Let Party Names No More (B. Beddome, 1769) from Rice Haggard’s Christian Hymns (1815)

This hymn by Benjamin Beddome, “Let Party Names No More…” was written around 1769. Rice Haggard was among the first to include it in his Christian Hymns hymnal of 1815, one of the earliest from the Stone-Campbell-Scott, etc., Restoration Movement.It’s easy to see why it isn’t in hymnals today…don’t you think?

Wanna sing it at your church this Sunday?

Try the words (Short Metre, S.M., or 6.6.8.6) with ST. THOMAS, ST. MICHAEL, DENNIS, BOYLSTON, LABAN (just to name a few).

Though the COVID-19 virus and all the surrounding crises seem to have slowed the election year rhetoric, this song speaks of something much deeper than merely the political system. Early leaders in the movement of the Campbells, Stone, Scott, and others longed to be Christians only, not the only Christians. It was Raccoon John Smith who said “Let us, then, my brethren, be no longer Campbellites, or Stonites, New Lights or Old Lights, or any other kind of lights, but let us come to the Bible, and to the Bible alone, as the only book in the world that can give us all the light that we need.” (J. Murch, Christians Only, Cincinnatti: Standard Publishing, 1952).