Come, blessed Spirit, source of light

Author: Benjamin Beddome

Benjamin Beddome was born at Henley-in Arden, Warwickshire, January 23, 1717. His father was a Baptist minister. He studied at various places, and began preaching in 1740. He was pastor of a Baptist society at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, until his death in 1795. In 1770, he received the degree of M.A. from the Baptist College in Providence, Rhode Island. He published several discourses and hymns. "His hymns, to the number of 830, were published in 1818, with a recommendation from Robert Hall." Montgomery speaks of him as a "writer worthy of honour both for the quantity and the quality of his hymns." --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

Come, blessed Spirit, Source of light. B. Beddome. [Holy Spirit.] This hymn is given in his Sermons, 1816, vol. iv., and in his (posthumous) Hymns, 1817, No. 136, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and in each instance it is undated. It is found in extensive use in American hymn-books in two forms; first the original, as in Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872 (where it is dated 1770); and 2nd changed from L.M. to S.M. in the Methodist Episcopal Hymns, 1849, “Come, Spirit, source of light." [William T. Brooke]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)