Beset with snares on every hand

Mary’s Choice of the Better Part

1. Beset with snares on every hand,
In life’s uncertain path I stand:
Saviour divine! diffuse thy light,
To guide my doubtful footsteps right.

2. Engage this roving treacherous heart
Wisely to choose the better part; [orig. To fix on Mary’s better part]
To scorn the trifles of a day,
For joys that none can take away.

3. Then let the wildest storms arise;
Let tempests mingle earth and skies:
No fatal shipwreck shall I fear,
But all my treasures with me bear.

4. If thou, my Jesus, still be nigh,
Cheerful I live, and joyful die:
Secure, when mortal comforts flee,
To find ten thousand worlds in thee.

Philip Doddridge authored this hymn, which was published posthumously in 1755 in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, by Job Orton (J. Eddowes and J. Cotton, 1755).

According to John Julian (A Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 138),

“Beset with snares on every hand. P. Doddridge. [Mary’s choice.] This hymn is not in the d. mss. [Doddridge Manuscript]. It was 1st published by J. Orton in the posthumous ed. of Doddridge’s Hymns, 1755. No. 207, in 4 st. of 4 l., and headed ‘Mary’s Choice of the Better Part;’ and again in J. D. Humphreys’s ed. of the same, 1839. Although used but sparingly in the hymnals in G. Britain, in America it is found in many of the leading collections, and especially in those belonging to the Unitarians. The [translation]—‘In vitae dubio tramite transeo,’ in Bingham’s Hymno. Christ. Lat. [Hymnologia Christiana Latina], 1871, p. 109—is made from an altered text in Bickersteth’s Christian Psalmody, 1833.”

The hymn (found with names such as, “Beset with snares on every hand,” “Choosing the Better Part,” “Mary’s Choice,” and “Mary’s Choice of the Better Part”), in Long Meter, is often set with Hebron by Lowell Mason. Some beloved hymns by Doddridge are “Grace ’tis a charming sound,” “Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes,” “O God of Bethel, by Whose hand,” and “O happy day, that fixed my choice.”

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) was an English Nonconformist minister and hymnwriter. In addition to his hymns, his published works include The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, The Family Expositor, Three Sermons on the Evidences of the Gospel, Ten Sermons on the Power and Grace of Christ, and A Dissertation on the Inspiration of the New Testament. Doddridge died October 26, 1751, at age 49 while in Lisbon Portugal. He was buried at the British Cemetery there.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 25, 1752, p. 1

(The October 14 death date is in error.)