Time is winging us away

Author: John Burton

Burton, John, born 1773, in Nottingham, where he resided until 1813, when he removed to Leicester, at which town he died in 1822. He was a Baptist, a very earnest Sunday School teacher, and one of the compilers of the Nottingham Sunday School Union Hymn Book, 1812. This book reached the 20th edition in 1861. The 1st edition contains 43 hymns which have his signature. He is known almost exclusively by one hymn, "Holy Bible, book divine" (q.v.). He was also author of The Youth's Monitor, and other similar productions for the young. Robert Hall wrote a recommendatory preface to one of his works. [Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M. A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)  Go to person page >

Time is winging us away. J. Burton, sen. [New Year.] Published in Hymns for the Use of Sunday Schools selected from Various Authors, Nottingham, J. Dunn, 1812, No. 305, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines, and entitled "Brevity of Life." It has passed into a very large number of hymn-books in Great Britain and America. Of Burton's hymns it ranks next to his "Holy Bible, book divine," in popularity.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)