Franklin Edson Belden

Franklin Edson Belden (1858–1945) was an American Seventh-day Adventist hymn writer, composer, editor, and publishing worker. Born in Battle Creek, Michigan, he began writing music as a young man and became one of the most prolific creators of hymn tunes and gospel songs in the early history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Belden served as a music editor and contributor to the 1886 Seventh-day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book, commonly called Hymns and Tunes, providing many texts and melodies. He later prepared Christ in Song, first published in 1900, which became an especially influential Adventist songbook. Contemporary accounts also remembered his unusual ability to compose both words and music quickly, sometimes in response to sermons he had just heard.

In 1899 Belden composed a separate tune and refrain for Vernon J. Charlesworth's “A Shelter in the Time of Storm.” That version begins its refrain with “Mighty Rock in a weary land” and became established in Adventist hymnals. Because its refrain and melody differ from Sankey's familiar setting, the two versions should be treated as separate musical traditions.