| Birth Name: | Eliza Fanny Goffe |
| Birth Date: | 1821 |
| Birth Place: | London |
| Death Date: | 1874 |
| Death Place: | Malvern Link, Worcestershire, England |
| Resting Place: | St Mathias Church |
| Occupation: | hymnwriter |
| Genre: | 19th-century British hymnody |
| Notable Works: | "God of pity, God of grace" ("The Prayer in the Temple") |
| Awards: | prize, Band of Hope |
Eliza F. Morris (Goffe; 1821–1874) was a 19th-century English hymnwriter.[1] She wrote several hymns, but the one in more general use than the others begins "God of pity, God of grace". [2] Written on 4 September 1857, it was named "The Prayer in the Temple". The reference is to the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, 2 Chronicles 6, and almost his very words are used in the refrain at the end of each stanza. It was published in 1858 in The Voice and the Reply, Part II.[3]
Eliza Fanny Goffe was born in London at 10 Primrose Street, Bishopgate Street, in 1821. Her parents were Timothy Goffe (d. 1842), a tailor, and Elizabeth Jane (Judd) (b. 1797). Eliza's siblings included William, Frederick, Annie, William, Clara, Henry, and Elizabeth.[4] Owing to delicate health, she was brought up in the country,[5] the family having moved to Banbury, Oxfordshire.[6]
In Banbury, in 1849, she married Josiah Joseph Morris (1821-1883), an assistant editor of a provincial paper.
She received a prize from the Band of Hope for a poem on "Kindness to Animals." This recognition of ability encouraged her to continue writing.
In 1858, Morris published a volume called, The Voice and the Reply (Worcester, 1858). The pieces in this volume are easy in versification, and religious in sentiment. The volume is in two parts. The first part consists of 18 pieces and gives "expression to God's utterances, whether in the still small voice of conscience, or in invitation, warning, or pity." The second part consists of 68 pieces and expresses a person's reply, and it is to this portion of the poem that the notable hymn, "The Prayer in the Temple", was included. "God of pity, God of grace." is found in the second part, entitled "The Prayer in the Temple". In the New Congregational, one verse of this is omitted, and another is changed in position. Of the hymn, Morris said:-
In 1866, Morris published Life lyrics, consisting of pieces on secular subjects treated religiously. She edited a Bible Class Hymn Book, which gained the approval of the Sunday School Union. She also wrote the words to School Harmonies, by J. Morris, published by her husband.[7] She contributed to periodicals.
In Julian's A Dictionary of Hymnology, Rev. William Garrett Horder includes the following hymns by Morris as being in common use during her era:[8]
Eliza Fanny Goffe Morris died in 1874 and Malvern Link, Worcestershire, and was buried in that town's St Mathias Church.[9]
Two years after his wife's death, Mr. Morris wrote and edited The life and poems of Eliza F. Morris (1876). The volume contains, in addition to biographical notes and correspondence, a selection of Mrs. Morris's poems and hymns, never before published.[10]