Faith Its Author and Preciousness

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Faith is a precious grace

Author: Benjamin Beddome (1769)
Tune: SILVER STREET
Published in 105 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	Easy Organ Library, Vol. 47

Representative Text

1 Faith! ’tis a precious grace,
Where’er it is bestowed;
It boasts of a celestial birth,
And is the gift of God.

2 Jesus it owns a King,
An all-atoning Priest;
It claims no merits of its own,
But looks for all in Christ.

3 To him it leads the soul,
When filled with deep distress;
Flies to the fountain of his blood,
And trusts his righteousness.

4 Since ’tis thy work alone,
And that divinely free,
Come, Holy Spirit, and make known
The power of faith in me.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #225

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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 >

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First Line:	Faith is a precious grace
Title:	Faith Its Author and Preciousness
Author:	Benjamin Beddome (1769)
Meter:	6.6.8.6
Source:	John Ash and Caleb Evans, A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, 1769
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Faith, 'tis a precious gift. B. Beddome. [Faith described.] Of this popular hymn various forms are in common use both in Great Britain and America as follows:—
1. The original, which was given in the Bristol Baptist Collection of Ash & Evans, 1769, No. 232, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. This was repeated in Rippon's Selection, 1787, and later editions, and several modern hymn-books.
2. The text as in R. Hall's posthumous edition of Beddome's Hymns, 1817, No. 165, where after stanza ii. alterations are introduced, and another stanza (iv.) is added. This text is given in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858.
3. "Faith is a precious gift." This is an altered form of the hymn, in Dr. Alexander's Augustine Hymn Book, 1849-65, partly from the 1769, and partly from the 1817 texts; and in the American Baptist Praise Book, 1871, from the 1769 text.
4. "Faith is the gift of God," in Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory, 1872, is an alteration of the 1817 text in 5 stanzas.
Taken in its various forms this hymn is very extensively used.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

SILVER STREET

Although this tune is widely attributed to Isaac Smith and was published in Smiths Collection of Psalm Tunes, London, ca. 1780, Smith does not claim to be the composer. The tune also appeared in other books of similar or earlier date. Southern Harmony, 1835 attributes the tune to J. Street. - From T…

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