“The Excellency of the Holy Scriptures,” written by Anne Steele, appeared in her Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional: In Two Volumes (London: J. Buckland and J. Ward, 1760). Her poetry was initially published under the pen name “Theodosia.”
Anne Steele was born in 1716. Her father William Steele was a timber merchant and pastor of the Particular Baptist congregation at Broughton in Hampshire for 60 years. She united with the Broughton Church by experience and baptism when she was 14. In life she was long afflicted with the pains and suffering of poor health, writing many beautiful hymns out of her grief. In this hymn she captures the assorted “excellency” of God’s Holy Scriptures. The hymn is written in common meter, originally containing 12 stanzas. Most hymnals reduce that number to four or five. However, Melody Publications’ 2020 Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs reproduces all twelve – paired with the tune Tallis. Other hymns with which the hymn is sung include Azmon, Beatitudo, and Titley Abbey – but it might be sung with a good common meter tune with which you are more familiar.
Anne wrote nearly 150 hymns, as well as producing several metrical verses of psalms. She was the first woman hymn writer whose hymns came into wide use in hymnbooks in England and America. Anne Steele died November 11, 1778, and is buried at St. Mary Churchyard, Broughton, Hampshire, England. J. R. Broome tells her story in A Bruised Reed: The Life and Times of Anne Steele.
What endless glory shines!
Forever be thy Name adored
For these celestial lines.
2. Here, mines of heavenly wealth disclose
Their bright, unbounded store:
The glittering gem no longer glows,
And India boasts no more.
3. Here, may the wretched sons of want
Exhaustless riches find:
Riches, above what earth can grant,
And lasting as the mind.
4. Here, the fair tree of knowledge grows
And yields a free repast
Sublimer sweets than nature knows
Invite the longing taste.
5. Here may the blind and hungry come,
And light, and food receive;
Here, shall the meanest guest have room,
And taste, and see, and live.
6. Amidst these gloomy wilds below,
When dark and sad we stray;
Here, beams of heaven relieve our woe,
And guide to endless day.
7. Here, springs of consolation rise,
To cheer the fainting mind;
And thirsty souls receive supplies,
And sweet refreshment find.
8. When guilt and terror, pain and grief,
United rend the heart,
Here, sinners meet divine relief,
And cool the raging smart.
9. Here the Redeemer's welcome voice
Spreads heavenly peace around
And life and everlasting joys
Attend the blissful sound.
10. But when his painful sufferings rise,
(Delightful, dreadful scene!)
Angels may read with wondering eyes
That Jesus died for men.
11. Oh may these heavenly pages be
My ever dear delight,
And still new beauties may I see,
And still increasing light.
12. Divine Instructor, gracious Lord,
Be thou forever near;
Teach me to love thy sacred word,
And view my Saviour there.
In a letter to her “dear and honoured father” William Steele, his “ever dutiful and grateful daughter” Anne Steele wrote:
“As many of these verses have been favoured with your approbation, I have now at your desire collected them into a little book ... They may, perhaps, find seasons when the thoughts of the unworthy writer may suit their own, and the resemblance produce delight. If while I am sleeping in the silent grave my thoughts are of any real benefit to the meanest of the servants of God, be the praise ascribed to the Almighty Giver of all grace.”
On November 29, 1757, William Steele penned in his diary, “This day Nanny sent a part of her composition to London to be printed. I entreat a gracious God, who enabled and stirred her up to such a work, to direct in it, and bless it for the good and comfort of many.”
Anne Steele sleeps in her grave, but her thoughts preserved in her hymns still provide benefit, to the glory of God. Anne replied with the following lines to a lady who had written to relay how much she had been blessed by Anne’s poetry:
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