Daniel Crane Roberts was born November 5, 1841, on Long Island, New York. He graduated in 1857 from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, and then served in the Civil War. He studied for the ministry and was ordained deacon in 1865, and priest in 1866. He served in Protestant Episcopal churches in Vermont and Massachusetts, and for 23 years as vicar of St. Paul’s, Concord, New Hampshire. He was president of the New Hampshire State Historical Society and received an honorary D.D. in 1885 from Norwich University. He died in Concord on October 31, 1907. While he was ministering in Brandon, Vermont, he wrote this hymn for the Fourth of July centennial celebrations in 1876. This patriotic hymn calls for the great Creator of the starry heavens to exercise similar guidance over His people, protecting them from war and disease and making His grace appear in their lives.

NATIONAL HYMN was written for these words in 1892 by the self-taught but accomplished organist George William Warren at the special request of Dr. J. Ireland Tucker. It was included in Tucker’s Hymnal 1892. The name is appropriate, for the words commemorate the American Independence Day. Notice that the last line of the melody is, with two repeated notes, a complete descending octave.

Warren composed church music, anthems, hymn tunes and piano pieces. He was born August 17, 1828, in Albany, New York. He was organist at St. Peter’s, Albany, from 1846 to 1858; at St. Paul’s, in the same city, from 1858 to 1860, at Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, from 1860 to 1870; and finally at St. Thomas’, New York City, from 1870 to 1900. He was honored for his services to music by Racine College, Wisconsin, with the degree of D.Mus. He died in New York City on March 17, 1902.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.