‘Lived faithfully a hidden life’

As we noted in last month’s column, Benjamin Beddome, the 18th-century Baptist pastor, was in the habit of preparing a hymn to be sung at the close of the morning worship service, which would pick up the theme of his sermon.

Given this sermonic link of the vast majority of Beddome’s hymns it is not surprising to find that many of them are strongly doctrinal.

‘God in Christ Jesus’ is a good example.

In the dear person of his Son,
The Father stands revealed;
And he who truly knows the one,
The other has beheld.

In Christ as in a glass we see,
Unawed and undismayed,
The glories of the Deity,
Transcendantly displayed.

Here mingled beams of truth and grace
In all their beauty shine;
Angels and saints enraptured trace
The vision so divine.

This admirable clarity of doctrinal expression is never divorced, though, from an experiential focus. In ‘View of Christ’s Sufferings’, for instance, both are obvious.

Jesus, when faith with fixed eyes
Beholds thy wond’rous sacrifice,
Love rises to an ardent flame,
And we all other hope disclaim.

With cold affections who can see
The thorns, the scourge, the nails, the tree;
Thy flowing tears and dewy sweat,
Thy bleeding hands, and head, and feet?

Look saints, by faith, and view his side,
The breach how large, how deep, how wide!
Thence issues forth a double flood,
Of cleansing water, pardoning blood. …

Thus could I ever, ever sing
The sufferings of my Lord and King;
With growing pleasure spread abroad
The mysteries of a dying God.

The second stanza seems very indebted to a hymn like Isaac Watts’ ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross’, in which the so-called Father of English Hymnody urges the singer of this hymn to

See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down…

The impact of Beddome’s hymns

Among the few of Beddome’s hymns still being sung today is the one which begins ‘Father of mercies, bow Thine ear’. It is a prayer for those called to the preaching of God’s word.

Father of mercies, bow Thine ear,
Attentive to our earnest prayer;
We plead for those who plead for Thee,
Successful pleaders may they be!

Clothe, Thou, with energy divine,
Their words, and let those words be Thine;
To them Thy sacred Truth reveal;
Suppress their fear, enflame their zeal.

Teach them aright to sow the seed,
Teach them Thy chosen flock to feed;
Teach them immortal souls to gain,
Nor let them labour, Lord, in vain.

Let thronging multitudes around
Hear from their lips the joyful sound,
In humble strains Thy grace adore,
And feel Thy new-creating power.

Let sinners break their massy chains,
Distressed souls forget their pains;
Let light thro’ distant realms be spread,
Till Zion rears her drooping head.

The second to last line of this hymn – ‘Let light thro’ distant realms be spread’ – was a challenge to far too many Baptists of Beddome’s day, who were inward-looking, concerned primarily with the preservation of their own church heritage, and somewhat lukewarm when it came to evangelism.

In the final two decades of the 18th century, however, this situation radically changed. There was an influx of fresh life that transformed many of their churches and made them outward-looking and vitally involved in vigorous evangelism at home and abroad.

The story of this reviving has been told elsewhere, but there is little doubt that Beddome had a hand in it. The example of his faithful ministry, which sought to pass on the lineaments of orthodox Christianity, his encouragement of younger men, his evangelical catholicity – he was not afraid to associate with men like Whitefield when a good number of his contemporaries had grave doubts about the Anglican evangelist – and his hymns all helped to clear away stumbling-blocks in the pathway of revival.

Consider for a moment the influence of his hymnody.

‘Let light thro’ distant realms be spread’

As Beddome’s fellow Baptists sang stanzas like the final one in the hymn that we have been briefly considering, ‘Father of mercies, bow thine ear’, their hearts would have been drawn to reflect on the need of their churches to be engaged more fully in evangelism. In particular, the line ‘Let light thro’ distant realms be spread’ would have been a great rebuke to the parochialism of many Baptist congregations.

Another hymn, reflecting on the fact that the British people had in their possession the Scriptures, God’s divine revelation, is just as pointed:

Ye British Isles, who have this word,
Ye saints who feel its saving power,
Your efforts join with one accord,
To send it forth to every shore.

Equally direct and terse are these lines from two other hymns:

Lord, send thy truth to every land,
Let pagans feel its mighty power.

Let Europe’s sons to India’s shores
This sacred volume send.

Thus, Beddome’s life and hymnody played their own small part in the revival of the Baptist community to which he devoted his ministry. It was very much a ministry between the times – those times of Baptist advance in the 17th century and those of revival in the final couple of decades of the 18th century.

Nevertheless, his life and ministry are an eloquent example of the truth of those concluding lines in George Eliot’s Middlemarch: ‘That things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs’.