Unitedly agree:
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
They all submissive be.
2. They constantly engagèd be,
In what God doth allow;
But saints upon the highest key,
Will make the lowest bow.
3. They sing redeeming grace and love;
From what they feel and know,
Which angels, that high rank above,
Desire to look into.
Refrain:
O! what mysterious grace is this?
How should we it admire?
Which angels in the realms of bliss,
To view so much desire.
(I have not been able to find the original book, so have copied this as it has been reproduced in some hymnals. I suspect what is the refrain was originally just another stanza, changed to a refrain by a music composer.)
Thomas Nichols wrote “O! What Mysterious Grace Is This?” This hymn adores the mystery of the grace of God for sinners. The hymn being in common meter opens many possible tunes for setting it nicely.
Little is known of Nichols. He published Hymns and Anthems: Composed on Divine Subjects, Agreeable to Sacred Scripture, Inspected and approved by the Rev. Isaac Backus (Albany, NY: Charles R. & George Webster, 1793). According to David Music, this Thomas Nichols was affiliated with the New-Britain Baptist Church in Rensselaer County, New York (see also The Universal Register of the Baptist denomination in North America, 1790-1794). Music further states that the book contains “206 hymns and thirty-two anthems” which “appear to be entirely original.” The book contained a recommendation by Isaac Backus.
It is probable that this Thomas Nichols is the same Thomas Nichols who lived at Stephen Town (Stephentown), Albany County, New York in the 1790 U. S. Census. Rensselaer County would be created from Albany County in 1791. In 1796, the Thomas Nichols who compiled Hymns and Anthems published “A Discourse on Poverty & Riches, in a Medium of Gospel Doctrine.” The fact that no address was given for ordering, but that it was available for purchase at the office of the Vermont Gazette (in Bennington, Vermont) suggests that the author probably lived in that general area. Bennington is in a neighboring county of Rensselaer County, New York and is roughly 30 miles from Stephentown, New York.
Lots of ifs are used in trying to identify this Baptist preacher and hymn book compiler. Some genealogists have a Thomas Nichols who was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island in 1723 and died in 1798 in Vermont (however, I believe the 1798 death in Vermont is confused with a different Thomas Nichols who came from Rhode Island). The birth in East Greenwich agrees with Isaac Backus’s note in his diary in 1791, “…Feb…The 15th, old Mr. Thomas Nichols, of Eastgreenwich, came here, and got me to examine and recommend a Hymn-book which he had composed, in an evangelical strain. He went away the 17th.” (Backus would only have to have been referencing where he was originally from, not where he currently lived in 1791.)
1 comment:
Thank you for your research!
E. T. Chapman
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