eHymns.org

Born: January 21, 1802, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.

Died: August 17, 1854, Cuttack, Orissa, India.

The Baptist Foreign Missionary Society sent Sutton to India in 1825. He was stationed at Cuttack, in Orissa Province, where he compiled an Oriya dictionary, and translated a number of English texts into Oriya. He also prepared the first Oriya hymnal, 179 of the hymns being his own original work. The American College of Waterville awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree.

Sources

* Julian, p. 1104

Lyrics

1. Hail! Sweetest, Dearest Tie That Binds
2. Macedonian Cry, The

Source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/s/u/t/sutton_a.htm

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THE well-known hymn,— "Hail, sweetest, dearest tie that binds!" was written by the truly excellent and learned Dr. Sutton, who died after many years of successful missionary labor at Orissa, India. He was of very humble origin, and in early life was distinguished for gnorance and profanity. Changed by the grace of God, he attached himself to a General Baptist Church in London, and, after due preparation, engaged in missionary labors.
He more than once visited this country, and deeply interested the Free-Will Baptists in the cause to which he had devoted his life. For his second wife he married an American lady. However beautiful the hymn to which we have alluded, its full excellence could only be realized by those who heard it read and sung by its author, who not unfrequently closed the public meetings he attended by leading in its use. At one of these meetings, at the close of an ordination in which we were engaged with him, in 1834, in the English metropolis, we heard it for the first time; nor do we expect, if by sovereign mercy we reach the heavenly world, to lose the still cherished feelings which it then excited.

Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=kP4W9OLupzsC&pg=PA241&lpg=PA241&dq=Sutton+%22Hail,+sweetest,+dearest+tie+that+binds%22&source=web&ots=8vNsC4-yer&sig=DaVP_28hVxL0PUVupo7TUhD4Asc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA241,M1