Nathan S. S. Beman

Beman, Nathan Sidney Smith, D.D., was born at Canaan, Columbia Co., N. Y., Nov. 27, 1785; and graduated at Middleburg College, Vermont, 1807. He was a Congregational Pastor at Portland, Maine, 1810-12; Minister in Georgia, 1812-22; and Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y., 1823-63. He died at Carbondale, Illinois, Aug. 8, 1871. He edited Sacred Lyrics, Troy, 1832, and an enlarged collection under the same title, 1841. The latter was adopted by the New School Presbyterian General Assembly as the Church Psalmist, 1847. Dr. Beman is known in hymnody mainly through his three hymns which are in common use:—
1. Jesus, we bow before Thy throne. Missions. This appeared in Dr. Hastings's Spiritual Songs, 1831, No. 174, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines.
2. Jesus, I come to Thee. Submission to Christ.
3. Hark, the judgment trumpet sounding. Judgment.
The last two were first published in his Sacred Lyrics, 1832, and all are given in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872. Dr. Beman's hymns are unknown to English collections. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)