Mercy alone can meet my case. J. Montgomery. [Lent.] In Holland’s Memoirs of Montgomery this hymn is referred to under the following circumstances. Speaking to Holland on April 3, 1925, of the Rev. Peter Haslem, Montgomery said:--
”On Sunday afternoon he preached in Carver Street Chapel [Sheffield]; there were few persons present besides myself and some servant girls. What were the divisions or the style of his sermon I do not recollect; but the text—‘O save me for Thy mercies’ sake’ (Ps vi. 4)—was so powerfully impressed upon my mind that it has never since ceased to influence me; Hundreds and thousands of times have I repeated it in meditation and prayer, and I feel at this moment that if I am saved at last, it must be through the free, unmerited mercy of God, exercised towards me for the Savior’s sake,”—Vol. iv., p. 103.
The hymn was published in Montgomerys’ Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 463, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed with Mr. Haslem’s text, “O save me for Thy mercies’ sake”; and in his Original Hymns, 1853, No. 173.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >
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