Of Mo­ra­vi­an roots, Seiss stu­died for the min­is­try at Get­tys­burg Coll­ege and Sem­in­a­ry, Penn­syl­vani­a, and was or­dained a Lu­ther­an pas­tor in 1848. Af­ter serv­ing con­gre­ga­tions in Vir­gin­ia and Ma­ry­land, he moved to St. John’s Lu­ther­an Church in Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia; in 1874, he be­came pas­tor of the Church of the Ho­ly Com­mun­ion in Phil­a­del­phia. He al­so served as pre­si­dent of the Penn­syl­van­ia Min­is­ter­i­um and the Gen­er­al Coun­cil. His works in­clude:

• The Last Times, 1856
• The Evan­gel­i­cal Psalm­ist, 1859
• The As­sas­sin­a­tion of a Pre­si­dent, 1865
• Ecclesia Lu­ther­a­na, 1868
• Lectures on the Gos­pels, 1868-72
• Lectures on the Epis­tle to the He­brews

• Hustad, pp. 315-6
• Julian, pp. 325, 1016
• Stulken, p. 518

1. Fairest Lord Je­sus
2. O Son of God, We Wait for Thee
3. Winter Reigns o’er Ma­ny a Region