Ellen M H Gates was born in Conneticuit in 1835. She began writing poems and hymns which were published in various magazines and in her published books including Night, At Noontide, The Treasures of Kurium, and To the Unborn Peoples. Her hymn "your mission" has been sung by many people, inlcuding the group Philip Philips, The Singing Pilgrim, Philip H. Phillips and company, Cincinnati. Abraham Lincoln heard the Cincinnati randision, and it became one of his favourite hymns.