If I must die, O let me die. B. Beddome. [Death Anticipated.] This hymn was published in Dr. Rippon's Baptist Register, 1794, p. 319, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, in an obituary notice of Beddome. It there began:—
"If I must die, O let me die
Trusting in Thee alone."
In the Baptist Register, 1800, p. 312, it is given as:
"Lord, must I die? O let me die
Trusting in Thee alone."
This text was repeated in the 10th edition of Rippon's Selection, 1800, No. 550 (pt. iii.), and is found m a few modern collections, with sometimes two additional stanzas (ii. and v.). which were added in the 27th ed. of Rippon, 1827. In Beddome's (posthumous) Hymns, &c, 1817, No. 778, it is given in 4 stanzas from Beddome's manuscript as:—
"'If I must die'—Oh let me die,
Trusting in Jesus' blood."
The American Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858, and others are from this text. [William T. Brooke]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)