Born: September 10, 1791, Wapping, Middlesex, England.
Died: January 7, 1867, Homerton, Hackney, Middlesex, England.
Edmeston was an architect and surveyor by profession. He served as the church warden at St. Barnabas, Homerton. He strongly supported the London Orphan Asylum, and visited there frequently.
It is said he wrote 2,000 hymns, one each Sunday.
Millions of feet entraversed here,
Where are their parted spirits?
Each in a dark or glorious sphere
His own reward inherits:
Where they have fled we soon shall fly,
And join them in eternity.
The crowds who earth’s arena tread,
Each busy in his station,
Are few, compared with all the dead
Of every age and nation:
The world of life counts millions o’er,
That of the dead hath many more.
It is a solemn thought that we,
Life’s little journey rounded,
Must launch upon that endless sea,
Which shore hath never bounded:
A sea of happiness and love,
Or gulphs below and clouds above.
A holy Judge, a righteous doom,
A bar where none dissemble;
A short quick passage to the tomb—
How should we stop and tremble!
Great God! as years pass swiftly by,
Write on each heart, Thou—thou must die!
James Edmeston
Sacred Poetry, 1848
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