Lead by example

A hymn by Thomas Nichols, No. 856 in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

1. We, who the blessed gospel preach,
Should by example also teach;
By good example sin reprove, 
And ev’ry stumbling block remove.

2. O! may we by our lives express
The same religion we profess;
O! let us not our selves deceive,
Nor hinder those that would believe.

3. O! how shall we account for those,
Who, by us, to destruction go;
Whom we have not reproved for sin,
But rather joined with them therein.

4. O! let us by no means intrude
On men, by such ingratitude;
But flee from sin, to God confess,
And pray him to forgive and bless.

5. We are the instrumental means
And cause of the most awful scenes;
If we God’s holy ways refuse,
And his most precious cause abuse.

Little is known of Thomas Nichols, the author of the above hymn. 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). 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). David Music 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.

This Thomas Nichols is probably the same Thomas Nichols who lived at Stephen Town (Stephentown) Albany County, New York, as recorded 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 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. 

Some genealogists have Thomas Nichols 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 also 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.)

Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs pairs this hymn with Earl, an anonymous tune found in The Silver Chime of 1862, by George F. Root.