No. 572 Daily Mercies (S. M.)
This hymn, written by Benjamin Beddome, appears as No. 752 in Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, or Family Devotion: now First Published, from the Manuscripts of the late Rev. B. Beddome (London: Burton & Briggs, 1818). It is titled “Daily Mercies.” It recognizes God as the source of all our blessings. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). Recognizing that, the Christian ought to devote his lips to praise God, and his days to glorify God.
Benjamin Beddome was born at Henley-in Arden, Warwickshire in 1717. He was the son of a Baptist minister. The younger Beddome also became a Baptist preacher, beginning his ministry around 1740. He authored several discourses (including A Scriptural Exposition of the Baptist Catechism) in addition to his hymns – which number over 800. His hymns were written to complement his Lord’s Day morning sermons. Beddome died September 23, 1795 at Bourton-upon-the-Water, Cotswold District, Gloucestershire, England, and is buried there in the Baptist Churchyard.
Robert Hall, editor of the posthumous volume of hymns, writes of Benjamin Beddome:
“As a preacher, he was universally admitted for the piety and unction of his sentiments, the felicity of his arrangements, and the purity, force, and simplicity of his language; all which were recommended by a delivery perfectly natural and graceful.” (p. vi.)
Hymnwriter James Montgomery described Beddome’s hymns as “impressive, being for the most part brief and pithy. A single idea, always important, often striking, and sometimes ingeniously brought out, not with a mere point at the end, but with the terseness and simplicity of the Greek epigram,—constitutes the basis of each piece.”[i]
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