William was the son of W. Gros­er (for ma­ny years the Sec­re­ta­ry of the Lon­don Sun­day School Un­ion). He was ed­u­cat­ed at Un­i­ver­si­ty Coll­ege, Lon­don, and grad­u­at­ed BSC at Lon­don Un­i­ver­si­ty in 1862. Though pri­mar­i­ly a bus­i­ness­man, he de­vot­ed con­sid­er­a­ble time to sci­en­tif­ic pur­suits and Christ­ian work, es­pe­cial­ly in con­nect­ion with Sun­day schools. For twelve years he ed­it­ed the Bi­ble Class and Youth’s Mag­a­zine, and lat­er the Sun­day School Teach­er and the Ex­cel­si­or. His works in­clude:

• Songs by the Way. A Hymn­al for Young Christ­ians and En­quir­ers (Sun­day School Un­ion: 1875) (ed­it­or)

Sources

Hymns

1. Blest Savior, Who in Days of Old
2. Borne upon Time’s Noiseless Wing
3. Great Lord of Earth and Time
4. Hear, Lord, Our Parting Hymn
5. How Bright the Morn­ing Broke
6. I Know Not What This Week May Bring
7. In the Name of Jesus, We Each Other Greet
8. Lord Is Our Shepherd, The
9. O Happy they Who Know the Lord
10. O’er the Waters, Dark and Drear
11. Song of Spring Once More We Sing, A
12. Sunny Days of Childhood
13. Swift as an Eagle’s Flight
14. We Bless Thee for Thy Will Made Known
15. World in Which We Live and Move, the