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

Ju­ly 1, 1876, Put­ney, Sur­rey, Eng­land.

Son of the Vicar of Wit­ley, 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

• Hatfield, p. 145
• Julian, p. 217
• Robinson, p. 6
• Stulken, pp. 120-1
• Telford, pp. 360-1

1. Above the Clear Blue Sky

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. Great God, Who, Hid from Mor­tal Sight
9. In Stature Grows the Hea­ven­ly Child
10. New Won­ders of Thy Mighty Hand
11. Now, My Soul, Thy Voice Up­rais­ing
12. O Christ, Our Hope, Our Heart’s De­sire
    • Jesu, Our Hope, Our Hearts’ De­sire
13. O Christ, Who Hast Pre­pared a Place
14. O Christ! with Each Re­turn­ing Morn
15. O Hap­py Day, When First Was Poured
16. O Ho­ly Spir­it, Lord of Grace
17. O Je­sus, Lord of Hea­ven­ly Grace
18. O Lord, How Joy­ful ’Tis to See
19. O Scorned and Out­cast Lord
20. On Jor­dan’s Bank the Bap­tist’s Cry
21. Once More the Sol­emn Sea­son Calls
22. Redeemer, Now Thy Work Is Done
    • O Sav­ior, Who for Man Hast Trod
23. Ruler of the Hosts of Light
24. Sing We the Glo­ry of Our God
25. Thou Great Cre­at­or, Art Pos­sessed
26. ’Tis for Con­quer­ing Kings to Gain
27. Today, O Lord, a Ho­li­er Work
28. What Star Is This, with Beams So Bright?