Thou Lovely Source of True Delight (Anne Steele)

I was introduced to Anne Steele by the Indelible Grace hymns project and by the group Jars of Clay, which has recorded several of her hymns with new tunes and rhythms.
Anne Steele

Born: May 1716, Broughton, Hampshire, England.

Died: November 11, 1778, Broughton, Hampshire, England.

Buried: Broughton, Hampshire, England.

Pseudonym: Theodosia.

Anne was the daughter of William Steele, a timber merchant who was also a lay preacher at the Baptist church in Broughton. She lost her mother at age 3. At age 19, a severe hip injury made her a lifelong invalid. At age 21, her fiancé drowned the day before they were to be married. From this ser­ies of tragedies rose 144 hymns and 34 versified Psalms, which were enormously popular. Her main work was Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760). When Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts (where Phillips Brooks later became rector) published its hymnal in 1808, 59 of its 144 hymns were from the pen of Anne Steele. She preferred to remain anonymous, though, writing under a pen name. Her tombstone carried the following words:

     Silent the lyre, and dumb the tuneful tongue,

     That sung on earth her great Redeemer’s praise;

     But now in Heaven she joins the angelic song,

     In more harmonious, more exalted lays.

--------------------------------------------------
words by Anne Steele (1760) 

tune by Gary Hicks (2005) © 2010 Gary L. Hicks 

(written music available from caedmullen@gmail.com)

1. Thou lovely Source of true delight,

Whom I unseen adore;

Unveil Thy beauties to my sight,

That I may love Thee more.

Thy glory o’er creation shines; 

But in Thy sacred Word,

I read in fairer, brighter lines,

My bleeding, dying Lord.

2. Jesus, my Lord, my Life, my Light,

O come with blissful ray;

Break radiant through the shades of night,
And chase my fears away.

’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop,
And sins and sorrows rise,
Thy love with cheerful beams of hope,
My fainting heart supplies.

3. Then shall my soul with rapture trace
The wonders of Thy love;
But the full glories of Thy face
Are only known above.

Jesus, my Lord, my Life, my Light,

O come with blissful ray;

Break radiant through the shades of night,
And chase my fears away.