Indelible Grace Hymnbook

Born: Oc­to­ber 15, 1784, Wash­ing­ton, Con­nec­ti­cut.

Died: May 15, 1872, New York Ci­ty.

Buried: Green­wood Cem­e­tery, Brook­lyn, New York.

Son of a doc­tor, Hast­ings grew up as a farm boy, walk­ing six miles to school in the win­ter. He be­gan his ca­reer as a mu­sic teach­er. In 1823, he be­came ed­it­or of the West­ern Re­cord­er in Ut­i­ca, New York. From 1832 un­til his death, Hast­ings trained choirs and de­vel­oped re­li­gious mu­sic. He penned al­most 1,000 hymn tunes and 600 texts. His son, who be­came pres­i­dent of Un­ion The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary, said of him:

He was a de­vout and ear­nest Chris­tian, a hard stu­dent, and res­o­lute work­er, not lay­ing aside his pen un­til three days be­fore his death.

Hastings’ works in­clude:

Musica Sac­ra, 1816
The Mu­sic­al Taste, 1822
Spiritual Songs for So­cial Wor­ship (Uti­ca, New York: 1831-32), with Low­ell Ma­son
The Mo­ther’s Hymn-Book, 1834, en­larged 1850
The Chris­tian Psalm­ist (New York: 1836)
Devotional Hymns and Po­ems (New York: 1850)
Church Mel­o­dies (New York: 1858), as­sist­ed by his son

Source: The Cyber Hymnal