His ninth hymn, The Church’s One Foundation, focused on the great, universal Church, made up of believers in local churches all around the world.

But while the worldwide church was on Stone’s mind, a small cemetery chapel was on his heart.

As curate of the Windsor parish, Stone also oversaw a little chapel near the cemetery on the edge of town. The poor people of the Spital district gathered there because, unlike the larger churches, the pews were free. That’s right—at the time, it was common for churchgoers to rent their pews, shutting out families who couldn’t afford the cost. Until the Church of England addressed the practice, this humble chapel became a refuge for those otherwise left out of worship.

Stone loved these people deeply. He even used his own money to make their chapel warmer and more welcoming—adding a stove and chimney for heat, kneeling cushions for prayer, and other comforts for the villagers who came to worship.

So when Samuel Stone wrote his most famous hymn, The Church’s One Foundation, he was thinking of the one Church that spans the globe as well as a village chapel that offered free pews to the poor.