Edmund Sears

Edmund Hamilton Sears (April 6, 1810 – January 14, 1876) was an American Unitarian parish minister and author who wrote a number of theological works influencing 19th-century liberal Protestants.

Born on April 6, 1810, the youngest of three sons of Joseph and Lucy (Smith) Sears, Edmund grew up on a farm within sight of the Berkshire Hills, in Sandisfield, Massachusetts.

He attended Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1837 and began to preach as a missionary in Toledo, Ohio, remaining nearly a year.

[2] In addition to the above noted hymn, Sears authored the following publications: Fire-side Colloquies (1847); Regeneration (1853); Calm on the Listening Ear of Night; Pictures of the Olden Time (1857); Athanasia (1858); and Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life (1875).

"[1] On Sunday, June 16, 1856, Sears delivered a sermon entitled "Discourse" which not only condemned chattel slavery as evil, but also the slaveholders whom he called the "slave power".