As a young man, Par­ker worked with his fa­ther as a farm­er and me­chan­ic. He en­tered Har­vard Coll­ege in 1820, but con­tin­ued work­ing at home. He at­tend­ed Har­vard Di­vin­i­ty School (1834-1836), then be­came a Un­i­tar­i­an min­is­ter. He be­gan pas­tor­ing in West Rox­bury, Mass­a­chu­setts, in 1837. He re­ceived his mas­ter’s de­gree from Har­vard in 1840, and moved to a church in Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts, in 1846. He con­tin­ued his writ­ing, preach­ing, and lec­tur­ing un­til 1859, when bleed­ing in the lungs (tu­ber­cu­lo­sis?) com­pelled him to seek rel­ief in Eu­rope. The ef­fort was un­suc­cess­ful, though, as he died in Ita­ly.

Sources

Hymns

1. In Darker Days and Nights of Storm
2. O Thou Great Friend