An en­grav­er, Burder fol­lowed Meth­odist George White­field for a while, then be­came pas­tor of a Con­gre­ga­tion­al church in Lan­ca­shire. His ser­vices were of­ten inter­rupted; in Pres­ton there was a the­a­tre in the same build­ing, and once Romeo—in full cos­tume—burst in and de­mand­ed that the ser­vice stop. He lat­er moved to Cov­en­try, War­wick­shire, and found­ed the ci­ty’s first Sun­day School (1785); one of the first pu­pils was John Ea­gle­ton, lat­er a preach­er and church mu­sic com­pos­er.

Bur­der lived in Lon­don the last 30 years of his life, pas­tor­ing at Fet­ter Lane. He helped found the Re­li­gious Tract So­ci­e­ty (1799) and the Brit­ish and For­eign Bi­ble So­ci­e­ty, and served as Sec­re­ta­ry of the Lon­don Mis­sion­ary So­ci­e­ty. His works in­clude:

• Collection of Hymns from Various Authors, Intended as a Supplement to Dr. Watts, 1784

Sources

Hymns

1. Come, Desire of Nations, Come
2. Come Ye that Know and Fear the Lord
3. Sweet the Time, Exceeding Great
   • Great the Joy When Christians Meet

Music

1. Luton