Gift of God

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Jesus my love, my chief delight

Author: Benjamin Beddome (1787)
Published in 54 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Jesus, my love, my chief delight,
For thee I long, for thee I pray,
Amid the shadows of the night,
Amid the business of the day.

2 When shall I see thy smiling face,
That face which I have often seen?
Arise, thou Sun of Righteousness,
Scatter the clouds that intervene.

3 Thou art the glorious Gift of God
To sinners weary and distressed;
The first of all his gifts bestowed,
And certain pledge of all the rest.

4 Since I can say this gift of mine,
I'll tread the world beneath my feet,
No more at poverty repine,
Nor envy the rich sinner's state.

5 The precious jewel I will keep,
And lodge it deep within my heart;
At home, abroad, awake, asleep,
It never shall from thence depart.

Source: The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book: for use in divine worship #102

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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:	Jesus my love, my chief delight
Title:	Gift of God
Author:	Benjamin Beddome (1787)
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Source:	John Rippon, A Selection of Hymns, 1787; Appeared posthumously in Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (London: Burton and Briggs,1818)
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Jesus, my Love, my chief delight. B. Beddome. [Jesus, the Gift of God.] Published in Rippon's Selection, 1787, No. 171, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. In Beddome's Hymns, 1817, No. 96, it is given as "Jesus, my Lord, my chief delight." This form is in the Hymns & Songs of Praise, N. Y., 1874.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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Tune

GRATITUDE (Bost)

FEDERAL STREET

Henry Kemble Oliver (b. Beverly, MA, 1800; d. Salem, MA, 1885) composed FEDERAL STREET in 1832, possibly as an imitation of earlier psalm tunes in long meter. He took it to a music class taught by Lowell Mason (who may have contributed to the harmony); Mason (PHH 96) published it in his Boston Acade…

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