Father of mercies, in thy word

Father of mercies, in thy word. Anne Steele* (1717-1778). First published as twelve stanzas in 1760 in Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760), by ‘Theodosia’ under the title ‘The Excellency of the Holy Scriptures’. It was reprinted in an enlarged edition in 1780, edited by Steele’s friend Caleb Evans*, and in an American edition of Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional of 1808. In 1769, an arrangement of 6 selected stanzas (1, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12 from the original), was included in the early Baptist hymnbook, A Collection of Hymns adapted to Public Worship, edited by John Ash* and Caleb Evans. This is the version that has been mainly used for worship, in the 1780 text: Father of mercies, in...