Burrage on Beddome

We have never included this piece by Henry Burrage before

For fifty two years Benjamin Beddome was the beloved pastor of the Baptist church at Bourton on the Water in the eastern part of Gloucestershire. He was born at Henley in Arden a market town near Warwick January 23 1717. In 1724 his father Rev John Beddome removed to Bristol where he became a co pastor of the Pithay Baptist church. Here Benjamin Beddome spent his youth and in due time he was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary. His conversion occurred in connection with a sermon which was preached August 7 1737 by Rev Mr Ware in his father's church at Bristol from the text Luke xv 7 Likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth etc. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he entered upon a course of study preparatory to the work of the Christian ministry first under Mr Bernard Foskett then tutor in the Baptist Academy Bristol and afterward at the Independent Academy in London under the learned Rev John Eames. He was baptized in London September 27 1739 by Rev Samuel Wilson and united with the Baptist church in Goodman's Fields. By this church he was called to preach. The church in Bourton was at that time pastorless and Mr Beddome was invited to supply the pulpit. His labours were acceptable and he preached both at Bourton and Warwick. At length in answer to repeated solicitations he accepted the pastorate of the church at Bourton and he was ordained September 23 1743. Dr Joseph Stennett preached the sermon from the text Obey them that have the rule over you etc Heb xiii 17. December 27 1749 he married Elizabeth Boswell a daughter of one of his deacons. Some lines composed by Mr Beddome about the year 1742 were happily prophetic:

Lord in my soul implant thy fear

Let faith and hope and love be there

Preserve me from prevailing vice

When Satan tempts or lusts entice

Of friendship's sweets may I partake

Nor be forsaken nor forsake

Let moderate plenty crown my board

And God for all be still adored

Let the companion of my youth

Be one of innocence and truth

Let modest charms adorn her face 

And give her thy superior grace

By heavenly art first make her thine

Then make her willing to be mine

My dwelling place let Bourton be

There let me live and live to thee.

By his faithful ministrations Mr Beddome greatly endeared himself to his people. After the death of Rev Samuel Wilson Mr Beddome was invited to become Mr Wilson's successor. Call after call was sent to him and declined. At length so importunate were the brethren in London that Mr Beddome asked the people to make the decision for him. They sent a prompt refusal to London and Mr Beddome remained at Bourton until his death.

He seems to have exercised his poetical gift through out his ministry. It was his custom to prepare a hymn to be sung after his morning's sermon each Lord's day. A promising son who had just completed his medical studies died in Edinburgh January 4 1778. That day not knowing of his son's death not having been informed even of his sickness he preached from Psalms xxxi 15 My times are in thy hand. The hymn which he had composed for the day was the now familiar one commencing

My times of sorrow and of joy

Great God are in thy hand

My choicest comforts come from thee

And go at thy command

One of his best hymns Mr Beddome wrote after recovering from a severe illness. He had first written a hymn of gratitude for his restoration to health. On further reflection he wrote these lines

If I must die O let me die

Trusting in Jesus blood

That blood which hath atonement made

And reconciles to God.

If I must die then let me die

In peace with all mankind

And change these fleeting joys below

For pleasures more refined.

If I must die as die I must

Let some kind seraph come

And bear me on his friendly wing

To my celestial home

Of Canaan's land from Pisgah's top

May I but have a view

Though Jordan should o'erflow its banks

I'll boldly venture through#

Mr Beddome lived to a ripe old age and died after a long illness September 3 1795 having been engaged in writing a hymn only a few hours before his departure. Beside a Circular Letter of the Midland Association for 1765 his only publication was a Scriptural Exposition on the Baptist Catechism by way of Question and Answer which appeared in 1752. A second edition was printed in 1776. Ten years after his decease two volumes of his sermons were published and a third volume appeared in 1835. A volume of his hymns was published in 1818 entitled Hymns Adapted to Public Worship or Family Devotion Now first published from the manuscripts of the late Rev B Beddome AM With a Recommendatory Preface by the Rev R Hall AM. The volume contained 822 hymns and 8 doxologies. Of these more than fifty had appeared in Rippon's Selection and so had found their way into other collections. The most familiar of these hymns are

Did Christ o'er sinners weep

And must I part with all I have

Let party names no more

Come Holy Spirit come

Jesus my Lord my chief delight

If Christ is mine then all is mine

Prayer is the breath of God in man

God in the Gospel of his Son

Blest Comforter divine

Buried beneath the yielding wave

Of Beddome's hymns Montgomery says they are very agreeable as well 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.

The honorary degree of AM was conferred upon Mr Beddome in 1770 by Rhode Island College now Brown University