Palmer, Ray

D.D. (Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., 1852), Congregationalist; b. at Little Compton, R.I., Nov. 12, 1808; fitted for college at Phillips Academy, And over, Ma .; graduated at Yale College, New Haven, Conn., 1830; taught the higher cla es in a private seminary for young ladies in New-York City, 1830-31; was a ociated with Profe or E. A. Andrews in the New Haven (Conn.) Young Ladies' Institute (which was one of the earliest attempts in this country to furnish young ladies advantages as nearly as po ible equal to those of the other sex), 1831 licensed to preach by the New Haven West A ociation, 1832; was pastor of the Central Congregational Church, Bath, Me., 1835-50; during this period was on the board of overseers of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., and took an active interest in education and literature; in 1847 he made a tour through Europe, notes of which were published in The Christian Mirror of Portland, Me.; was pastor of the First Congregational Church, Albany, N.Y., 1850-66; secretary of the American Congregational Union at New York, 1866-78, during which time more than six hundred church edifices were erected by the aid of the society. He was on the board of visitors of the And over (Ma .) Theological Seminary, 1865-78, and regularly attended its examinations and busine meetings. He has of late years lived in literary retirement at Newark, N.J. His printed discourses and other publications in pamphlet form are quite numerous. He has often written for the higher periodicals articles critical, philosophical, and miscellaneous, and very widely for the leading religious papers. His hymns are familiar to the whole English-speaking world, and some of them have been translated into many languages; his best known hymn, " My faith looks up to Thee," into twenty or more. Not to mention some smaller early volumes, he has written: Spiritual Growth, or Aid to Growth in Grace, Boston and Philadelphia, 1839, republished and entitled Closet Hours, Albany, 1851; Remember Me, or The Holy Communion, Boston, 1855, new ed. New York, 1873; Hints on the Formation of Religious Opinions, New York, 1860, new ed. 1877, republished in London and Edinburgh; Hymns and Sacred Pieces, New York, 1865; Hymns of my Holy Hours, 1868; Home, or the Unlost Paradise, 1868; Earnest Words on True Succe in Life, 1873; Complete Poetical Works, 1876; Voices of Hope and Gladne , New York and London, 1880.