Anne Steele

Tim Keller wrote, “Humility is a shy virtue. If you start talking about it, it leaves.” What a perfect lead-in to today’s prayer. Wiliam Steele was a Baptist minister and a successful trade merchant, making it possible for him to provide formal education for his children, even his daughters, which was unheard of at the time. William’s wife, Mary, died when their children were young. Their second child, Anne Steele (1717-1778), initially wrote poetry and composed hymns for her own devotional use but was reluctant to share them with a wider audience. Her dad convinced her to allow her hymns to be used as congregational songs in worship. He lobbied Nanny (Anne’s family name) to send her writings to a publisher and adopt a pseudonym so she would not be “lifted up with pride.” An entry in his diary from 1757 reads, “This day Nanny sent part of her composition to London, to be printed. I entreat a gracious God, who enabled and stirred her up to such a work, to direct her in it and bless it for the good of many…I pray God to make it useful and to keep her humble.” She assumed the pseudonym Theodosis meaning “gift of God” and sent along two volumes of poems published under the title Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional in 1760. Her poems make frequent use of questions to probe more deeply than statements can and her brutal honesty in dealing with doubts and sorrows was characteristic of her poetry. One poem she submitted, “God my Creator and Benefactor,” was later turned into a hymn, “My Maker and My King.” While Anne suffered from chronic malaria all her life, her longing for God in her poetry puts all other longings in their place: