Born: June 16, 1806, Wit­ley, God­alm­ing, Sur­rey, Eng­land.

Died: Ju­ly 1, 1876, Put­ney, Sur­rey, Eng­land.

Chandler was ed­u­cat­ed at Cor­pus Chris­ti Coll­ege, Ox­ford (BA 1827, MA 1830). He took Ho­ly Or­ders in 1831, and be­came Vi­car of Wit­ley in 1837. He was one of the ear­li­est and most suc­cess­ful trans­lat­ors of Lat­in hymns. His trans­la­tions arose out of a de­sire to see the an­cient pray­ers of the Anglican li­tur­gy ac­com­pa­nied by hymns of a cor­re­spond­ing date of com­po­si­tion. In the pre­face to his Hymns of the Primitive Church, he said:

My at­tention was a short time ago di­rect­ed to some trans­la­tions [by Isaac Will­iams] which ap­peared from time to time in the Bri­tish Mag­a­zine, ve­ry beau­ti­ful­ly ex­e­cut­ed, of some hymns ex­tract­ed from the Pa­ri­sian Brev­i­a­ry, which orig­in­als an­nexed. Some in­deed, of the Sap­phic and Al­caic and other Ho­ra­tian me­tres, seem to be of lit­tle val­ue; but the rest, of the pec­uli­ar hymn-me­tre, Di­me­ter Iam­bics, ap­pear an­cient, sim­ple, strik­ing, and de­vo­tion­al—in a word in ev­ery way like­ly to an­swer our pur­pose. So I got a c­opy of the Parisian Breviary, and one or two other old books of La­tin Hymns, es­pe­cial­ly one com­piled by Georg­i­us Cass­an­der, print­ed at Co­logne, in the year 1556, and reg­u­lar­ly ap­plied my­self to the work of se­lect­ion and trans­la­tion. The re­sult is the col­lect­ion I now lay be­fore the pub­lic.

Chandler’s works in­clude:

• Hymns of the Prim­i­tive Church, Now First Col­lect­ed, Trans­lat­ed, and Ar­ranged, 1837
• The Hymns of the Church, Most­ly Prim­i­tive, Col­lect­ed, Trans­lat­ed, and Ar­ranged for Pub­lic Use, 1841 (a re­pub­li­ca­tion and ex­pan­sion of his 1837 work)
• Sermons and Tracts
• Life of William of Wyke­ham, 1842
• Horae Sac­rae; Pray­ers and Med­i­ta­tions from the Writ­ings of the Di­vines of the Ang­li­can Church, with an In­tro­duct­ion, 1844

Sources

Hymns

1. Above the Clear Blue Sky

Translations

1. Advent of Our God, The
2. All Hail, Adored Trin­i­ty
3. As Now the Sun’s Declining Rays
4. At Length Cre­a­tion’s Days Are Past
   • Six Days of Labor Now Are Past
5. Christ Is Our Cor­ner­stone
6. Conquering Kings Their Titles Take
7. Fish in Wave, the Bird on Wing, The
8. In Stature Grows the Heav­en­ly Child
9. New Wonders of Thy Mighty Hand
10. Now, My Soul, Thy Voice Up­rais­ing
11. O Christ, Our Hope, Our Heart’s Desire
    • Jesu, Our Hope, Our Hearts’ Desire
12. O Christ, Who Hast Pre­pared a Place
13. O Christ! with Each Returning Morn
14. O Happy Day, When First Was Poured
15. O Ho­ly Spirit, Lord of Grace
16. O Jesus, Lord of Heav­en­ly Grace
17. O Lord, How Joy­ful ’Tis to See
18. O Scorned and Out­cast Lord
19. On Jordan’s Bank the Bap­tist’s Cry
20. Once More the Solemn Season Calls
21. Redeemer, Now Thy Work Is Done
    • O Savior, Who for Man Hast Trod
22. Ruler of the Hosts of Light
23. Sing We the Glory of Our God
24. Thou Great Creator, Art Pos­sessed
25. ’Tis for Con­quer­ing Kings to Gain
26. Today, O Lord, a Ho­li­er Work
27. What Star Is This, with Beams So Bright?