday meditation "O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head" and the Christmas hymn "King Eternal, King Immortal." Her writing is characterized by a "meditative" quality that focuses on the person of Christ and the anticipation of the afterlife, often bridging the gap between personal devotion and public worship. Following a long life dedicated to sacred music and literature, she died in Edinburgh on December 6, 1906, leaving behind a legacy as a premier hymnwriter of the Free Church. Her son, John William Cousin, notably continued the family's intellectual tradition as the editor of A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.