Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153; see SDAH  156) is credited with a hymn of about 48 stanzas entitled, ”Jesu, dulcis memoria” (Jesus, Sweet Memory), known as the “Jubilee Rhythm of the Name of Jesus” (see SDAH  241). Several translations of this hymn have been made from the original Latin, this one being by Ray Palmer in 1858 in his Sabbath Day Hymn Book. Bernard of Clairvaux also wrote the originals of SDAH 156, “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” and SDAH 241, “Jesus the Very Thought of Thee.” Palmer also wrote SDAH 517, “My Faith   Looks Up to Thee.

        Ray Palmer was born at Little Compton, Rhode Island, on November 12, 1808. He went to Boston and worked as a clerk in dry goods store and joined the Congregational Church. He spent 3 years at Phillip Academy in Andover before going to Yale University, where he graduated in 1830. After studying for the ministry, he was ordained in 1835, being appointed to the Central Congregational Church in Bath, Maine. In 1850 he was transferred to the First Congregational Church in Albany, New York, and in 1865 was appointed secretary of the American Congregational Union in New York City. He retired in 1878 to Newark, New Jersey, where he died on March 29, 1887.  He wrote several books on religious topics and doctrine, including Hymns and Sacred Pieces, 1865; Hymns of My Holy Hours, 1868; and Poetical Works, 1876.

ABENDS (At Evening) was composed in 1874 by Herbert Stanley Oakeley within a short space of half an hour; nit is so named because it was composed specially for the evening hymn “Sun of My Soul” (SDAH 502). Oakeley felt that the tune in use, HURSELEY, was inappropriate because it very closely resembled a popular German drinking song. Each one of the four parts of ABENDS is interesting, carrying a melody of its own, a somewhat rare occurrence in four-part hymnody. Oakeley was born in Ealing, Middlesex, on July 22,1830. He was professor of music at Edinburgh University from 1865-1891, and was knighted in 1876 for his outstanding services to church music. He died in Eastbourne, Sussex, on October 26, 1903.