Born: Ju­ly 13, 1769, Kel­ly­ville, Strad­bal­ly, Queens Coun­ty, Ire­land.

Died: May 14, 1855, Dub­lin, Ire­land.

Buried: Near the Kel­ly fam­i­ly home at Kel­ly­ville, Bal­ly­ad­ams, Queens Coun­ty (now known as Coun­ty Laois).

Son of a judge, Kel­ly at­tend­ed Trin­i­ty Coll­ege (BA 1789) and planned to be a law­yer. Af­ter con­vert­ing to Christ, though, his ca­reer plans changed to the min­is­try. He be­came an Ang­li­can priest in 1792, but event­u­al­ly be­came one of the fa­mous “dis­sent­ing” min­is­ters. He wrote over 760 hymns. Mil­ler’s Sing­ers of the Church (1869) says of him:

Mr. Kelly was a man of great and var­ied learn­ing, skilled in the Or­i­ent­al tongues, and an ex­cel­lent Bi­ble cri­tic. He was pos­sessed al­so of mu­sic­al tal­ent, and com­posed and pub­lished a work that was re­ceived with fa­vour, con­sist­ing of mu­sic adapt­ed to ev­ery form of me­tre in his hymn-book. Na­tur­al­ly of an am­i­a­ble dis­po­si­tion and tho­rough in his Christ­ian pi­e­ty, Mr. Kel­ly be­came the friend of good men, and the ad­vo­cate of ev­ery worthy, be­ne­vo­lent, and re­li­gious cause. He was ad­mired alike for his zeal and his hu­mil­i­ty; and his lib­er­al­ity found am­ple scope in Ire­land, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the year of fam­ine.

Kelly’s works in­clude:

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Arise! Arise, with Joy Sur­vey
  2. Atoning Work Is Done, The
  3. Behold the Lamb with Glo­ry Crowned
  4. Behold the Man! How Glor­i­ous He
  5. Behold the Tem­ple of the Lord
  6. Blessèd Fount­ain, Full of Grace
  7. Boundless Glo­ry, Lord, Be Thine
  8. Brethren, Come, Our Sav­ior Bids Us
  9. By Whom Shall Ja­cob Now Arise?
  10. Come, O Lord, the Hea­vens Rend­ing
  11. Come, See the Place Where Je­sus Lay
  12. Come, Ye Saints, Look Here and Won­der
  13. Day of Rest Once More Comes Round, The
  14. Far from Us Be Grief and Sad­ness
  15. Fly, Ye Sea­sons
  16. From Egypt Late­ly Come
  17. Give Us Room That We May Dwell
  18. Glory, Glo­ry, Ev­er­last­ing
  19. Glory, Glo­ry, to Our King
  20. God Has Turned My Grief to Glad­ness
  21. God Is Love, His Word Has Said It
  22. God of Glo­ry Dwells on High, The
  23. God of Is­rael, We Adore Thee
  24. God of Our Sal­va­tion! Hear Us
  25. Grace Is the Sweet­est Sound
  26. Gracious Lord, My Heart Is Fixed
  27. Grant Us, Lord, Thy Gra­cious Pre­sence
  28. Happy Those Who Trust in Je­sus
  29. Hark, a Voice! It Comes from Hea­ven
  30. Hark, Ten Thou­sand Harps and Voic­es
  31. Hark, Ten Thou­sand Voic­es
  32. Hark, that Shout of Rap­turous Joy
  33. Hark! The Notes of An­gels Sing­ing
  34. Hark! ’Tis a Mar­tial Sound
  35. Head That Once Was Crowned, The
  36. He’s Gone! See Where His Bo­dy Lay
  37. How Plea­sant Is the Sound of Praise
  38. How Sweet to Leave the World Awhile
  39. I Hear a Sound That Comes from Far
  40. If Our War­fare Be La­bor­ious
  41. In Form I Long Had Bowed the Knee
  42. In Thy Name, O Lord, As­sem­bling
  43. It Is Fin­ished! Sinn­ers, Hear It
  44. Jesus, Im­mor­tal King, Go On
  45. Jesus Is Gone Up on High
  46. Jesus, the Shep­herd of the Sheep
  47. Joyful Be the Hours To­day
  48. Keep Us, Lord, O Keep Us Ev­er
  49. Let Reason Vain­ly Boast Her Pow­er
  50. Let Sin­ners Saved Give Thanks, and Sing
  51. Lo, He Comes, Let All Adore Him
  52. Look, Ye Saints! The Sight Is Glor­i­ous
  53. Lord, Be­hold Us, Few and Weak
  54. Lord Him­self Will Keep, The
  55. Lord Is Ris­en In­deed!, The
  56. Men of God, Go Take Your Stations
  57. Meet Thy Peo­ple, Sav­ior, Meet us
  58. Night Is Far Spent, The
  59. Nothing Know We of the Sea­son
  60. Now Let a Great Ef­fect­u­al Door
  61. Now May the Gos­pel’s Con­quer­ing Pow­er
  62. Now May the Mighty Arm Awake
  63. Now May the Spir­it from Above
  64. O Had I the Wings of a Dove
  65. O Where Is Now That Glow­ing Love
  66. O Zi­on, When I Think on Thee
  67. On the Mount­ain’s Top Ap­pear­ing
  68. Our Fa­ther Sits on Yon­der Throne
  69. Ours Is a Rich and Roy­al Feast
  70. People of the Lord Are on Their Way, The
  71. Precious Vol­ume, What Thou Doest
  72. Poor and Af­flict­ed, Lord, Are Thine
  73. Praise the Lord Who Died to Save Us
  74. Praise the Sav­ior, Ye Who Know Him
  75. Praise We Him to Whose Kind Fa­vor
  76. Salva­tion Is of God Alone
  77. Saved Our­selves by Je­sus’ Blood
  78. Savior, Come, Thy Friends Await Thee
  79. Savior, Send a Bless­ing to Us
  80. Savior, Through the De­sert Lead Us
  81. Savior, ’Tis to Thee
  82. See from Zi­on’s Sac­red Mount­ain
  83. See the Vine­yard Lat­ely Plant­ed
  84. See Where the Lord His Glo­ry Spreads
  85. Shepherd of the Chos­en Number
  86. Sing Aloud to God Our Strength
  87. Sing of Him Who Bore Our Guilt
  88. Sing of Je­sus, Sing For­ev­er
  89. Sing, Sing His Lof­ty Praise
  90. Sing We Praise to God Above
  91. Sons of Zi­on, Raise Your Songs
  92. Sound, Sound the Truth Abroad
  93. Spared a Lit­tle Long­er
  94. Speed Thy Serv­ants, Sav­ior
  95. Stricken, Smi­tten, and Af­flict­ed
  96. Sweet Were the Sounds That Reached Our Ears
  97. Thus Saith God of His Anoint­ed
  98. Through the Day Thy Love Has Spared Us
  99. ’Tis to Us No Cause of Sor­row
  100. To the Ark Away, or Perish
  101. To Our Lord a Throne is Giv­en
  102. Trust Ye in the Lord For­ev­er
  103. Unfold to Us, O Lord, Un­fold
  104. We Sing the Praise of Him Who Died
  105. Welcome Sight! The Lord De­scend­ing!
  106. We’ll Sing in Spite of Scorn
  107. We’ll Sing of the Shep­herd That Died
  108. We’re Bound for Yon­der Land
  109. We’ve No Abid­ing Ci­ty Here
  110. What Is Life? ’Tis but a Va­por
  111. What Tongue Can Tell, What Fan­cy Paint
  112. What Were Si­nai’s Aw­ful Won­ders
  113. When We Can­not See Our Way
  114. Whence Those Sounds Sym­phon­i­ous?
  115. While in the World We Still Re­main
  116. Who Is This That Calms the Ocean?
  117. Who Is This That Comes from Edom
  118. Why Those Fears? Be­hold, ’Tis Je­sus
  119. Without Blood Is No Re­miss­ion
  120. Yes, ’Tis a Rough and Thorny Road
  121. Yes, We Trust the Day Is Break­ing
  122. Zion Is Je­ho­vah’s Dwell­ing
  123. Zion Stands by Hills Sur­round­ed
  124. Zion’s King Shall Reign Vic­tor­i­ous