Hymns / Music :: Anne Steele

Born: 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 (1860). 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.

Hymns:

1. Alas! What Hourly Dangers Rise
2. Amazing Love That Stooped So Low
3. Almighty Maker of My Frame
4. Bright Scenes of Bliss, Unclouded Skies
5. Come, Let Our Souls Adore the Lord
6. Come, Tune Ye Saints, Your Noblest Strains
7. Come Ye That Love the Savior’s Name
8. Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul
9. Deep Are the Wounds Which Sin Has Made
10. Enslaved by Sin, and Bound in Chains
11. Eternal Power, Mighty God
12. Eternal Source of Joys Divine
13. Far from These Narrow Scenes of Night
14. Father of Mercies, in Thy Word
15. Father, Whate’er of Earthly Bliss
16. God of My Salvation Lives, The
17. Gospel, O What Endless Charms, The
18. Great God, to Thee My Evening Song
19. Great Source of Boundless Power and Grace
20. He Lives, the Great Redeemer Lives
21. Hear, Gracious Lord, My Humble Moan
22. Hear, O My God, with Pity Hear
23. How Blest Are Those, How Truly Wise
24. How Far Beyond Our Mortal View
25. How Helpless Guilty Nature Lies
26. How Lovely, How Divinely Sweet
27. How Oft, Alas, This Wretched Heart
28. In Vain I Trace Creation o’er
29. In Vain My Roving Thoughts Would Find
30. Jesus, and Didst Thou Leave the Sky?
31. Jesus Demands This Heart of Mine
32. Jesus, the Spring of Joys Divine
33. Jesus, Thou Source Divine
34. Look Up, My Soul, with Cheerful Eye
35. Lord, How Mysterious Are Thy Ways
36. Lord, in the Temple of Thy Grace
37. Lord, in Thy Great, Thy Glorious Name
38. Lord, My Shepherd and My Guide, The
39. Lord, the God of Glory Reigns, The
40. Lord, Thou Hast Been Thy Children’s God
41. Lord, We Adore Thy Boundless Grace
42. Lord, When My Raptured Thought Surveys
43. Lord, When My Thoughts Delighted Rove
44. Mind Was Formed to Mount Sublime, The
45. My God, My Father, Blissful Name
46. My God, O Could I Make the Claim
47. My God, ’Tis to Thy Mercy Seat
48. My God, to Thee I Call
49. My Maker and My King
50. My Soul, to God, Its Source, Aspires
51. O Could Our Thoughts and Wishes Fly
52. O for a Sweet, Inspiring Ray
53. O for the Eye of Faith Divine
54. O Jesus, Our Exalted Head
55. O Thou Whose Tender Mercy Hears
56. O World of Bliss, Could Mortal Eyes
57. Once Loved form Now Could and Dead, The
58. Permit Me, Lord, to Seek Thy Face
59. Praise Ye the Lord, Let Praise Employ
60. Savior Calls; Let Every Ear, The
61. See, Lord, Thy Willing Subjects Bow
62. Should Famine o’er the Mourning Field
63. So Fades the Lovely, Blooming Flower
64. Stern Winter Throws His Icy Chains
65. Stretched on the Cross the Savior Dies
66. Sure, the Blest Comforter Is Nigh
67. There Is a Glorious World on High
68. Thou Lovely Source of True Delight
69. Thou Only Sovereign of My Heart
70. Thy Gracious Presence, O My God
71. Thy Kingdom, Lord, Forever Stands
72. To Jesus, Our Exalted Lord
73. To Our Redeemer’s Glorious Name
74. To Your Creator, God
75. Triumphant, Christ Ascends on High
76. When Blest with That Transporting View
77. When Death Before My Sight
78. When Gloomy Thoughts and Boding Fears
79. When I Survey Life’s Varied Scene
80. When Sins and Fears Prevailing Rise
81. When Weary Souls with Sin Distressed
82. Whene’er the Angry Passions Rise
83. Where Is God? Does He Retire
84. While My Redeemer’s Near
85. Why Sinks My Weak Desponding Mind?
86. Ye Earthly Vanities, Depart
87. Ye Glittering Toys of Earth Adieu
88. Ye Humble Souls, Approach Your God