Jesus, how could I ever be

Except for Isaac Watts’ classic 792, ‘Shame’, good or bad, is a subject rarely found in hymns, though clear enough in Scripture. This hymn, though not specifically about (or limited to) believers’ baptism, is certainly appropriate for such occasions; the Baptist Hymn Book Companion (1962/67) calls its story ‘curiously complicated.’ Joseph Grigg published it in 1765 (with 3 other hymns) in 7 ‘rather’ or ‘very’ crude stzs. A revised, unsigned version then appeared in The Gospel Magazine in 1774 said to be ‘By a Youth Ten years old’. In 1787 Rippon’s Selection included the version in use 2 centuries later, as ‘altered by B[enjamin] Francis’. However, other revisions have also been published, and the present one is an attempt to render the original and striking thought in a contemporary form. William Carey translated the hymn into Bengali, and that version was sung in 1800 at the baptism of his son Felix and Krishna Pal in the Hooghly River, Serampore, India (see 736). The now traditional version began ‘Jesus! and shall it ever be,/ a mortal man ashamed of thee?’; this is preserved in CH1977 and GH, which, however, diverge in their choice of stzs. Among omitted lines are ‘Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far/ let evening blush to own a star’; ‘… just as soon/ let midnight be ashamed of noon’; ‘… yes, I may/ when I’ve no sins to wash away’; and a final stz beginning ‘His institutions would I prize.’ The present stz 2 is rewritten, based on Hebrews 12.2 among other Scriptures; 4 is from CH and 5 adapted from ‘Till then, nor is my boasting vain,/ till then I boast a Saviour slain.’

Just as many tunes have been used with the words, so WHITBURN is widely set to other texts. Henry Baker (not his older contemporary H W Baker) composed it while a student at Exeter College Oxford in 1854. It first appeared in J Grey’s Hymnal for use in the English Church in 1866, with Keble’s Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear. GH uses it for this hymn; in CH it is also associated with baptism (in Noel’s Glory to God, whose Spirit draws) and used twice more including a familiar setting with 860. The tune is also known as ELIM or HESPERUS; one Whitburn (=‘white stream’) is in Lothian, midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, but the more likely reference is to the one on the English coast just to the N of Sunderland.

b nr Pen-y-Gelli, nr Newcastle Emlyn, Dyfed (Carmarthens) 1734, d Horsley, nr Stroud, Glos 1799. He grew up in Swansea and was baptized there at the age of 15. At 19 he began to preach and went on to study at Bristol Baptist Academy (now College). Around 1755 he assisted in ministry at Broadmead, Bristol, and after a first pastorate at Chipping Sodbury, Glos, he was appointed to the Baptist Ch at Horsley and ministered there for 42 more years. He wrote hymns in English, 5 of which featured in Jn Rippon’s Selection, but in Wales he is better known for some of his 200 texts in Welsh. His other published poems included 2 satirical pieces on ‘the baptismal controversy’ and more serious blank-verse elegies on the death of Geo Whitefield (1770) and John Gill (1771), the latter a work of 282 lines. No.637*.

The J Grigg who ‘d.1768’ as given in Praise! was probably Joseph Grigg, b ?1720 or 1728 [Julian favoured an earlier date], d Walthamstow, Essex 1768; but see also J Grigg in Composer index. Born into relative poverty and what were known as ‘humble beginnings’, Joseph worked in ‘mechanical pursuits’ (labouring) but was writing by the age of 10, hymns being among his early compositions. Deeply moved by a sermon on Mark 8:38, he prepared for ordination and in 1743, possibly still in his teens, he was appointed as Asst Minister (to Thos Bures) at Silver Street Presbyterian Ch, London. Around 1747, when Bures had died, JG married a widow and moved to St Albans where he.continued a preaching and writing ministry. He published sermons and other devotional works. From his many books, the hymns and other verses were collected in 1861 by Daniel Sedgwick, who published them with a memoir and entitled them Hymns on Divine Subjects. No.637*.